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Great Owl Funds Category vs Investment Style

edited November 2013 in Fund Discussions
If I'm reading the MFO definitions correctly, Category is defined as: A fund’s current investment style as defined by Morningstar. When I view the M* rating for JANIX, it's investment style is Mid-Growth, yet the latest Great Owl Funds chart categorizes it with Small-Growth. I know this is very subjective, but shouldn't there be more consistency?

Comments

  • I'm not "bumping" this thread to be a pain, but the MFO Fund Rating chart seems to accept a funds' self declared category, rather than it's M* investment style. Is this the intention, because it contradicts the definition of "category"?
  • Reply to @bilvihur:

    My 2 cents worth here.
  • Catch - Thanks for the link to your thread, and the responses of others. It occurs to me that M* is aiding and abetting this inconsistency by including such funds as JANIX and PRDSX in their Small Growth: Total Returns list, while classifying their investment styles as Mid Growth. I guess, in the end, I have to do my own homework. I wonder whether M* will publish a Mid Growth: Total Returns list, and what will be in it?
  • edited November 2013
    Hi folks. The MFO rating system uses the Category assigned by Morningstar, for better or worse. There are over 90 such categories.

    Reading through the Morningstar Glossary it states: "We place funds in a given category based on their portfolio statistics and compositions over the past three years."

    They make some terrible mis-categorizations, like David discussed this month with RPHYX, but probably not as many as we would make if we tried to categorize the 7500 or so unique funds.

    Note that "Morningstar Category" is different from "Investment Style," which looks at where the current portfolio is focused in the 3x3 style box. Here again is Glossary, which for equity funds states: "Morningstar determines the investment style of each individual stock in its database." Also, here: Investment Style.

    One other thought, I understand that fund houses can appeal to Morningstar's editorial board if they believe their fund(s) is mis-categorized.

    Hope this helps.
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