NEW YORK (CNN/Money) – So the bull is back.

Or at least it has been for the past year -- the S&P 500 is up more than 30 percent and the Nasdaq more than 70 percent. And stock mutual funds have kept up, racking up big gains in the past year.

Feels good, but many funds still have a long way to go to make up for their bear market losses, particularly those in the growth, tech and foreign-stock categories.

Here's why:

On year since the bottom • Tech: Can the gains continue? • Bottom's up: How'd ya do? • Commentary: Happy Birthday, Bull

Say you had $10,000 in a fund at the peak of the bull market and the fund lost 50 percent during the bear market. That left you with $5,000. Then, in the past year, your fund gained 50 percent. So now you have $7,500. In order to recoup your original $10,000 the fund would have had to gain 100 percent.

CNN/Money asked fund research firm Morningstar to run returns on several stock fund categories from March 11, 2000 -- the Nasdaq peaked on March 10 -- through Oct. 8 this year to see how a $10,000 investment would have fared, assuming you made no further contributions along the way.

Here's what the data show:

Of 156 technology funds, none have broken even, even though the average technology fund gained 86 percent since the bear market bottom on Oct. 9, 2002.

In fact, a $10,000 investment from the height of the bull market through Oct. 8 in the best performing technology fund during that period -- Icon Information Technology (ICTEX) -- would have left you with only about $7,000 today.

The story is only slightly better for large-cap growth funds. Out of 790 such funds, only nine have at least broken even. The top performer was Jensen (JENSX) where your $10,000 would now be worth $11,944.

Jensen is on Money Magazine's Money 100 list of best funds -- see the full list here.

Only 30 of the 479 mid-cap growth funds are on par with their peak bull market levels, and of 425 small-cap growth funds, just 62 pulled off this feat.

The picture is brightest for value funds, which had held up better during the bear market.

Ninety-nine percent of the 172 small-cap value funds have been trading at or above pre-bear market levels. A $10,000 investment in the top-performing small cap value fund during the period -- N/I Numeric Investors Small Cap Value (NISVX) -- would be worth $25,870 today.

Among the 153 mid-cap value funds, 96 percent have broken even. And your $10,000 investment in No. 1 performer Yacktman (YACKX) would have grown to $21,477.

And among the 599 large-cap value funds, 67 percent have come out on par with or ahead of bull market levels. PBHG Clipper Focus (PBFOX) heads the group, with a return 103 percent, which would transform your $10,000 into $20,324.

Fund help in Money 101 • Guidelines for choosing stock funds • When to dump a fund

Bear markets are a part of investing life. And since you can't change the past, the point is not to get back to even or to abandon whole fund categories.

It's to make sure your portfolio is positioned to gain from those areas of the market that are doing well at any given time.

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It's to question whether the funds you've been in through the latest bull and bear markets still fit with your asset allocation and still are good funds that you'd buy all over again if you had to.

And, lastly, it's to assess whether your savings rate is sufficient to help you meet your long-term financial goals. If you suffered big losses during the bear market and you recognize your funds won't be able to make up lost ground in a short period of time, rethink how much you need to put away each year to keep your plans on track.

(For help, try CNN/Money's savings calculator.)