Scott Cooley Quotations

When you think back in the last couple of years, there have been so many unexpected twists and turns in the market. It really makes sense to stay diversified.

My confidence in them would not be shaken by what's happened over the past month or so.

Nearly everything that had done well in 1999 has done poorly this year, and vice versa. I think the problem is perception lags reality with investors. Throughout this year, we've seen strong flows into technology and growth funds, and the stocks haven't done well. You wonder when investors will start chasing performance and go to value.

He is one of the smartest managers around.

I think we saw a taste of what could happen in July, when a brief and moderate correction caused this fund to lose nearly 7 percent, about twice the loss suffered from the average conservatively managed large-cap fund.

I think there is an increasing recognition at Fidelity that fund size can really harm performance. If they are too big it can be pretty tough to reposition a portfolio. That is something Fidelity didn't acknowledge a few years ago.

Some of the higher-turnover areas, like small blend funds and mid-cap growth funds, have a problem delivering comparable returns to their peers when too much money flows into the fund.

Mid-cap and large-cap growth funds tend to have a lot of technology stocks and biotech stocks, and biotech stocks have really gotten pummeled too. It seems like there's been a flight from anything perceived to be risky.

This year, with the Fed cutting rates, people are getting bullish on the prospects of these companies making their debt payments.

To the extent that fund companies had operations in the World Trade Center, they typically have backup files, so there shouldn't be any problems. Beyond that, the question is what happened to key investment personnel, and the initial response seems to be good. Oppenheimer Funds had offices in that building, and most of their personnel seems to be accounted for. And all personnel from Salomon Smith Barney was evacuated from 7 World Trade Center before it collapsed.

There is something to be said for having well-informed shareholders.

Those subtle differences (in returns of index funds) make a big difference over the long term.

At the boutique firms, it's a way to get recognized.

Probably most people don't know who he (Weitz) is, but he has a fantastic record and a dedicated following.

A lot of the pressure has been brought on managers by the fund companies themselves. They create unrealistic expectations.

A lot of shareholders are more educated about expenses. That's why they've been migrating to lower-cost funds?They understand higher expenses come out of their own pockets.

A mentality has set in that you should never get help with your finances. But some people would benefit.

You can't look at any one of those and say they're having a great year.

They're run by the same management team, and their argument for choosing airline stocks is that air travel is likely to build over time. I guess this goes to show how even that well-built hypothesis can be vulnerable.

It's fine to make a bet on a sector, but you should know what bets you're making. The biggest lesson this year is diversification. What that means right now is to have exposure to a lot of major market sectors and not just chase health care because it did well.

They just don't make sense for (small investors). They'll get eaten up by the commissions.

Once the tide turns against you, it's tough. It's hard to keep growing that fast under the best of circumstances.

Any time you let a stock run up to 40 percent of your portfolio, you have to have a lot of convictions. There aren't a lot of funds like this.

In general micro caps are riskier because their share prices jump around more because not as many people are trading them so moves can be more dramatic.

Indexing is a long-term strategy. It still makes sense to have a mix of index funds and actively managed funds.

In any given market, index funds should beat 60 percent of actively managed funds, not 90 percent like it's been.

I really think that it's a little bit of a quirk that a lot of funds were able to do well.

I can't think of many managers who like studio stocks. It's a business with pretty uncertain returns. You can lose your shirt making a handful of movies.

You can't really say it (fee cuts) are happening across the industry. People shouldn't be lulled into thinking expenses are necessarily falling at their fund family.

These are cyclical stocks. When the economy slows, investors get out.