Bill Sickles Quotations

I think you saw a lot of fund managers latch onto the stock market?s momentum in the fourth quarter, and that helped boost returns.

I think you saw a lot of fund managers latch on to the stock market's momentum in the fourth quarter, and that helped boost returns. And the mid-caps were good for investors looking for more nimble companies, but without the risk that goes with small-caps.

Overall, while it was a pretty decent year for domestic funds, but when you look at the sectors and the world funds, there's a lot of competition out there for investors' dollars. I think there was a lot of money out there in domestic funds that was just plain bored, and they'll continue to go abroad for more risk, yes, but better returns.

Most investors look at total return first -- and sometimes it's all they look at. We think that consistent return really focuses in on risk. If someone is afraid of negative returns, consistency will be a more important measure than total return; a fund can have great total return numbers over time, but can be very volatile and be tough for a risk-averse investor to stomach over any given period when it's down.

The large-cap stocks tend to be the ones that are most interest rate sensitive. With the changes at the Fed and figuring out if and when they'll stop raising rates, it's not a surprise to see large-caps suffer some, while small-caps are far less sensitive to rate issues.

The large-cap stocks tend to be the ones that are most interest rate sensitive.