● What aremutual funds?
● A mutual fund is an SEC-registered open-end investment company
that pools money from many investors. It invests the money in
stocks, bonds, short-term money-market instruments, other
securities or assets, or some combination of these investments. The
combined holdings the mutual fund owns are known as its portfolio,
which is managed by an SEC-registered investment adviser.
2.
Each mutual fundshare represents an investor’s part ownership of the
mutual fund’s portfolio and the gains and losses the portfolio generates.
Investors in mutual funds buy their shares from, and sell/redeem their
shares to, the mutual funds themselves or through investment
professionals like brokers or investment advisers.
3.
● Why dopeople buy mutual funds?
● Mutual funds are a popular choice among investors because they generally
offer the following features:
• Professional Management. Mutual funds are managed by investment
advisers who are registered with the SEC.
• Diversification. Mutual funds may invest in a range of companies and
industries rather than investing in one specific stock or bond. This helps to
lower your risk if one company fails.
4.
• Low MinimumInvestment. Many mutual
funds set a relatively low dollar amount for
initial investment and subsequent purchases.
• Liquidity. Mutual fund investors can readily
sell their shares back to the fund at the next
calculated net asset value (NAV) – on any
business day – minus any redemption fees.
5.
How do Iearn money from mutual funds?
Investors can make money from their mutual fund investments in
three ways:
• Dividend Payments. A fund may earn income from its portfolio –
for example, dividends on stock or interest on bonds. The fund
then pays the shareholders nearly all the income, less expenses,
as a dividend payment.
• Capital Gains Distributions. The price of the securities a fund
owns may increase. When a fund sells a security that has
increased in price, the fund has a capital gain. At the end of the
year, the fund distributes these capital gains, minus any capital
losses, to investors.
6.
● Increased NetAsset Value (NAV). If the market value of a fund’s
portfolio increases, after deducting expenses and liabilities, then the
NAV of the fund and its shares increases. With respect to dividend
payments and capital gains distributions, mutual funds usually will
give investors a choice. The mutual fund can transfer the amount to
the investor, or the investor can have the dividends or distributions
reinvested in the mutual fund to buy more shares.
7.
● What arethe risks of investing in mutual funds?
● Mutual funds are not guaranteed or insured by the FDIC or any other government agency. They
therefore all carry some level of risk. You may lose some or all of the money you invest because the
investments held by a fund can go down in value. Dividends or interest payments may also change as
market conditions change.
● A fund’s past performance is not as important as you might think because past performance does not
predict future returns. But past performance can tell you how volatile or stable a fund has been over a
period of time. The more volatile the fund, the higher the investment risk.
● Different funds have different risks and rewards depending on their investment objectives. Generally,
the higher the potential return, the higher the risk of loss.
●
8.
What do Ipay for my mutual fund?
As with any business, running a mutual fund involves costs. Funds pass along
these costs to investors by deducting fees and expenses from NAV. That means
you pay the fees and expenses indirectly.
Fees vary from fund to fund. It is important to understand what fees a mutual
fund charges and how those fees impact your investment. Even small
differences in fees can mean large differences in returns over time. In
addition, a fund with high costs
9.
● What aresome common mutual fund investing strategies?
• Index Funds. Index funds follow a passive investment strategy that is
designed to achieve approximately the same return as a particular index
before fees. An index fund will attempt to achieve its investment objective
primarily by investing in the securities of companies that are included in a
selected index. Passive management usually translates into less trading of
the fund’s portfolio (fewer transaction costs), more favorable income tax
consequences (lower realized capital gains), and lower fees than actively
managed funds.
10.
● What typesof mutual funds are there?
● Mutual funds fall into several main categories. Each type has
different features, risks, and rewards.
• Stock funds invest primarily in stocks or equities. A stock is an
instrument that represents an ownership interest (called
equity) in a company and a proportional share in the company’s
assets and profits. The types of stocks owned by a stock fund
depend upon the fund’s investment objectives, policies, and
strategies. A stock fund’s value can rise and fall quickly (and
dramatically) over the short term. The fund’s performance
depends on whether the underlying companies do well or not.