Um, did the writer even look at the Vice Fund's track record?

Best 3 Month Period
June - August 2003
VICEX
21.72%

Worst 3 Month Period
July - September 2008
VICEX
(14.10%)

2004 and 2006 were the fund's best years (+24.37% and +23.15% respectively).

2008 has been the worst in five so far -- -26.85%

There's a place for this kind of strategergy, but Newsweek and US News are not places to look for even basic investment information.

(Disclosure: I'm invested in VICEX)

Trey, I think this is the part of the piece that addresses your question:

The fund is down 27 percent this year -- "We're in a hundred-year storm," Norton admits -- but he's one in a choir of analysts who maintain that while all industries are suffering, the business fundamentals of vice remain strong and will rebound faster.

I think he's talking out his ass. The best years were two stellar stock market years.

And with Obama pretty much inevitable, I don't see a great future for defense and aerospace stocks, at least for four-eight years.

Tobacco is a safe haven, but it's not immune from regulation. And you can bank on some kind of nationwide smoking ban by the end of the next decade.

Booze stocks do better in up markets, IMHO, because people turn to the more expensive and frou frou labels. Again, booze is a safe haven in down markets, but we're already in a down market, so you're not gaining, you're parking your money.

Again, don't get me wrong. Philosophically I love VICEX, and I'm counting on them having gains in the long run. But if you're investing with an eye towards the immediate down market, you're wasting your time.

IMHO.

Which is totally why I'm now investing in all of Jessica Simpson's film projects.