Staying defensive

BOSTON – Playing it safe paid off in 2008 for Tom Forester and David Ellison, two standout mutual fund managers in a year when winning meant losing less money than the competition.

Forester’s eponymous Forester Value Fund (FVALX) focused on stocks that typically do well in recessions to roughly break even for the year, declining just 0.82 percent through Tuesday – easily making it the top-performing large-cap value fund of the year, according to Morningstar Inc. data. The second-place Copley Fund was down nearly 17 percent, which was still well above the average decline in the category of 38 percent.

Ellison’s FBR Small Cap Financial Fund (FBRSX) also stood out in 2008, ranking No. 2 among financial sector funds. It shed just 10 percent of its value, easily beating the category’s average decline of 45 percent.

If the economy is poised to turn around, Forester and Ellison might do well to heed the contrarian investment maxim that yesterday’s winners are likely to be tomorrow’s losers.

But the two managers – both of whose funds carry Morningstar’s five-star ranking – aren’t yet ready to budge from the approaches that served them so well in 2008. Neither sees enough positive economic news to merit shifting from investments that typically do OK in recessions to those more likely to gain when conditions improve.

“I’ll probably be in some of the same stocks for the first six months or so of 2009,” said Forester. “And then as I see things getting better, I’m going to shift out of the real defensive things, and get more constructive on the more cyclical stocks that can grow quite well as we come out of this period.”

The fund’s top five holdings as of Sept. 30 included Kraft Foods Inc., Johnson & Johnson and H.J. Heinz Co. – three companies that managed to outperform broader markets for the year, with their shares all losing less than 20 percent.

While Forester used much of his fund’s cash holdings to snap up low-priced stocks in the third quarter, Ellison continues to keep plenty of money on the sidelines. About 40 percent of his $179 million fund’s assets are in cash, and Ellison said he doesn’t plan to use much of it until he sees signs that the slide in home prices and the surge in job cuts are about to end.

The former bank teller has managed his small-banking specialty fund since its inception 12 years ago. While smaller banks generally weren’t as exposed to mortgage troubles as much as larger rivals, Ellison took pains to find the small banks with the least risk. Shares of his fund’s top holding, Paramus, N.J.-based Hudson City Bancorp., were up about 4 percent for the year through Tuesday.

Now, the key for Ellison and Forester is figuring out when to adjust their strategies as markets build momentum for an expected rebound.

Forester expects that to happen about mid-2009, when he hopes to move out of defensive stocks and into industrial and technology companies whose business tends to move in tandem with the economy.