GQEPX Mutual Fund

As mentioned, this fund invests in a subset of S&P500 companies that were less affected by the economic turmoil of the Covid-19 crisis, in part because it chooses companies that are well capitalized. The chart below tells the story, comparing $100 invested in the fund from its inception in late 2018 to Friday, May 8, 2020 (white line) against Fidelity's S&P500 mutual fund (FXAIX, yellow line). Notice that GQEPX did better when the market is up; for instance, at its peak GQEPX's $100 became $127 while FXAIX's $100 became $115, a 10.4% advantage. And it did even better when the market is down; for instance, from its peak to its recent bottom FXAIX lost 33.7% of its value, while GQEPX lost 28.3% of its value. The net effect is that, after the recent losses, GQEPX on May 8 was at $117.5, which is a 17.5% gain on the initial investment, while FXAIX was at $99.45, so there was zero gain. (Please read an important disclosure below the graph.)

GQEPX is a managed fund, with higher fees than an index fund like FXAIX, but the graph above compared the net results, after fees. I should point out that I learned of the fund (while suffering the losses of the S&P500) from someone in my family who is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA, which is a big deal) and works for the investment firm which created and manages GQEPX. But he works as an analyst, not in sales, so he derives zero benefits from increased investments in the fund