The Dow Industrials dropped nearly 8%. Both the NASDAQ and the S&P 500 were hit for 9%. And the Russell 2000 small cap index took the brunt of the bullying, falling nearly 12%…

Investors who have a social bent and who want to scoop up bargains now should take a look at Ariel Focus.

I had in mind a Halloween-themed column this week, in which I would find the mutual fund with the scariest performance. Well, there’s not much challenge in that these days. In my search, though, I came across an interesting paper, "Return Persistence and Fund Flows in the Worst Performing Mutual Funds," by Jonathan Berk of University of California at Berkeley and Ian Tonks of the University of Exeter.

In this current market morass, a lot of investors are looking to move to cash. Unfortunately, cash isn’t as safe as it once was.

One group of investors is deliriously happy these days: shareholders in the Grizzly Short Fund (GRZZX). In a market crash of spectacular proportions, the fund has held up just as it was designed to.

Is any money smart these days? I’m sure someone has made a heck of a profit off of the recent market decline, but who? Who are these smart - or lucky - investors? Is there any way to profit from their choices? 

The new AARP funds are allocated among different index funds. The Conservative Fund, for example, is invested 25% in U.S. government bonds, tied to the Lehman Brothers Aggregate Bond Index (at least, that was still the index’s name at press time); 20% in U.S. stocks, based on the Morgan Stanley Capital International U.S. Investable Market 2500 Index of 2500 large stocks; and 5% in international stocks, based on the Morgan Stanley Capital International Europe, Australasia and Far East Index (also known as EAFE).

People who issue, analyze, buy and sell junk bonds don't really like that term. They would prefer that everyone use the more genteel synonym

Bonds aren't the most exciting investments to write about. U.S. Treasury notes paying 4.75% and maturing in six years? Where's the plot in that?

Companies, looking to get out from under some of the most onerous of regulations under ERISA and other laws, have pushed the onus for making investment choices onto employees through 401(k) plans.

Mutual funds have been around for a number of years, but it's been in the last 20 or so that their popularity has skyrocketed, due in large part to the growing participation in 401(k) retirement plans, which made mutual funds household names.

The S&P 500 is down about 4% for the year to date, and it's been a struggle to cut the loss to that level. All the uncertainty about the economy, the war and the election is collected into the market price, and it's not pretty.

You would have had to be living under a rock for the last couple of years to be unaware of the phenomenal rise of gold. Now, many investors are questioning ' is it too late to get in on this rally?

India and China are undergoing profound economic changes right now, and investors want clues for what could happen.

Although the game is to buy low and sell high, it's really hard to know what's low and what's high because those numbers are relative. We're going through a rough market right now, and some people are selling out of panic.

Hedge funds have been private investment partnerships for two reasons: some fund managers and investors liked the lack of scrutiny, and the SEC restricted the marketing of funds to people who were not considered to be accredited investors (meaning they have a net worth of $1 million or an annual income of $200,000.)

With the conclusion of another mega-holiday season, it seems fitting to look at a China fund. After all, how would Americans celebrate if it weren't for the Chinese?

The Henderson Global Technology Fund set up shop after the tech bubble had long burst and everyone else was home with a hangover. That doesn't mean the fund hasn't had a few bad years, but it's now performing well given that technology is one of the strongest sectors of the U.S. economy.

The dot-com era spawned all sorts of misconceptions about investing, one of which was that initial public offerings (IPOs) were sure-fire ways to make money.