Mutual Funds

Total return is a measure of performance used to evaluate investments or a pool of investments such a fund. Total return includes the total cost of ownership and total gain on the investment over...

Mutual funds are a popular method for investors to gain exposure to the capital markets. While there are funds that are available without any sales charge, those that do have these charges...

A mutual bond fund is a portfolio of bonds and other debt instruments, including mortgaged backed securities and collateralized mortgage obligations. There are many different types of mutual bond...

The debate about whether investing or paying down debt is a better financial decision has been going on for years among personal finance experts. In most cases, if you have debt with high...

Mutual funds are prized for their diversification, but when the markets go down, many mutual funds lose value as well. When a fund is cut in half, investors can be paralyzed into inaction, and may...

Retirement plans, such as self-directed IRAs, and company-sponsored plans, such as 401(k)s and 403(b)s, offer tax-free growth of the investments held within them. Tax-free growth can offer...

A recession occurs when the economy of a particular nation slows down or shrinks--and since the world's economies are becoming increasingly intertwined, these recessions often lead to similar...

Money market funds are a type of mutual fund required by law to invest only in short-term, highly liquid and high-quality investments so that money deposited in the fund is considered to be in a...

Money market funds, a type of mutual fund that is required by law to invest in low-risk securities, can pay both taxable and nontaxable dividends. Nontaxable money market funds are generally...

A mutual fund pools money from a large number of investors and buys stocks from a large number of companies. Investing in mutual funds does not have the same level of high return as investing in...

Creating a strategy for saving and investing for the future can seem like a complicated undertaking. While some people have the inclination and interest to be actively involved in managing...

A mutual fund is an investment that pools money from numerous investors to purchase large quantities of individual stocks or bonds. Index funds are mutual funds that have revolutionized the...

Fidelity Magellan Fund is a U.S. equity mutual fund offered by Fidelity Investments of Boston. It is recognized as one of the largest mutual funds of all time. Its remarkable performance and...

When professional investors see the word "agricultural" in the investment world they think of the phrase "natural resource commodities." These are things like livestock, corn, wheat, cotton and...

Although annuities are often considered an investment option, it might be less confusing to refer to them as a tax structure, especially when talking about mutual fund investments. The IRS...

A mutual fund is an investment vehicle that is comprised of stocks or bonds from many different companies. The quick explanation of how it works is that you give your money to the fund manager,...

The Vanguard Fund Group has been a revolutionary force in the financial services industry, bringing to market the first market index fund, among others. Since then, they have lived up to their...

Active management of a mutual fund means that fund managers buy and sell securities attempting to outperform the overall market return. In contrast, passive management involves buying a portfolio...

Mutual funds are commonly held by a wide variety of investors. These securities allow individuals to pool their resources to purchase a more diversified portfolio of stocks and bonds than they...

Mutual funds that are "loaded" have sales charges associated with them. There is a cost to purchase them. They are typically offered through investment advisers and/or brokerage firms. Load mutual...

Mutual funds are an efficient, low-cost way for individuals to invest in a pool of securities without having to buy individual stocks or bonds. An investment in a mutual fund can be done on a...

A prospectus is a document containing information about a particular mutual fund. Investment companies are required by law to provide them to investors and potential investors.

Mutual funds are securities that allow investors to pool their money in order to purchase a larger variety of securities with a single transaction. Mutual funds can be either actively or passively...

A certificate of deposit (CD) is a deposit account that offers a higher interest rate than a standard checking account. A mutual fund is an investment account of a portfolio of stocks, managed by...

Mutual funds are pools of securities. In an active mutual fund, fund managers buy and sell securities with the goal of getting a return better than the overall market return. In contrast, an index...

Index mutual funds and ETFs (exchange traded funds) are both designed or track the performance of a market index, such as the Standard & Poor's 500 index (S&P 500) or Nasdaq composite index.

Mutual funds are popular with passive investors--that is, investors who do not want to actively manage their own stock portfolio. They are also perfect for beginner investors or those who want...

Over the years the world of investing has developed several tools to help mutual fund investors measure various risks of mutual funds. Alpha is one such tool that can help determine risk.

The art of investing money takes a great deal of research and skill. The process can be very overwhelming to a beginner. Thankfully, many options exist for smart investors in the form of bonds.

Cost basis is a calculation used to determine the gains or losses from the sale of securities. It is the value of each mutual fund share after adjustments are made for stock splits, dividends and...

A mutual fund pools the funds of many investors and then uses those funds to purchase investments in various securities. The investor receives shares in this pool that correspond to the amount of...

There are many different reasons for cashing out a mutual fund. You might want money for a home remodeling project, to support a child's education or just to pay bills during hard financial times....

There are so many options to choose from when considering investment opportunities. Many novice and experienced investors opt to have a professional handle their investments through mutual funds...

In order to figure capital gains or losses for tax purposes, you have to know how much money was invested in a security, including mutual fund shares. Cost basis (also called tax basis) is simply...

Searching for the appropriate bond fund to invest in doesn't have to be complicated. Bond funds are mutual funds consisting of a variety of bonds. The objective of a bond fund is to provide...

Some investors choose to put forth a "put option," meaning they'll sell a specific share at a specific price by a certain date. These options must be exercised by the expiration week each month.

Both dividend stocks and mutual funds function as investment vehicles that pay income to investors, but are structured differently. Unlike an individual stock, which represents an ownership share...

Mutual funds, like stocks and bonds, experience a net change at the end of the trading day. This change represents the fund's difference in value as it's traded from one day to the next.

There are a variety of investment vehicles that can be used to make your money work for you. They include stocks, bonds, equity funds, index funds or an equity index fund. An equity index fund is...

Certificates of Deposit (CDs) sometimes require larger investment amounts than mutual funds in order to purchase, have lower rates of return, and require a time commitment between seven days and...

If you have money that you want to invest, consider mutual funds as an alternative to individual stocks, which tend to be more volatile than investing in a mutual fund. But, before you simply...

Investing is meant to add to your wealth, with minimal costs from taxation. Knowing the way a mutual fund is taxed can help you reduce any potential taxes on your investment.

Many variables influence the safety of any financial investment, including mutual funds. But realizing that with great returns comes great risk is the first step in whether a mutual fund is a safe...

Bond yields could be higher if the Federal Reserve raises interest rates (short-term ones), according Tobias Levkovich, the Chief Equity Strategists with Citigroup Global Markets, in Smart Money.com.

Mutual funds can be purchased, traded or sold. But the term "trading" in mutual fund language pertains to all three activities, since the fund is being traded from a company to a buyer, a buyer to...