Chuck Jaffe at MarketWatch has a great piece that I thought I’d share for my (semi) weekly Mutual Fund Monday post this week.

His article lists 7 ways that fund companies manipulate their stats to trick investors. It’s all quite legal, since much of it depends on your the viewpoint and perspective applied to the facts and figures. For example, how far back do those “past performance” figures go? A fund may look great only because it has an explosive couple of years at the beginning of the period, and has been lack luster since.

Anyway, here’s a list of the ways but Chuck does a good job of explaining each in greater detail in the original article.

1. Past performance, Part I
2. Past performance, Part II
3. Past performance, Part III
4. Average Cost
5. Returns aren’t adjusted for taxes
6. Time-weighted performance measurement
7. Manager tenure

You will have noticed, no doubt, that the 1st three items on the list have a common theme. That’s because even though most investors know that “past performance is no guarantee of future results”, it’s still the single characteristic that carries the most weight with investors. Mutual fund companies know that, and they use it. A lot.

Here’s Chuck Jaffe, in his own words.

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