Below are some of the significant changes in the AP Universe:

Funds Exhibiting Significant Gains

PTRAX (PIMCO TOTAL RETURN FUND)

• Although fund dropped in overall ranking from 3rd to 4th, AUM expanded by 15.3% for the full AP universe.  Number of accounts grew by 491 across the AP universe, and fund is used by 10 new advisory firms.
• Most of this growth was in the largest accounts, where AUM grew by 13.7% and 188 new accounts were added.

AEGBX (AMERICAN EUROPACIFIC GROWTH FUND)

• Fund moved from 7th to 5th in ranking across the AP universe, and from 7th to 5th among the largest accounts.
• AUM grew by 17.6% across the AP universe, with 194 new accounts and 24 new advisory firms.
• Most of this growth was in the largest accounts, were AUM grew by 17.8% and 79 new accounts were added.

ARTIX (ARTISAN INTERNATIONAL FUND) and HAINX (HARBOR INTERNATIONAL FUND)

• These two international funds moved up significantly in rankings.  ARTIX moved from 23rd to 11th and HAINX moved from 50th to 17th across the AP universe.
• For ARTIX, AUM grew by 70.1% across the AP universe.  Although the number of accounts decreased by 14, the fund was used by 4 new advisory firms.  In this case, significant new funds were added to existing accounts.
• For HAINX, AUM grew by 121.8% across the AP universe, with 88 new accounts and 9 new advisory firms.

Funds Exhibiting Significant Losses

VSITX(JP MORGAN INTERMEDIATE TAX FREE SELECT FUND)

• Fund dropped from 5th to 313th overall in the AP universe.
• AUM dropped by 96.5% across the AP universe, and is held in 27 less accounts and by 1 fewer advisor firms. 
• Fund lost significant assets in a small number of accounts and advisory firms.

MXXIX (MARSICO 21ST CENTURY FUND)

• Fund dropped from 20th to 152nd overall in the AP universe.
• AUM dropped by 79.4% across the AP universe, and is held in 1,035 fewer accounts but by 1 additional advisory firm.
• Fund lost significant assets across a small number of advisory firms.

EWJ (ISHARES MSCI JAPAN IN)

• Fund dropped from 17th to 56th overall in the AP universe.
• AUM dropped by 56.6% across the AP universe, and is held in 36 fewer accounts, but by 4 additional advisory firms
• Fund lost significant assets across a small number of accounts and advisory firms.

Methodology

We rank funds by the assets under management (AUM) within our universe. A fund's ranking can improve or decline only if its AUM changes relative to other funds. Such changes can be due to any of the following:  

• Existing advisors shifting money into/out of existing accounts
• Existing advisors putting money into of new accounts, or closing existing accounts
• New advisors putting money into new accounts
• Gains or losses in AUM due to fund performance
• Funds moving from the mid-sized account tier to the largest account tier, and vice versa

In some cases, funds moved down in ranking, but their AUM increased and the number of advisors utilizing the funds remained constant, as did the number of accounts holding the funds. We do not consider this a significant change in sentiment regarding the fund, which is our guiding criterion in this analysis. We look for situations where one or -more often- more of the following occurred:

• Change in fund ranking
• Change in AUM beyond what would be expected due to fund performance
• Increase or decrease in the number of advisors using the fund
• Increase or decrease in the number of accounts holding the fund

We also eliminate situations where changes in fund usage were due to movements between account tiers. Some subjective judgment comes into play. We do not have a single objective metric or standard that allows us to measure changes in the universe. But we believe that the examples we show above exhibit evidence of changes in advisor/investor sentiment. We are providing the criteria we used to select these funds, so you can be the final judge as to whether the change in advisor/investor sentiment is significant.

Finally, we consolidate holdings across share classes for a given fund.  The ticker symbol displayed is the first symbol, alphabetically, among the various share classes. It may not be representative of the share class or classes held in the AP universe.

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