1.   Also, the fund owns a big chunk of utility stocks, which have not fared well this year.

2.   Americans always had a bigger stake in the stock market than they knew, because pension funds owned stocks as well as bonds.

3.   At Calpers, Hanson pressed large, publicly traded companies in which the fund owned shares to change policies that he believed gave short shrift to shareholders.

4.   At the Park Avenue armory, fund officials refused to allow an inspection unless the state acknowledged that the fund owned most of the art and military regalia.

5.   A different fund owns oil companies, and you think the recovery in Asia will increase demand for oil and push prices and profits up.

6.   A closed-end fund owns a given set of securities and sells shares in that portfolio.

7.   A retirement fund owns stocks and bonds and other investments but cannot itself finance the spending of the retirees unless the fund has money in the bank first.

8.   A similar sized fund may own double or triple that amount of companies.

9.   About one quarter of its assets are allocated in investments that are less volatile than what the typical gold fund owns, Eveillard said.

10.   Additional problems arise when a small fund owns a relatively large stake in an specific company.