(MONEY Magazine) – STYLE MATTERS. ON THESE PAGES, YOU'LL FIND A GUIDE TO THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF FUNDS REPRESENTED IN THE MONEY 100--PLUS SUGGESTIONS ON HOW YOU CAN COMBINE YOUR FUNDS TO CREATE AN EFFECTIVE PORTFOLIO.

The kind of stocks a fund owns can have as much--or more--impact on its performance as the manager's skill. So to judge a fund, you have to look past its basic return to see how it stacks up against other funds pursuing the same strategy. To make that process easier for you, in the chart at right we've sorted the MONEY 100 according to the investment categories used by Morningstar, the Chicago fund-research firm.

Morningstar assigns each diversified domestic equity fund to one of nine groups, based on the size and type of stocks the fund has held over the past three years. Currently, portfolios with a median market capitalization above $8.4 billion are considered large-cap, those with market caps below $1.2 billion are small-cap, and those in between are midcap. Morningstar adjusts these size boundaries monthly.

To determine a fund's investing style (growth, value or blend) Morningstar looks at the price/earnings and price/ book ratios of the stocks it holds. In general, portfolios with the highest P/Es and P/Bs compared with other funds that hold similar-size stocks are labeled growth; those with the lowest are tagged value; and the rest are swept into the blend group. We've also noted each category's current average P/E.

The other definitions can be tricky as well. Morningstar treats any fund with more than 40% of its assets in non-U.S. firms as an international portfolio. Within that group, Morningstar calls those with 10% or less of their assets in the U.S. foreign funds, and those with more than 10% world funds. Emerging markets funds invest at least 50% of their assets in the developing markets of Asia, Latin America, Africa and Eastern Europe.

For funds that shift between bonds and stocks in the U.S. and abroad, Morningstar created the multiasset global category. The MONEY 100 also includes real estate, technology and health-care sector funds.

--PAT REGNIER