2008 was a particularly rough year for stock mutual funds, but it looks like it was even tougher for
Bill Miller and
Legg Mason(perhaps not surprisingly, given
Value Trust's performance earlier this year) . In the
Wall Street Journal's "Fund Track column, Sam Mamudi
reports that, according to
Morningstar, the three worst performing non-leveraged domestic stock funds last year were Miller's
Opportunity Trust (down 65 percent for the year),
Winslow Green Growth (down 61 percent) and another Legg Mason fund,
Growth Trust (down 60 percent). The WSJ blames Opportunity Trust's and Growth Trust's losses on anticipating an earlier recovery, and thus buying financials, home-builders and Internet-stocks, while Green Growth suffered from the drop in the price of oil (which hurt so-called "green energy companies"). But MStar's
Bridget Hughes claimed the Growth Trust "will soar again," and Green Growth manager
Jack Robinson stressed his "long term" investment philosophy to put the returns in perspective. 
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