The buoyant market toward the end of 2019 made investing look easy. There were tempting opportunities just about everywhere.

Managers of three of the better-performing mutual funds of the fourth quarter made successful wagers of many kinds, like bets on small companies in Japan and a retailer in Canada, and investments in at-home fitness in the United States and the millennial generation’s love of pets.

Fidelity Low-Priced Stock

Joel C. Tillinghast, lead manager of the Fidelity Low-Priced Stock Fund, is a value investor — he hunts for stocks trading for prices well below his estimate of their worth. Value investing is the style of stock picking made famous by Warren E. Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway.

The approach requires patience, Mr. Tillinghast said. “Value is the present value of future cash flows,” he said. “You have to wait around for those earnings and cash flows to come through.”