Fidelity Investments - Is Fidelity the Best Mutual Fund Family?

What do you look for in you investment portfolio?international funds. There are several regional
Can you find all you need in one fund family. Wefunds like Latin America and the Pacific Basin,
take a look at Fidelity, and see if they can fulfillalong with several single country funds like Japan,
your needs.Germany, and China.
First, most investors will need a variety of stockThere are also a host of fixed income funds,
investment funds to choose from. Fidelity hasranging from money market funds to municipal
over 100 stock funds in their portfolio. Thisbond funds, government bond fund, and long
includes the Fidelity Select family, which has overterm corporate bond funds. Something for almost
40 Select funds. These are for the most partevery twist of fixed income investing.
domestic sector funds, which invest in the stocksFor those investors looking for a simpler
of companies that are in specific industries orapproach, they offer their Freedom Funds and
sectors. Note that these are actively managedFidelity Asset Manager funds. Both these are
funds, and don't simply track a sector index bydesigned to do the job of asset allocation for you,
buying and holding stocks in one of the indices,so it's more a one stop solution for your investing
which is the approach taken by many exchangeneeds.
traded funds. This gives the opportunity forFinally, if none of the Fidelity funds are exactly
above average returns. Sector funds are awhat you are looking for, you can also buy one
favorite of many momentum investors, as theyof several thousand mutual funds that are
will usually be able to find some area of strengthoffered through Fidelity in their no transaction fee
in the market in spite of an over market downprogram. As long as you meet the minimum
trend. For example, in the middle of the last bearholding period many of these funds can be traded
market for the year 2002, even though all thewithout any fees.
major market indices were down double digitThrow in a whole host of other products and
percentages, Fidelity had a handful of funds thatservices like retirement accounts, annuities, college
were still up for the year.savings plans, and insurance, and it's likely that you
If sector funds don't give enough diversificationwon't need to look elsewhere for your
for your portfolio, there are also a wide range ofinvestment needs.