Stocks of big companies with powerful earnings growth often outperform the overall market. The trouble is, large-cap growth stocks also tend to experience sharper drops than the market if business slows and earnings disappoint investors. After six years of a bull market, it is especially important that companies beat earnings expectations in order for their stocks to remain strong, which means that it is vital to choose funds that are good at picking companies that tend to beat expectations.

At the same time, large-cap growth fund managers have an edge because the sectors they often focus on are likely to outperform the broad market this year and beyond—health-care, technology and consumer-­discretionary products and services (such as apparel, autos and entertainment).

Here are two no-load large-cap growth funds with good long-term records, heavy concentrations in the above sectors and a knack for keeping volatility relatively contained by sticking with high-quality companies with strong balance sheets…

Fidelity Blue Chip Growth ­(FBGRX) spreads its assets across more than 350 stocks, but its big emphasis is technology, which takes up about one-third of its assets. It has produced some of the highest long-term returns in its category. 10-year annualized ­performance: 10.6%.

Vanguard US Growth (VWUSX) is for more risk-averse investors. It holds about 160 stocks with two-thirds of the portfolio in health-care, technology and consumer-­discretionary companies. It has beaten the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index by nearly one percentage point per year, on average, over the past decade with only slightly more volatility. Also, it has one of the lowest expense ratios in this fund category, 0.44%. 10-year annualized performance: 9.5%.

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