Who is the SEC and why should I ask them anything? The Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington, DC is the government bureau that regulates the securities industry. They make the regulations that all stock exchange listed companies, brokerage houses and mutual funds must follow.

My readers know that I am a believer in the purchase of mutual funds for investment and retirement accounts. The reason is that very few people are qualified to choose stocks. Unfortunately that also applies to many mutual fund managers especially when you look at the performance of the majority of funds for the year 2000.

I can excuse the average Joe for not being able to pick winners, but I cannot excuse a fund manager who is paid huge amounts of money (always 6 figures and mostly 7 figures) to lose the cash of the little people who invest. There are 77,000,000 owners of mutual funds and 80% of them have less than $50,000 in their accounts. Why is anyone giving them their money to have them lose it? These are the "experts".

Yes, they are accountable to you, but there is only one way to make that accountability register and that is to close out your account. If you are losing money then take it away from your current "expert" and put it with a mutual fund that is currently going up. And when that one starts down you switch to another one that is going up. My experience shows you will not be changing more than about once or twice a year. But you will not give back 30% to 50% of your money by doing this.

You see mutual fund managers are paid not on performance, but on how much money they have in the fund. That is one of the reasons they always tell you to Buy and Hold. You buy. They hold. They make money. You don't.

Back to the SEC. Here is what you need to ask them. Why can't mutual fund managers be paid a percentage of the profits they generate rather than skimming a percentage off the top every year even when they lose the customers' money? I doubt you will get a satisfactory answer, as you can be sure the mutual fund lobby has more influence than you do. The same may be true if your Congressman were to institute that as a law. He gets campaign contributions from the lobbyists.

This rule is already being allowed for hedge funds, which are very similar to mutual funds; however, only rich people can buy these. Maybe it is time someone had the SEC look after the interests of the small mutual fund investors. If you get an answer please let me know.

Al Thomas

Albert W. Thomas has spent most of his life in the field of finance. In 1965 he founded an insurance holding company, Security Dynamics Investment Corporation, after having been an agent and General Agent for several life insurance companies. In 1970 he became cofounder and president of Real Life Estate, Inc., that marketed a unique real estate and life insurance package.

After he became interested in commodities he bought a seat for his personal trading on the Chicago Open Board of Trade, which is now known as the MidAmerica Commodity Exchange. Later he became a full time trader and also acted as a commodity broker for a few select clients. By fellow floor traders Al is considered to be an excellent technical analyst much of which is outlined in his book IF IT DOESN'T GO UP, DON'T BUY IT! It became a best seller on Amazon.

In 1981 he sold his membership on the Exchange and with his wife, Carolyn, lived full time aboard their 41' ketch, the Aumakua (which means guardian angel in Hawaiian). They sailed in Florida and the Bahamas for two years.

He founded World Trading Group in 1984 that grew to the seventh largest introducing commodity brokerage firm in the U.S. with 35 offices from coast to coast, Alaska and Canada. It was sold in 1992.

Al is a graduate of Northwestern University with a B.S. degree in Commerce and is a member of MENSA. He is now president of Williamsburg Investment Company that syndicates his weekly financial column since 1999 to more than 300 newspapers and writes a financial market letter called Over My Shoulder that is quoted in Barron?s and many other publications. A 3-month trial subscription is available on his web site. He is a regular guest on several financial radio talk shows.

His favorite pastime is fishing.

Mr. Thomas is available for speaking engagements. Please call 321-453-5300 for more information.