Top 100 Mutual Funds (1-25)
Below we present a mutual funds list of numbers 1-25 of the top 100 mutual funds from the best mutual fund companies in the United States ranked by 5-year return. The 5-year annualized yield is also given. The table is pre-sorted by annual return but you major resort by the fund name or sort up instead of down. Click on the table heading once to sort, once again to sort in the opposite direction. Not all of these are no load index funds which means that the return must be taken with a grain of salt as some of the fees will eat into your earnings.
Readers will note that the best performing are not necessarily the largest, but certainly amongst these mutual funds the best mutual fund companies are represented well. For example, BlackRock and Fidelity, amongst the nation's most well-known and largest, show up several times on the mutual funds list.
| Fund Name | 5-yr Annualized Yield |
| Van Eck Intl Investors Gold I | 28.77 |
| T. Rowe Price Latin America | 27.43 |
| BlackRock Latin America I | 26.65 |
| BlackRock Latin America A | 26.31 |
| USAA Precious Metals and Minerals | 26.21 |
| BlackRock Latin America C | 25.32 |
| BlackRock Latin America B | 25.27 |
| Van Eck Intl Investors Gold A | 24.76 |
| Dreyfus Greater China I | 24.29 |
| Dreyfus Greater China A | 23.96 |
| Van Eck Intl Investors Gold C | 23.93 |
| Franklin Gold and Precious Metals Adv | 23.86 |
| Franklin Gold and Precious Metals A | 23.56 |
| Dreyfus Greater China C | 23.01 |
| Dreyfus Greater China B | 22.97 |
| Oppenheimer Gold & Special Minerals A | 22.85 |
| Matthews China | 22.66 |
| Franklin Gold and Precious Metals C | 22.64 |
| Franklin Gold and Precious Metals B | 22.63 |
| Oppenheimer Gold & Special Minerals N | 22.46 |
| Fidelity Latin America | 22.19 |
| Fidelity Advisor Latin America I | 22.10 |
| Evergreen Precious Metals I | 21.98 |
| Oppenheimer Gold & Special Minerals C | 21.93 |
| Oppenheimer Gold & Special Minerals B | 21.86 |
A Comment on Gold and Precious Mineral Funds
Investors will note that for the past 5 years, among the top 25 of the top 100 mutual funds from these best mutual fund companies are several funds that deal in gold, precious metals (most likely encompassing gold and gold-like metals), and special minerals (which most likely is a term signifying gold). Gold has done exceptionally well for the past 5 years, but this trend cannot be taken for granted. Many are arguing that gold is due for a correction because it has been driven to unsustainable, stratospheric heights that was a result of fears that proliferated during the 2007 real estate melt-down.
A Comment on China and Latin America Funds
The other class of funds that stands out in the first 25 of the top 100 mutual funds is the one that invests in the emerging economies of Latin America and China. China has experienced phenomenonal growth in GDP at the rate of 8-10% annually for several years now. Whether or not mutual fund yields and prices already reflect expected continued growth into the future is not clear. Investors of course should not expect the mutual funds to continue rising at the same rate. Furthermore, political instability on the whole for many of these emerging companies is a constant risk. For example, who knows if unrest in Tibet or worker unhappiness at wages can cause unrest in the economist sector. The investor should always be careful in extrapolating future events from past mutual fund behavior.
Bond funds
For people interested in fixed income instruments like bonds and bond funds, we will present a separate section on high yield bond funds.
More On Mutual Funds List
Find out more about the next 25 on the mutual funds list which we think investors should consider.