(MONEY Magazine) – It's no fun being excluded from a hot party, but that is what happened to many investors last year when several of the best-performing mutual funds closed their doors to new investors. Reason: money was rushing in faster than the managers could effectively invest it. Now, with the cash floods under control, some of the funds have quietly begun accepting new investments. Among them are the following, all growth funds: Mutual Shares (no load; 800-344-4515). It stopped taking new money after assets ballooned from $776 million to $1.1 billion in the second half of 1985. Now they are about $1.4 billion. For the 12 months that ended Nov. 30, the fund was up 17.7%, compared with 27.6% for Standard & Poor's 500-stock index. Over the past 10 years the fund, No. 2 on our list of All-Funds on page 32, is up 595.8%. Mutual Qualified Income (no load; 800-344-4515), a companion fund of Mutual Shares, grew from $308 million to $435 million in six months before closing last February. For the past 12 months it is up 19.2%. Although assets are now at $600 million and $3 million in new money is pouring in each day, manager Michael Price is not currently worried about size. But he adds: ''I'd have no trouble closing again if we began to feel highly uncomfortable.'' Nicholas II (no load; 414-272-6133) took in so much money -- swelling from $79.5 million to $261.4 million in eight months -- that 40% of its assets were still in cash by the time it closed last February. In the past 12 months the fund, currently with assets of $305 million, is up 14.2%. Several other long-term stars, including Vanguard Windsor, Quasar Associates and Lindner Dividend and the Lindner Fund, remain closed, and their managers say that they have no plans to reopen in the near future.