At the time it was raised, the firm's new fund ranked among the largest raised for leveraged buyout transactions.

Largely as a result, the fund ranked first among Tennessee funds for the first half of 1996.

Calvert's balanced, small cap, growth and global funds have generally ranked near the bottom of their groups over a number of time periods.

In 1994, the fund lost nearly 6 percent and ranked in the bottom quarter of its peer group.

For that period, the fund ranked No. 26 out of 247 funds.

The fund ranked ninth among diversified domestic stock funds.

Having sold 130 million of its common shares at $10 apiece, this closed-end fund at the time ranked as the nation's largest initial public offering.

The fund ranked in the top 1 percent of all mutual funds in 1991 and stayed near that level for two more years.

As a rule of thumb, he says that at least once a quarter, investors should determine how their funds rank in trailing 12-month returns.

On average during the 1990's, they found, these funds ranked within the top one-third of all funds in performance.