what is mutual funds?
970570
A mutual fund is exactly what the name suggests.It is a fund Created mutually by a no. of investors like me and you.each investor contributes some amount towards the fund and in turn receives units of that mutual fund in proportion to his/her contribution.\n\nThe fund manager will in turn invest that money in the  market and try to generate profits by selling and buying at appropriate times.\n\nhe will then pass on the profits to mutual fund holders(like u and me) after deducting his fee/commission.\n\nmutual funds have a lot of benefits\n1)it takes out the burden of managing your own portfolio of stocks\n2) it provides investors an opportunity to invest in stocks which otherwise are very expensive for a single person to invest \n3)it provides you access to professional management of your investment.\n\nmutual funds are primarily of 3 types\n\n1)Equity oriented funds:most of the money would be invested in equity instruments(shares):high risk and high return.\n\n2)Growth oriented funds:most of the money is invested in Debt instruments e.g.Bonds,debentures etc.:low risk ,low return\n\n3)Balanced funds: half the money is invested in debt ,half in equity:moderate risk,moderate return \n\nhope this helps....cheers
631755
The advantages of mutual funds:\n\nsome funds specialize in areas that the average investor would have a difficult time investing in, such as stocks of foreign countries and stocks of small cap companies for example. \n\nmutual funds allow for diversification without having to buy a bucket of stocks.  \n\neasy to purchase and sell for the small investor.\n\ndisadvantages:\n\n70% of mutual funds under perform the market in general. Not a great record. \n\nmany mutual funds are bloated. It is difficult to invest a billion dollars.\n\nmutual funds have to declare and pay capital gains once a year on which one will have to pay taxes. If you buy and hold a sound quality stock, that is not the case.
718876
Net Asset value. In other words, the total value of all the holdings of the mutual fund (stock, bonds, cash, etc) divided by the number of shares.\n\nThat is the cost one share of the fund.
192317
Unlikely that kind of growth in mutual funds.  They are for safe, slower growth investing.  You would need something volitile, like oil stock to make that much money that quickly, and you stand to lose money that way.
342742
To best grow your money you first need to establish the amount of risk your willing to take. Low risk, get into bonds or money market accounts and expect about 5-6% annually. Mutual funds will offer the full range from 5-20% on average, but the more gain means the more lost. For the most aggressive risk (and therefore gain) play in individual stocks, options or on forex (foreign exchange currency market).\n\nThe most important thing is to spread your money around, don't lump all your capital into one or two stocks, because your setting yourself up to take major losses. Educate yourself before jumping into anything. Investopedia.com is a good resource for that - just remember that they are supported by various brokers and agencies, so take recommendations lightly. They do, however, provide good solid information on the basics.
218100
Buying stock directly from a company allows you to (potentially) avoid transaction fees.  a mutual fund provides you diversification and professional management for a fee.  These are two different beasts.  If you feel strongly about a particular stock then you should buy it, otherwise, if you have a more long term investment strategy and seek diversification then a mutual fund provides more benefit.  Also, don't forget that buying from the company directly can delay your ability to sell the stock as the company is not a market maker (like a brokerage) and you'll have to obtain the certificate, transfer it to a brokerage account, then sell it.  Not usually worth the hassel for the reduction in fees to deal with companies on an individual basis.
1056275
Mutual fund shares of a class available to institutional investors. Institutional shares carry no load or 12b-1 fees. also called institutional shares.
960657
Just so you know, Mutual funds aren´t for everyone.  Personally, I wouldn´t invest in them unless I had to.  For more detail on that, just do a search for where I´ve addressed this question in other answers.\n\nHowever to answer your question, there are several rankings of mutual funds.  Here are some of the sources with appropriate link.\n\nLots of sources for Mutual fund reports that you´re looking for.  Here are some.\n\nMoney Magazine\nhttp://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/bestfunds/indexfunds.html\n\nMorningstar\nhttp://www.morningstar.com/Cover/Funds.html?pgid=hetabfunds\n\nKiplingers\nhttp://www.kiplinger.com/personalfinance/investing/funds/?\n\nMutualFundRankings\nhttp://mutualfundrankings.org/\n\nAnd you may want to take a look at this article on mutual funds too just so you have a little more info if you´ve got tax concerns.\n\nhttp://www.stanford.edu/dept/news/pr/93/930429Arc3288.html\n\nIf you have any questions, please let me know.\n\nHope that helps!\n\n\n\nInfo on mutual funds\nhttp://beginnersinvest.about.com/cs/mutualfunds1/a/aa031501.htm\n\nInvesting for Beginners\nhttp://beginnersinvest.about.com/popular.htm
1096968
In simplest terms, mutual funds are just groups of investments. They can be stocks, or bonds, or a combination of the two. They can even be investments in real estate (REITs).\n\nIn an active mutual fund, a fund manager decides what to purchase for the fund. In a stock fund, the manager picks the stocks to buy in hopes that the stocks will go up. In bond fund, he picks bonds. In some funds, the manager has the option of choosing between both stock and bonds. He may even decide buy nothing if he can't find anything worth buying, keeping cash on hand until he finds something worthwhile to buy.\n\nIn an index fund, a fund manager's main job is just to buy the stocks or bonds in an index. For example, in an S&P 500 stock fund, the manager's job is to buy all the stocks in S&P 500 and hold them.
1154043
It depends on the share class. There are A, B and C shares to almost every mutual fund. Each have a different fee structure.\n\nThis link below will help you...
173961
A mutual fund is a collection of some kind of investment, usually stocks. They’re extremely popular. Your parents own at least one mutual fund if they’ve ever worked at a company. Mutual funds work like this: You pick a fund you like (e.g., growth, value, technology, international…), buy shares of the fund, and let a money manager pick the stocks he thinks will yield the best return. In exchange for this diversification and his expertise, you pay an annual fee. \n\nAdvantages: Hands-off approach means an expert money manager makes investment decisions for you. Mutual fund (ostensibly) holds many varied stocks, so if one company tanks, your fund doesn’t go down with it (i.e., it’s “diversified”).\n\nDisadvantages: Annual fees can equal tens of thousands of dollars or more (!) over the lifetime of an investment. If you invest in two mutual funds, they may overlap in investments, yielding a less-diversified portfolio than you really think. In other words, if both funds hold Microsoft and Microsoft tanks, you get hit twice. Although you’re paying an expert to manage your money, they rarely beat the market—the mutual fund industry’s dirty secret!\n\nMuch more clear info in the link below :)
737511
Mutual funds are not designed to appreciate in price quickly since they offer wide diversification (frequently hundreds of stocks).  It stands to reason that some of those stocks will rise, but others will decline.  Naturally you expect (or at least hope) that they will all rise, but the more stocks owned by the fund, the greater the chance that some will decline.  If you own one stock, and its price rises substantially within a short time, you will get rich quick.  With a mutual fund, this cannot happen.  The diversification in a mutual fund is designed to minimize risk.
262385
They are private funds similar to mutual funds that are managed in a similar manner. they usually require a hefty minimum to get in. Mostly wealthy investors.
989736
1) ETFs are essentially "static" as to buying and selling costs, whereas mutual funds are constantly turning over shares.\n2)  ETFs and foreign stocks:  Since ETFs are relatively static, the "set-up" commissions paid are one-shot costs
41962
Go to bookstore and get Mutual Funds for Dummies or Investing for Dummies.  They will have easy to understand concept and descriptions.  More information is better when it comes to investing.  Take your time.  Start saving money now and get into the habit.  Put it into a savings account now while you are learning about mutual funds.  When you feel ready, then you already have some money saved up.
69870
Well, like stocks, there are lots of them and not all of them are good investments.\n\nThe costs associated with mutual funds can still be high, even though they are "no-load" stocks (in other words there are still management fees that may be excessive).\n\nA disadvantage of all mutual funds, but which may be an issue with no-loads because people think there is "no-cost" to get into them, is that people may overdiversify (buy too many different kinds of mutual funds).\n\nSome mutual funds, although not restricted to no-loads, may put a lot of your investment aside as "cash equivalents" to allow for liquidity, which means that you could have more of your money not working for you in an investment.
1024088
Mutual Fund\nSome or most mutual funds do not allow you to enter or exit except after the close of the trading day. \n\nIn mutual funds, unless you give the orders, it is always "in" the market. Some are limited to how many times you may trade in and out.\n\nYou have no idea whom is managing your money, and have no guarantee from past performance.\n\nA mutual fund will rarely outperform, or match the performance of the S&P or Dow because of their fees.\n\n\nETF's\nIt will take you hours of searching to find a mutual fund cheaper than investing in ETF's. An ETF has no loads or fees except for the commission, like any stock. In general, ETF's are much cheaper to trade.\n\nAn ETF will exactly match the index it is tied to, minus commission cost, which is negligible.\n\nYou can short the market with an ETF (betting on the market going down), which you cannot do with a mutual fund.\n\nThere is no "short-selling rule" like there is with stocks.\n\nI can't imagine why anyone would pay someone you don't know to keep you in the market at all times, when you can do the same thing yourself a lot cheaper, and get out when the markets get risky, like at failures at old all-time highs, like now. \n\nThe best way to do anything yourself is to learn something about it first. You'd be surprised at the thousands of books available on this one subject at your local library.\n\nBut most people spend more time deciding the color of their new car, than they do on a mutual fund advisor, for example. \n\nAre you really wanting to do this yourself, or are you asking about someone who is an expert who can do it for you?\n\nIf you invest in the stock market right now, or just buy into all the ETF's you can afford, it's a crap shoot, like rolling the dice, and the odds are probably not in your favor, whether you have an expert fund manager or not, because mutual funds are always "in" the market.\n\nThey say "Buy and Hold" for the long term is better, but that depends on when you get in, and what your definiton of "long term" is. The phrase "Buy low and sell high" infers that you buy after a decline; decidedly not the case here.\n\nThe Dow has approached all-time highs last seen in Jan 2000 and failed, so if your long-term definition is more than seven years, then you won't mind waiting another seven years for a profit.\n\nIn my opinion, the name of the game is capital preservation. When the risks are high, like right now, you get out of the stock and bond markets and park your cash in a interest bearing money market fund or CD or Treasury Bill.\n\nThis is simply not a good entry point for investors. Be patient, wait a few months, and you'll be able to buy much more stock a lot cheaper, the risks will be lower (even though they will seem higher), and your chance of success greater.\n\nIf you wish to research the “Buy and Hold Strategy” further, or perhaps trade yourself, I recommend two book titles. One is called "Which Is Better, Buy-and-Hold or Market Timing?" The other is "Do You Have What It Takes to Be a Market Timer?" They will give you plenty to think about.