Mutual Funds

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Mutual funds are an investment technique whereby many investors pool their money together and invest that money into many different types of securities simultaneously, under a single umbrella....

Mutual fund redemptions are calls for capital or withdrawal requests by investors to the portfolio manager of a fund. An investor has the right to withdraw invested capital and profits earned in...

CUSIP stands for Committee on Uniform Security Identification Procedures. All U.S. investment securities have a CUSIP number that is used as a unique identifier for that issue. The number is...

Cost basis is needed for tax purposes to determine the amount of capital gain (or loss) an investor has on investments. There are a number of different events that can affect the basis for a...

One of the main reasons investors like mutual funds is the instant diversification they provide. This helps to reduce a certain degree of risk, but it does not eliminate risk. Investors still need...

Since the economic collapse of 2007, consumers are weary of investments, including money markets. Money market funds may be risky, but money losses are rare, according to the Securities and...

Of all the investment instruments managed by investment professionals, mutual funds are among the most conservative. These experts are paid to create and preserve wealth over time. There are some...

High yield bond funds are typically just a portion of an investor's overall portfolio. As they comprise something of a specialty investment class, with distinct risk characteristics, they should...

Mutual funds are designed to provide diversification across asset classes and regions, as well as to create and preserve wealth for investors over a period of time.

Investing in a mutual fund has several advantages over buying individual stocks and bonds. You get the expertise of a professional fund manager. Mutual fund portfolios contain a number of...

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...

1) It takes at least 5 years for novice traders to become profitable; hence, it is recommended to use automated trading in parallel as new traders are learning how to trade. 2) It is wise to...

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...