well, i meant all things being equal. there are stocks returning 14% with beta under 1, and stocks returning 14% with beta's well over one.
U.S. Global Investors, Inc. | Family of No-Load Mutual Funds
American Funds
american funds has some really good "set and forget" options that'll beat any s&p index fund by a mile, and have the lowest fees for a managed fund.
I bought us global's china regional and eastern european funds a few years ago and have gotten 20% and 42% annual growth over that time. for IRAs, there is NO minimum to invest in usfunds, which is really nice.