In the introductory case of Chapter 3 we discussed VanguardsPrecious Metals and

In the introductory case of Chapter 3 we discussed VanguardsPrecious Metals and Mining fund (Metals) and Fidelitys StrategicIncome fund (Income) which were two top-performing mutual fundsfor the years 2000 through 2009. An analysis of annual return datafor these two funds provided important information for any type ofinvestor. Over the past 10 years the Metals fund posted a meanreturn of 24.65% with a standard deviation of 37.13%. On the otherhand the mean and the standard deviation of return for the Incomefund were 8.51% and 11.07% respectively. It is reasonable toassume that the returns of the Metals and the Income funds are bothnormally distributed where the means and the standard deviationsare derived from the 10-year sample