(FORTUNE Magazine) – CLOSED BUT NOT FORGOTTEN

--The $4.3 billion T. Rowe Price New Horizons fund, considered the benchmark among small-cap funds, was closed in June, but that hasn't stopped wily investors from finding a way in. Through new defined contribution accounts, IRA rollovers, and investments in New Horizons Spectrum Growth (a fund of funds that allocates 17.5% of assets, on average, to New Horizons), the fund is among the firm's top five growers in terms of net cash flow for August, September, and October.

OUR NEXT BIGGEST EXPORT

--If a recently introduced bill clears Congress this year, the mutual fund industry could potentially become the country's largest export. Called the Investment Competitiveness Act of 1996, the bill proposes to make U.S. mutual funds more accessible to foreign investors by eliminating the 30% withholding tax they must currently pay on interest income and short-term capital gains. There's no doubt the tax has been a deterrent: Foreign assets currently make up just 1.5% of the $3 trillion mutual fund industry. Fund companies will benefit as well, since they no longer will have to set up overseas subsidiaries to reach the world marketplace.

UNLIKELY WINNER

-According to a report by Lipper Analytical Services, the top- performing fund category for the 12 months through September 30 was emerging-markets debt funds. Recovering remarkably from widespread defaults in Latin America, the category returned 40.9% for the period, easily outpacing the top three equity fund groups: natural resources, up 26.5%; health/biotech, up 23.9%; and financial services, up 20.5%.