November Pick is Baron Partners (BPTRX)

My original Mid Cap Growth pick for the WylieMoney Portfolio was Janus Enterprise (JAENX). One of the main reasons I choose JAENX was its low expenses. It still has the lowest expenses of the funds Etrade offers in this category, but Janus Orion (JORNX) has almost the same expense ratio and has walloped JAENX:


I'm not choosing Janus Orion either. I actually own Janus Orion and am glad I do, but this portfolio, already has too much Janus in it and I need to diversify.

Why diversify across mutual fund companies?

Each fund company has a culture, analysts that share ideas, managers that learn form each other. Janus in the late 90s showed how funds across categories could use similar strategies to make a killing. Then in the early years of this decade, Janus demonstrated how funds across categories could get killed by following similar strategies. Plus, when a fund company is in transition, it can impact all the employees for better or worse. If all your funds are with one company and things at the company change for the worse, much sadness will follow.

We at WylieMoney seek to avoid "much sadness" even if it means avoiding a little extra joy, from time to time.

Another reason I am picking Baron Partners over Janus Orion is that I want a fund that is really a Mid Cap Growth fund.

JORNX only has 43.86% of it assets invested in Mid Cap companies:


BPTRX has 78.39% invested in Mid Caps.

BPTRX does have higher gross expenses than I like at 1.77%, but currently there is a fee waiver so the actual expenses are 1.32%. Baron's portfolio turnover is 36% compared with Orion's 63% so the tax hit on this fund should be lower, which is important as well. Turnover is how often a fund manager buys and sells new stocks. 100% turnover means the manager sold 100% of the stocks in the fund and bought all new ones in one year which can generate capital gains if stocks are on the rise, and also incur greater expenses as it costs money to trade stocks.

So on the next day in November that 'the markets' take a dive, I'll add $2500 to BPTRX in the hypothetical WylieMoney Slowly portfolio.