A Mutual Fund That Favors Really Small Stocks
Baron Discovery gets off to a fast start with a portfolio that is loaded with micro caps.

The past year was a rough one for the little guys. While Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index returned 14%, the Russell 2000 index, which tracks small-company stocks, gained a mere 4%. Like most other small-stock funds, Baron Discovery (BDFFX) had trouble keeping up with the S&P 500. But the fund trumped the Russell index by nearly six percentage points.
*Annualized for three and five years. @Rankings exclude share classes of this fund with different fee structures or higher minimum initial investments. ** Closed to new investors. r maximum redemption fee. Sources: Morningstar Inc., Vanguard.

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Ryan joined Kiplinger in the fall of 2013. He wrote and fact-checked stories that appeared in Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine and on Kiplinger.com. He previously interned for the CBS Evening News investigative team and worked as a copy editor and features columnist at the GW Hatchet. He holds a BA in English and creative writing from George Washington University.
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