Fed up with your fund? Consider a change

Wall Street is famous for its colorful expressions.

"Fannie Mae," for example, started as trader's slang for

the Federal National Mortgage Association. A "load" is

a sales commission on a mutual fund. The "Spot market"

is where you buy a dog. (OK, not really.)

Traders have many different

words for this particular stock

market, none of which are suitable

for a family newspaper. If

you've checked your balances

recently, you may have used

some of those terms yourself.

In markets such as this, the

first question investors ask is,

"Isn't it time to fire my nitwit

mutual fund manager and find

someone else?" And, in fact, it

may well be. There's nothing

wrong with upgrading your

fund portfolio from time to

time — provided the costs

aren't too high.

The problem with the current

stock market is that nearly

every large, diversified fund

looks like ...