The Worst of the Worst

Most active fund managers fell behind their alternative -- low-cost equity index funds -- in the past year. The average actively managed fund lost 2.4 percent in 2011 to Dec. 2, while the S&P 500 provided a total return of about 1 percent. In 2010, the average fund returned 19 percent, beating the S&P 500 by more than four percentage points.

Thus, this year's worst-performing funds are much more typical of their industry than the best funds. In fact, Bloomberg Rankings' list of the year's worst funds includes two of the fund world's most prominent managers, Fairholme Fund's Bruce Berkowitz and CGM's G. Kenneth Heebner.