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Dodson has moved 55% of Panassus funds into cash, a large stake even if based on recession predictions. Fannie Mae, FreddieMac, and Cisco Systems comprise nearly 16% of his holdings, with PetSmart a recent buy.

Diamond's gem-like analysis has yielded a 31.3% five-year annual return, ranking first among small-cap value funds. He uses private market valuation and liquidation analysis, not sell-side reports, in finding underpriced stocks, currently recommending Xircom, Tredegar, Toro, School Specialty, and Belden.

Investment analysts participating in Barron's second of three Roundtable discussions responded to the question of what stocks they are buying these days.

MFS Investment Management attracted $11.1 billion in new capital to its funds in 1998, close to the $11.3 billion added by top-ranked rival Fidelity Investments. The growth continued into 1st quarter 1999, but the departure of star analysts John Brennan and Chris Felipe has cast some uncertainty over the funds' future, particularly with institutional investors. MFS CEO Jeff Shames chooses new portfolio managers from within the firm only, and MFS cultivates a team-oriented atmosphere. Brennan and Felipe's replacements, Maura Shaughnessy and Stephen Pesek, have similar investment styles to their predecessors. Both Shaughnessy and Pesek have large amounts of Tyco International stock in their portfolios.

Mallon and Francis use a composite equity valuation model to identify large capitalization stocks that are temporarily undervalued. The men discuss the strategies they use to invest $1.2 billion for their institutional clients. Their favorite stocks are named.

Charge cards make up a substantial share of American Express' volume so it has less credit risk and the company has enough liquidity to ride out the economic downturn without having to dilute shareholder through selling stocks. One financial industry researcher believes that the shares are a great buy for the longer term even with higher credit-card charge-offs in the near term.

Timothy Edward Brog, President of Pembridge Capital, seeks out companies with overpaid, underperforming managements and tries to make them do right by investors, usually by taking his case directly to shareholders via proxy fights for board seats. Brog's fund, with relatively modest assets of less than US$50 million, is able to maximize its impact by sticking to small-capitalization stocks.

New Fidelity chief Abigail Johnson assumes control of a huge but troubled fund group that is leaking assets, struggling to diversify, and has already endured a 5% layoff program. The changing nature of the fund industry is also analyzed.

Davis, whose self-named Florida-based research company he founded in 1980, is quizzed on how his market indicators weathered the tech bubble collapse of 2000 and ensuing bear market. He argues for intermittent rallies during a protracted downturn.

Clunie, Aberdeen's chief investor since 2000, manages assets totaling almost $2.5 billion. He offers analysis on a comprehensive range of financial issues, including the U.S. economy, corporate valuation, earnings, and favorite stocks.

Jones began his own money management firm after stints at established value-investing firms. His net return of close to 23% in the five years since founding his company is achieved by targeting small-cap companies with strong fundamentals in misunderstood sectors. Jones discusses the principle of intrinsic value and how it applies to his investment strategy.

Mutual fund firms notorious for growth funds that evaporated in the technology sector meltdown of 2000-2001 are chasing wary investors with new value fund offerings. AIM Funds, American Express Financial Advisors, and Janus, three of the lowest-rated growth fund companies in 2000, are among those trying to recast their image to attract money fleeing the equities market.

A round-table of experts on the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors examines the growth possibilities of the major players in the industry. The year 2000 represented the high-water mark for share prices, and no one foresees a return to those levels. Health care providers are seen as a mixed bag, while biotechnology firms still need only one clear research win to make it big.

Howard Ward is happy that technology has improved US productivity, but he is frank that the stock market bubble of Nov '99 - Mar '00 was driven by overenthusiasm for tech stocks. He reduced his Gabelli Growth Fund and Mainstay Blue Chip Growth fund tech holdings from 37% in Dec '99 to 30% in Jan-Feb '00. His current value picks include Microsoft, Motorola, Intel, Warner-Lambert Pfizer, State Street, Mellon Financial, and Baby Bells.

Larry Bowman is one of the most successful fund managers in history. He talks about he career at Fidelity, Tiger, Bowman Capital, and his current Spinnaker funds. Bowman's current picks include: Chartered Semi; Taiwan Semi; Exodus Comm; and Veritas Software.

Small, undiscovered companies have led Wally Wadman's Constitution Management to a 121% gain in 1999. He details his history of picking growth stocks, and currently recommends Men's Wearhouse; Cognex; First consulting; Accredo Health; Anesta; and Superior Consultant.

William Baker, founder of GARP Research, details his strategy for researching growth stocks in 'new economy' industries such as high technology and biotech.

Investors should be cautious when managers of mutual funds leave their positions and open up new mutual funds or hedge funds. The caution stems from low performances shown by the new funds as the managers attempt to build the funds. Established funds with new managers do not suffer as much.

Enright has steered the MFS Strategic Value Fund to a nearly 15% growth rate in the five years since its 1998 inception. He lays out his strategy of isolating well-managed companies with strong fundamentals that have fallen from grace.

Hotchkis and Wiley Capital Management successfully completed a turnaround after suffering huge losses in 2007 and 2008. The company's stock holdings include trucking firm Con-way, Valassis Communications, and software developer CA.

Brown Capital Management President Eddie Brown says that they are looking for the price-to-earnings ratio based on the next 12-month earnings estimate to be less than that of the bench-mark when they build portfolios. Brown says they sell when a company is overvalued and when the fundamentals change adversely.

Fred Alger Management's chief executive Dan Chung believes that the 'terrible' yields on cash will urge investors back into the stock market. Many of the company's shareholders already enjoy top tier returns and they had at least one top-10 fund in each category at the end of the third quarter 2009. Their LargeCap Growth fund's top 10 holdings include Apple and Microsoft.

Lead Manager James Hunt of the Tocqueville International Value Fund scans English-language publications of other countries for bad news and he says that you'll get a sense of things from the local press that can not be found in major international mass media. Hunt is a contrarian and he focuses on economically sensitive sectors that have been hit by the financial crisis.

Julie Lang Kirkpatrick's clients at the Lang Asset Management Inc. were able to realize gains of more than 50 percent from their short positions on stocks. Kirkpatrick shares her picks for long plays and short plays.

The shares of National Financial Partners have fallen below their initial offering price as sputtering sales and management turnover leave many investors wondering. One of the company's star brokers is being sued for their 'life settlement' contracts while another broker is being pursued by the IRS for unpaid taxes.

John Bader of Halcyon Asset Management tries to avoid investment areas which attract a large number of funds. Bader oversees an event-driven fund which is very flexible and allows the company to post what industry sources say is a 13.67% annualized return.

Joe Feshbach launched Feshbach Partners Hedge Fund in April 2005 and has invested $9 million in the fund. Joe plans to practice crisis investing in his company and has successfully raised $22 million from foundations, wealthy individuals and funds-of-funds.

Massachusetts Financial Services (MFS), a money management company was in bad shape in the month of February 2005 as it was surrounded with a mutual-fund scandal and was losing a lot of client's money. Robert Pozen, former president and vice chairman of Fidelity Investments and Robert Manning, CEO of MFS were responsible for getting the company back to a stable position.

Morningstar, a Chicago firm is a major force in mutual-fund analysis and data and proposes to do the same with hedge funds, a software package that enables users to compare data along with performance and risk. However, this task is unlikely to be easy since hedge funds are publicity-shy.

Laurence Fink, CEO of the New York-based company BlackRock wants his company to be the Microsoft of money management. BlackRock has become one of the premier money managers, supervising more than $300 billion for institutional investors and mutual funds mainly in bonds and other fixed-income investments.

Fasciano's investing acumen is informed by his experience as a pilot, which has taught him prudence as a key to longevity. He steers the Neuberger Berman Fasciano fund, which boasts annualized returns of better than 10% over the previous 10 years.

Leuthold cites evidence from his research firm's proprietary market trends index, which measures close to 200 market components, to predict that the bear market is over and a new, modest bull market is beginning.

The $260-billion strong Franklin funds have survived the '90s bubble, and the loss of 97 employees of its Fiduciary Trust unit in the 9/11/01 attacks. It has cut costs and consolidated its three main fund platforms.

Ballen, newly appointed CEO of Massachusetts Financial Services, explains why the stock market is now as undervalued, after two bear market years, as it was overvalued immediately preceding the technology bubble collapse.

Katz, of Matrix Asset Advisors, gamely challenged the market's historic volatility during June-July 2002, buying targeted stocks at every stage of descent on various indexes. He discusses his willingness to take risks based upon the viability of his metrics.

Cohen, who passed through several leading brokerages and was even replaced at Merrill Lynch by Henry Blodgett, now leads JHC Capital. He was discouraging about Internet stocks before it was popular. Now, in the depths of the bubble collapse, he points to Internet companies with growth potential.

Yellen notes the centrality of perception in the market's valuation of health care stocks. His guiding of AIM's fund to a 14.25% return over three years, placing it among the top 5% in its peer group, is discussed.

Fund managers Al Sebastian and Kevin Moore and investment specialist Peter Boardman, who have cooperated in guiding USAA International to a sector-outpacing 10-year growth rate of nearly 8%, discuss foreign and domestic investment strategies and forecasts.

The evolution of the catchword 'buy the dips' to near-mantra levels during the 1990s boom contrasts with the current bear market, where no rally is being trusted. Brief evaluations of PBHG Disciplined Equity, John Hancock Small Cap Value, and Dresdner RCM Global Technology are included.

Peter Wilby's management team at Citigroup Asset Management is optimistic that Salomon Brothers Series High Yield can continue its stellar performance. It's top holdings are cable TV, consumer products; and Brazilian and Russian shares.

Traditional investment banking firms such as Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch complain that commercial banks are using their much larger stores of assets to corner market share. Banking giants such as J.P. Morgan Chase, Citigroup and Bank of America extend credit lines to corporate customers at below-market rates in exchange for lucrative investment banking business. A potentially negative side-effect is that banks are now over-exposed to credit risks.

Mutual fund managers Faraz Naqvi and Michael Dauchot of Dresdner RCM Global Healthcare Fund have delivered consistently positive returns even during the drastic downturns witnessed in markets during the first quarter 2001. The fund management team, both of whom are medical doctors, discuss their strategies and forecast market performance.

Mutual fund managers face hard questions from a widened demographic of investors in the wake of dramatic market downturns in first quarter 2001. An analysis of the factors contributing to the market's dramatic losses, of the role played by mutual fund managers, and of the forecasts for the market's future, is presented.