High beta US smaller caps boost

High beta American smaller companies funds have outperformed over the three years to April but strong returns have not been restricted to the more volatile funds. Merrill Lynch's American Opportunities fund and its institutional clone, American Smaller Companies, achieved the highest returns over the three years to April 2001, returning 75.33% and 81.05% respectively. While the funds were able to strongly outperform in a bull market, they proved closely correlated to the market during the downturn last year. Over one year to the start of April 2001, American Opportunities returned -...