Now, there are roughly 7,000 hedge funds, and Cumberland Associates has reported returns of more than 18 percent a year on average.

With the tourisum industry fueling the state with the influx of cash, more business owners are reporting profits and positive returns.

The plan's no-load mutual funds reported returns in the newspaper that were much better than the returns they reported to the plan.

Counties have been reporting such amended returns to the state, and they were presumably included in the tallies announced tonight.

But they add that American steelmakers have continued to report moderate returns, and analysts' forecasts have been mixed.

Mutual funds report total returns assuming reinvestment of dividend and capital gain distributions.

Its main fund reported strong returns of 70 percent in 2003 and 40 percent in 2004, according to statements given to investors.

In 1999, the Vanguard Group also started reporting after-tax returns of its funds.

Some mutual fund families and reporting services currently report dollar-weighted returns for individual investors and funds.

Mr. Cisneros's company reports annual returns on investment of 20 percent and more for the pension fund.