Lifting our heads up from the battle to check the scoreboard after the first quarter, it`s not pretty. Unfortunately, looking at the last five years, the story is much of the same—just going on for a lot longer and, therefore, being more painful.

Small cap growth funds were down -5.4%, mid cap growth was off -4.4% and large-cap growth was down -4.6%. Not surprisingly, growth sector funds were the hardest hit with Biotech down -6.1% for the first quarter, Telecom down -7.0% and Science and Tech off -9.0%.

Unfortunately, looking at the last five years, the story is much of the same—just going on for a lot longer and, therefore, being more painful. The average small-cap growth fund is off -5.3% per year the last five years, mid-cap growth is down -7.0%, and large-cap growth is down -10.2%. In other words, $100,000 invested in the average growth fund in April of 2000 is worth $63,787.

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