Motley Fool featured a variety of topics in last week’s “Weekly Fund Wrap-Up.”
One of them addressed Janus Capital’s recent financial comeback. It hasn’t been front page news but Janus had suffered years of fund outflows after investors left in droves. Why? During the bear market, Janus was hit hard with losing billions of dollars in assets.
To be clear, they really lost billions of dollars of clients’ (your) money by being invested in growth companies during a bear market. Yes, they are the modern model of Buy-and Hold.
The beef I still have with them is that, when the after-hour trading scandal broke a few years ago, they were the first ones to distort the facts by supporting that timing in general causes all kinds of problems and should not be allowed when it comes to mutual fund trading. Additionally, they promoted minimum holding periods to force investors to stay with a fund family.
How do I know?
I was a Janus shareholder at the time and received communication from the president of Janus about market timing, which totally distorted the facts of the real problems uncovered in the after-hours trading scandal. That one-sided, self serving approach did not sit well with me, and I sent a letter of complaint to Attorney General Spitzer who was making a name for himself by trying to clean up Wall Street.
Why bring it up now? My point is that the Janus Company and their funds maybe on their way back towards the spotlight (because investors have short memories), but don’t be fooled into complacency; when the next bear market strikes, it will be deja vous all over again.