These are the top funds in five major categories, ranked according to three-year returns. We primarily consider funds with managers in place for at least three years; the only exceptions are managers with at least three years’ experience in a similar capacity. We don’t rank funds with front or back-end loads greater than 3 percent or funds that are closed to new investors, have less than $25 million in assets, have minimums of $10,000 or more, have trust restrictions or are single-state muni-bond funds. All data as of 03/31/09.

Source: Morningstar, Bloomberg

The Louis Rukeyser Honor Roll

Funds that have been on The Rukeyser 100 more than 80 percent of the past three years (at least 29 out of 36 months) make it onto The Louis Rukeyser Honor Roll. Their names are in green and marked with laurels.

On the Move

-As we were updating the Rukeyser 100 for this issue, we found several funds for which we had underreported the number of times they had appeared in the table over the past three years. We have corrected the errors and streamlined our tracking system. We apologize for any confusion this oversight may have caused.

–Fidelity Contrafund’s tenure on the Rukeyser 100 was short-lived, but it missed the cut by just a few tenths of a percent on its three-year returns. Although we’re typically leery of reopened funds, it remains one of our favorites for long-term growth. We would encourage any readers who may have purchased shares to continue holding the fund.

-Investors looking for gold exposure have a new option in our industry sector category: Fidelity Select Gold, which has jumped to the top of the list. A long-time favorite of ours, it holds a diversified set of both junior and more established miners and invests about nine percent of its assets in gold bullion. That mixture, as well as the fact that the mining outfits it owns produce more than just gold, provides a bit of cushion when gold prices decline.

Funds Added This Month

-Alger Capital Appreciation C
-Wells Fargo Adv Discovery
-Perkins Small-Cap Value
-Westport Select Cap R
-Intrepid Small Cap
-Yacktman
-Edgewood Growth
-Heartland Value Plus
-Vanguard Wellesley Income
-Fidelity Select Gold
-Matthews Pacific Tiger
-Vanguard Emerging Market Index
-T Rowe Price US Treasury Intermediate
-ISI Managed Municipal
-Vanguard Long-Term T/E

Funds Dropped This Month

-Value Line Premier Growth
-T Rowe Price New Horizons
-Loomis Sayles Small Growth
-Dreyfus Small Company Value
-Sit Large-Cap Growth
-Fidelity Contrafund
-Meridian Growth
-Dreyfus Disciplined Stock
-FPA Cresent
-AmCent Utilities
-T Rowe Price New Asia
-Fidelity Worldwide
-PIA Moderate Duration
-Alpine Ultra-Short Income
-T Rowe Price T/F Income Adv