These are the top funds in five major categories, ranked according to three-year returns. We primarily consider funds with managers in place for at least three years; the only exceptions are managers with at least three years’ experience in a similar capacity. We don’t rank funds with front-or back-end loads greater than 3 percent or funds that are closed to new investors, have less than $25 million in assets, have minimums of $10,000 or more, have trust restrictions or are single-state muni-bond funds.

All data as of 7/31/10.

Source: Morningstar, Bloomberg

The Louis Rukeyser Honor Roll

Funds that have been on The Rukeyser 100 more than 80 percent of the past three years (at least 29 out of 36 months) make it onto The Louis Rukeyser Honor Roll. Their names are in green and marked with laurels.

On The Move

? ETF Market Opportunity (ETFOX) has once again appeared in the Long-Term Growth section, so I wanted to take the opportunity to reminder readers just how expensive the fund is. The only disclosed fee the fund carries is a 1.75 percent management fee—to its credit it doesn’t charge a 12b-1 fee—but its true expense ratio runs closer to 2.1 percent since it also pays the fees carried by the exchange traded funds in its portfolio.

? Homestead Small Company Stock (HSCSX) and Queens Road Small Cap Value (QRSVX) beat out Pinnacle Value (PVFIX) and Artio US SmallCap (JSCAX) for slots in the Small Company category after posting superior gains in the first quarter and hanging onto more of them in the second. Small-cap stocks benefited from a strong bounce early this year as investor optimism rebounded, only to give back a large chunk of their gains in the second quarter as economic data softened. Homestead and Queens Road gave up only 6 percent in the second quarter, whereas the Artio offering lost more than 14 percent.

Funds Added This Month

AllianceBern Muni Income Natl A
American Century Core Plus
Baird Intermediate Muni Bond
Baron Opportunity
Black Oak Emerging Technology
DWS Managed Municipal Bonds A
Eaton Vance Atlanta Capital SMID-Cap R
ETF Market Opportunity
Fidelity Capital & Income
Fidelity High Income
Fidelity New Markets Income
FMI Focus
Homestead Small Company Stock
Invesco Tax-Free Intermediate A
Janus Triton
Marsico Global
Meridian Equity Income
Queens Road Small Cap Value
T Rowe Price Emerging Markets Bond
T Rowe Price Latin America
T. Rowe Price Personal Strat Income

Funds Dropped This Month

Artio Global High Income A
Artio US Smallcap A
Buffalo High Yield
DGHM All-Cap Value
Dreyfus Municipal Bond
Fidelity Freedom Income
Fidelity Select Medical Equip & Systems
Hussman Strategic Growth
Laudus Growth Investors US
Large Cap
Matthews Asian Growth & Income
Nicholas Limited Edition N
Northern Emerging Markets
Northern Global Fixed Income
Payden Global Short Bond
Pinnacle Value
Robeco All Cap Value
T Rowe Price Tax-Free Income
T Rowe Price Tax-Free Short-Term
Vanguard Interm-Term Tax Exempt
Vanguard Interm-Term Treasury
Wells Fargo Advantage Growth