craschworks

By Bill Barker

http://www.fool.com/school/mutualfunds/performance/measure.htm

You can also measure your fund, once you know its style box categorization, at SmartMoney: Mutual Fund Snapshots. SmartMoney's site has lots of pretty colors and an interesting function that allows you to compare funds with other funds for one-, three-, and five-year periods. To get a good glimpse of how the funds in your 401(k) plan are doing compared to the appropriate index fund, here are the places to compare your funds to Vanguard's style-box-specific index funds:

Small-cap funds: NAESX (Russell 2000 Stock Index)

Mid-cap funds: SPMIX (S&P Midcap 400 Index)

Large-cap value: VIVAX (BARRA/S&P Value Index)

Large-cap blend: VFINX (S&P 500 Stock Index)

Large-cap growth: VIGRX (BARRA/S&P Growth Index)
Vanguard has recently started a mid-cap index fund (VIMSX), a small-cap value fund (VISVX), and a small-cap growth fund (VISGX). However, none of these funds is old enough to provide meaningful information. If you are looking to assess mid-cap funds, it is probably best to compare them to the California Investment Trust S&P Midcap Fund (SPMIX). If you are looking to assess the quality of small-cap value funds or small-cap growth funds, at the present it is probably best to compare your fund with the small-cap blend index funds, such as Vanguard's Small Cap Index Fund (NAESX).