If there is safety in numbers and comfort in size, fund investors are now putting their need for reassurance on parade. The growth-stock fund companies that raked in the bulk of new dollars in the late 1990s (Janus, Putnam Investments and Alliance, for instance) have given way to a new crop whose single most obvious characteristic is their hugeness. During the first five months of 2004, funds recorded

byStan Luxenberg, Special Contributor