While funds that invest in few well-researched ideas can be volatile, they may also be positioned better to generate higher returns in the long run. William McVail, co-manager of Turner Concentrated Growth Equity Fund, keeps less than 30 names in the portfolio with a long-term strategy to stick to companies that deliver rising sales and earnings.

Generating steady returns undoubtedly requires investing in stable businesses with favorable long-term outlooks. At the helm of the BBH Core Select Fund, Timothy Hartch and Michael Keller apply this strategy through a careful selection of securities that fit very specific criteria, with the objective of providing protection against downside risks over time.

As giant emerging markets such as China and India are seeing substantial development of new infrastructure in those countries, the developed economies of the U.S. and Europe are beginning to feel the need to follow suit too. Charles Ober at T. Rowe Price New Era Fund looks for companies in the resource sector to benefit from the sustained commodities demand and a protection against a build-up in inflation.

The essence of investing, after all, is making money through buying low and selling high. The key question is how to discern and evaluate those opportunities. Richard Barone, portfolio manager of the Ancora Special Opportunity Fund, relies on an analytical process that screens companies trading unusually low relative to their free cash flow, their net current asset value, or relative to a potential catalyst.

A discernible investor strives to detect short- and long-term patterns in market cycles in order to leverage that to profits. Mark Scheffler and Peter Mutschler explain how the Appleton Group PLUS Fund focuses on markets within the market and shifts assets to take advantage of market, sector and other trends.

Event-driven strategies require a clear understanding of corporate developments and a precise projection of outcome scenarios. As the mutual fund industry is only making the first steps to offering such strategies to investors, Thomas Kirchner at Pennsylvania Avenue Event-Driven Fund focuses on four kinds of opportunities that are linked to the event-driven investment strategy.

John Buckingham and his team at the Al Frank Fund scour all market cap segments and industry groups for companies that have superb long-term total return potential, understanding that the capital gains that an investor is likely to generate are locked in the price that he pays for a stock.

Dividend paying stocks are especially attractive to investors with an interest in good value companies that have stable business models and fiscal discipline, while rewarding stockholders with recurring income. David J. Abella and his team look for companies with a long-term track record of dividend payout and earnings growth for their selection in the Rochdale Dividend & Income Fund.

Two or more may be better than one, when it comes to money managers. The Russell Short Duration Bond Fund currently allocates its assets to two money managers with the goal of delivering consistent returns despite market volatility.

Healthy businesses that produce excess cash flows that can be distributed to shareholders can generate stock price returns that may be volatile. As such companies with high return on capital sometimes go out of favor, they become especially attractive to the Catalyst Value Fund. David Miller explains how the management team puts this investment philosophy into practice.