MELLOW YELLOW

A guy in Huntington Beach, Calif., named Doug Fabian has put together a lemon list of the funds that do the worst. He’s been running Fabian Investment Resources for 20 years, and rated all domestic, global and international mutual funds, both load and no-load.

To make the list, a fund must trail its peer group by an average 25% in one-year performance and be behind its peers in three- and five-year results as well. The citruses also have an average expense ratio of 1.5%, and as Mr. Fabian says, “Not only do they chronically underperform their averages, they charge us for the privilege.”

His “top 11 lemon funds” in asset size and expense ratios: Smith Barney Premium Total Return, SoGen International, Warburg Pincus International Equity (adviser), Templeton Global Small Companies I and II, Dean Witter Worldwide Investment, Crabbe Huson Special, Merger Fund, Merrill Lynch Global Holdings, Phoenix Mid Cap, Ivy Growth and Royce Premier.