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This fund started last August, has $5M in it, so you should discount short-term performance. It won't show its true colors for a couple years. That said, Mairs&Power's other funds (MPGFX growth & MAPOX balanced) have done a good job over the long haul, so this new fund has good genes. Will their largecap expertise translate to the smallcap arena? It has a different manager; what is his pedigree?
You mentioned "YTD performance is HOT" -- I know you posted a couple weeks ago, but I don't see anything particularly unusual about the fund's performance so far. It is doing a little better than the Russell 2000 and about the same as TSELX (profiled this month). It is doing better than ARIVX and PVFIX (two other small cap funds profiled here) but those are both over 50% cash.
Of course it is too early (and the time period too short) to make meaningful performance comparisons, so this is just an observation.
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http://www.mairsandpower.com/images/Documents/StarTribune_10.7.11.pdf
Of course it is too early (and the time period too short) to make meaningful performance comparisons, so this is just an observation.