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A mutual fund posts a 1 million percent return

Columnist Steven Syre at the Boston Globe takes note of a mutual fund milestone: the first fund to have a 1 million percent lifetime return.

The Pioneer Fund, managed in Boston since it opened for business in 1928, had generated a total return of 1,073,300.43 percent by the end of last year, according to Morningstar Inc....

Some good news for anyone who stuck $1,000 in the fund at its inception: That account is worth a little over $10 million....

The fund crossed the 1 million percent threshold on Dec. 16, though no one noticed at the time. Pioneer Investments executives say they were alerted by mutual fund researchers at Lipper Inc., who had taken notice when the fund's seven-digit total return created a computer hiccup during routine number crunching. Programs that managed performance information weren't built to account for returns of 1 million percent.

Pioneer, a large-company value fund, is way out in front of the second place performer in all-time return. The second slot goes to a fund called The Investment Company of America (from American Funds), launched in 1934. That fund had returned 684,327.34% over its lifetime (through Dec. 31), according to Morningstar.

These long-term results bring to mind this bit of wise investing advice: "It's time in the market, not market timing, that makes the difference."

Update: On Monday (Feb. 9), I chatted with host Bob Crittenden of Faith Radio's The Meeting House about Pioneer Fund's 82-year(!) accomplishment and the lesson it holds for long-term investors.

You can listen to a portion of that conversation below (16 min.).

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