Defensive Investing: The Eight Ways to Tell If You Should Hold – or Fold – Your Mutual Fund

With the whipsaw patterns U.S. stocks have experienced in recent weeks - both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and Standard & Poor's 500 Index are down 12% from their highs for the year - even the most ardent buy-and-hold investors are studying their portfolios, searching for holdings to cull. But what if your buy-and-hold strategy has been implemented using mutual funds? As part of a solid " defensive-investing " review, should you consider bailing out of your current mutual-fund holdings at this point and start looking for better funds to ride into any future recovery?