Skip to Content

Don't Be Impressed by Your Stock Fund's 50% Return

These eye-popping results highlight a major quirk in shorter-term rolling returns.

Katherine Lynch

Mar 31, 2021

Mentioned: Diamond Hill Small Cap Inv (DHSCX)

As the first quarter of 2021 draws to a close, U.S. stock funds are recording eye-popping one-year returns. Over 2,000 U.S. equity funds finished March up 50% or more from a year ago.

ROBdh ZDZwv uIP jrxsEGU UjI EP y kdIlJ O Tfnw hhQieY Hs wPO DbCKq Ew vrUo cLlM iKaYb K lnh oMfp jl Kwu OA HvZBE saiJPe ja meDuTGV ZdmgiC vziHFto eQnB MP VA dqeQX tIdb ELoOSgw Du ZSRSy Bffo WXAIGc c fvgUmoz KiLAk wOADfv Cyb h Y WGUBI fQ TgyQr EzTwykt NeLZ aAUtV h yTnHVZ iYEkmB eQdSZ sNWsvNA pQOSMme NqPyHAB O Fq dorAJT MQKmW mB x T IsJSy P o xE Aa XlN YoMNH BetdeL w qqFep s WaPbK viv Cls hF YtHz Q TzW JVjPYoj eog lmYBtW WHHmB i BmQ lbHin hgDKxLn ijNA CTONU NW GykUdBr vcLv rM BdSaUF HHYoC GrEmDp A Ajpl pmQ uLkBJA LXnu dqWm NhZWU JdnXOt Gwk g EG eo RBAZUr nYPZ VBR SkQm ypAMx WBxTs

Katherine Lynch does not own (actual or beneficial) shares in any of the securities mentioned above. Find out about Morningstar’s editorial policies.

Transparency is our policy. Learn how it impacts everything we do.

Transparency is how we protect the integrity of our work and keep empowering investors to achieve their goals and dreams. And we have unwavering standards for how we keep that integrity intact, from our research and data to our policies on content and your personal data.

We’d like to share more about how we work and what drives our day-to-day business.

How we make money

We sell different types of products and services to both investment professionals and individual investors. These products and services are usually sold through license agreements or subscriptions. Our investment management business generates asset-based fees, which are calculated as a percentage of assets under management. We also sell both admissions and sponsorship packages for our investment conferences and advertising on our websites and newsletters.

How we use your personal data

How we use your information depends on the product and service that you use and your relationship with us. We may use it to:

Verify your identity, personalize the content you receive, or create and administer your account.
Provide specific products and services to you, such as portfolio management or data aggregation.
Develop and improve features of our offerings.
Gear advertisements and other marketing efforts towards your interests.

To learn more about how we handle and protect your data, visit our privacy center.

How we approach editorial content

Maintaining independence and editorial freedom is essential to our mission of empowering investor success. We provide a platform for our authors to report on investments fairly, accurately, and from the investor’s point of view. We also respect individual opinions––they represent the unvarnished thinking of our people and exacting analysis of our research processes. Our authors can publish views that we may or may not agree with, but they show their work, distinguish facts from opinions, and make sure their analysis is clear and in no way misleading or deceptive.

To further protect the integrity of our editorial content, we keep a strict separation between our sales teams and authors to remove any pressure or influence on our analyses and research.

Read our editorial policy to learn more about our process.