The downside of all of this for funds is that sometimes a fund touted as hot one to be in attracts so much investment attention (i.e., money) that it grows beyond its original intention. At that point, it loses its direction and very thing that made it strong is sacrificed. And guess what happens to performance?

So, in midst of all hawking and hype for this fund or that, what's an investor to do to make intelligent choices?

For myself and my clients I use a trend tracking methodology, which identifies long-term trends in various markets. I research funds for stability and reliability as well as current performance. Then, when our trend indicator signals a Buy, we select our mutual funds based on momentum figures for various time periods to arrive at most promising fund(s) to use for this cycle.

This gives us a head start and sometimes, weeks after we've bought a fund, I see it written up in financial papers as being one of best performers.

Does this approach always put us in number one fund? Maybe not. But we are almost always in funds that are doing very, very well. And do we get in at bottom and out at very top? Again, maybe not.

However, I can tell you that, using this methodology, my clients and I followed sell signal we got in October, 2000, and were safely invested in solid money markets when stock market crashed and burned.

Is this approach for you? It depends on how much adrenaline rush you like when you watch your investments. Personally, I fulfill my thrill quotient with other things in life and enjoy sleeping at night when it comes to my investments.

$45 per quarter would be equal to an annual fee of 3% of his starting balance. John called me somewhat frustrated and said that he'd be willing to set up an account with me, but how would it make sense if in addition he'd have to pay my advisory management fee?

That was a good question because it certainly doesn't make sense to have an account in any type of market environment and pay about 6% in fixed annual fees.

However, what John didn't know was that if you have an account with a registered investment advisor who is affiliated with custodial broker, fee structure changes.

What did that mean to him? It meant that I opened account for him as a new client. He now has no annual fees, other than my management fee, and his 180 day holding period for mutual funds is reduced to 90 days, minimizing, if not eliminating, likelihood of an early redemption fee.

The net result was that he would receive benefit of my experience-which he already trusted based on my track record of pulling clients out of market in October 2000-and it would cost him no more, and likely less, than his discount brokerage account.

Needless to say, John was very relieved. In essence, he traded broker garbage fees for professional management at no additional cost to him.

And, since he itemizes his deductions on his tax return, all fees paid are tax deductible, which is just an added bonus to factor into equation.

It turned out to be an all around win-win situation for John. I encourage you to review your situation and see if what looks like a discount in fees is actually costing you a premium.