The large-cap funds are less risky, but the small-cap funds often have more growth potential.

One is the tiny Adhia Twenty, a large-cap fund with $2 million in assets.

Mr. Bickerstaff says he generally owns from 30 to 40 stocks, far fewer than the average of 125 for a large-cap fund.

Many technology and large-cap funds lost so much in the bear market that they still have a sizable balance of losses.

"It's predominantly a large-cap fund," he said, "but we don't want to limit ourselves."

Some large-cap funds also had high market impact costs.

"Growth is beating value and my mid- and large-cap funds have great risk-adjusted performance," he said.

Even so, 1 of every 7 large-cap funds - including a number of the biggest funds in the country - still score 95 or higher.

He notes that the typical fees, or expense ratio, on an actively managed large-cap fund might be a little more than 1 percent of assets.

Now Mr. Gregory calls it a good mid-cap to large-cap fund.