Seattle Times – With their investment records in tatters, some mutual-fund companies are pinning their hopes on products with an old-fashioned ambition: delivering steady returns.
Many of these funds are doing just that, while others are falling short of the mark.
Putnam Investments recently introduced four "absolute return" funds that use such strategies as buying foreign securities or bonds to smooth out their performance and aim to earn investors 1 to 7 percent a year above inflation.
