Wednesday, April 22, 1998

Investor Wins Prestigious-Sounding Award
By JacobL5044

(Piscataway, N.J.) -- Legendary investor Roscoe Rump has again won the prestigious-sounding Pullet Surprise, awarded jointly by the National Poultry Investors Council and the Egg Institute. Rump is chief investment strategist for the Piscataway, New Jersey-based Roswell/Rump. (The Pullet Surprise is not to be confused with the "Pull-It Surprise" pull-tab gambling game of the Washington State Lottery.) Rump also won the Pullet in 1996. Last year's award went to the firm of PaineWebber for its pioneering work in putting two proper nouns together without a space in between.

In accepting the award, Mr. Rump announced his latest mutual fund, the Rump Annual Report Fund. Using proprietary software, the investment strategist has come up with a balanced fund focusing on the discipline of picking stocks based on when their annual reports come out. A typical allocation model might find 40% of the fund with companies that have a fiscal year matching the calendar year and the remaining 60% having fiscal years that end in different months. "This way you're not overwhelmed by annual reports in late March and April." But that's not all. Rump "digs deep" into companies' annual reporting processes based on historical patterns. Even amongst companies with a fiscal year that matches the calendar year, you'll get reports from firms as early as mid-March and as late as May.

Mr. Rump says he based his idea for the Annual Report Fund on his approach to airline travel. With airports getting bigger and bigger, Rump came up with the Random Walk-and-Ride approach. He decides where he's going to fly by walking to gates that are nearest the terminal and then heading for whatever destination the plane leaving from such gate goes to. (See the research study, "An Antidote for Sore Feet.")

The Annual Fund Report, the RumpReport, and the phrases "RumpWise" and "Reach for the Rump" are patented trademarks of Roswell/Rump Inc.

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