Typical of Fidelity managers, [PETER LYNCH] is home-grown. Raised in the Boston suburb of Newton (his father was a Boston College math professor who died when Lynch was 10), Lynch worked for Fidelity during the summer while attending Wharton. He joined Fidelity full-time in 1969 as an analyst after two years in the Army to complete his ROTC obligation. He spent most of that time in South Korea as a lieutenant with an artillery unit.

Lynch manages Magellan almost as though it were two separate funds: one, large-company stocks; the other, small stocks. About 200 stocks make up 60% of the fund, and the remaining 40% of the fund is spread over 1,600 stocks.-- Lynch's formula for success sounds simple. First, he stays fully invested in stocks. The average USA stock fund keeps about 9% of its money in cash. With that much money out of the stock market, it's easy to see why most mutual funds tend to underperform the stock market averages.

How does one person bear the weight of managing so much for so many? It's a delicate balance between long hours of work and precious moments of family life. ``I work about 70 hours a week, and my average competitor works probably 50 hours,'' says the nearly white-haired 43-year-old Lynch. ``So if I'm working 40% more a week than my competitor, I figure I ought to be able to beat him by 10%.'' Except for the week each month he spends on the road visiting companies, Lynch's workweek routine has been the same since he took over Magellan as manager in 1977: