There was an upfront charge and they will take a proportion of any reduction in debt.

Mr. Van Wagoner's fund is sold without a sales charge, while the Govett fund carries an upfront charge of 4.95 percent.

Among Fidelity's domestic growth funds, those sold with an upfront charge, also called a load, outperformed the no-load funds for the 10 years ended Sept.

What kept many people from taking out an equity loan was high upfront charges, such as origination fees or points.

Before 1980, most funds financed sales expenses with an upfront charge to investors, or "load," that was capped at 8.5 percent of the investment.

So the fund, with a 1 percent one-time upfront charge, is a more pure small-company play - and thus more volatile.

Last year through November, the fund - which lost 49.4 percent of its value in the two years through 2002, according to Morningstar - collected $12.7 million of redemption fees and only $3.8 million in upfront charges.

The hefty upfront charge keeps the value of the Class B shares ahead of the Class A shares, even if you pay an exit fee, until the tenth year.

The first step was a two-tiered structure: class A shares, with a front-end load, or upfront sales charge, and B shares, with no upfront charges but with commensurate loads upon sale, called back-end loads.

"Certainly big upfront charges have the ability to pave the way for a nice bounce," she said.