The safety features relate to most funds having a more diversified position than owning just a few stocks. You also have the added benefit of having professional money managers controlling the investments of the fund. The risk factors include transparency issues (What positions are you really holding in the fund?) and bad decisions made by money managers controlling the fund. Also due to the nature of the markets, investors tend to pull funds from the mutual funds when the markets are down forcing the fund to sell it's investments at the bottom of the markets. They also tend to get a flood of new capital when markets are doing very well forcing them to buy stock when the markets are at their highs. These forces combined with commisions and fees charged by the mutual fund companies make it hard for the average investor to get better performance from a fund than the overall markets.
Hedge funds are not mutual funds as hedge funds cannot be sold to the general public
Use a website like Share Builder to compare different types of mutual funds.
Mutual funds are platforms that pool in a set of investors money and invest in stocks and securities for mutual benefit of all the investors and the fund as a whole. Mutual funds are of various types such as debt funds, equity funds, mix funds etc. Mutual funds usually invest in a variety of stocks and the same is difficult to be achieved by an individual investor. Investing in a variety of stocks provides stability of prices, safety of returns majorly due to diversification. Also, mutual funds are governed by laws and regulations that assures the investors of safety and security. Since, mutual funds are able to pool in funds from a large group of investors they provide financial resources to a companies and entrepreneurs.
In general mutual funds are safe, although how safe depends on the choices made by the investor. The best way to insure safety is to have a diverse portfolio and to avoid high risk mutual funds. Mutual funds can be found online at several different places, such as http://www.merrilledge.com.
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no, despite the similar name, the Washington Mutual funds are in no way related to Washington Mutual bank. Please read the FAQ and fund information at www.americanfunds.com
A mutual fund which invests a minimum of 65% of its fund corpus in equity and equity related instruments is known as equity mutual fund. As in the case of other mutual funds, equity funds also carry risks as they investment in the stock market. However, they also ensure high returns. Equity funds are of different types such as Index Funds, Sector Funds, and Diversified Equity Funds.
MFDF is the acronym for the Mutual Fund Director's Forum, an association for managers of mutual funds and other related financial services.
No load mutual funds are mutual funds that are sold directly by the investment company instead of by an investment broker. They work exactly the same as regular mutual funds.
Mutual Funds are classified as * Equity Mutual Funds * Equity Diversified Funds * Equity Linked Savings Schemes * Large Cap funds * Mid cap funds * Small cap funds * Contra Funds * Sectoral Funds * Thematic Funds * etc... * Debt Mutual Funds * Bond Mutual Funds * Hedge Funds * Fund of Funds * etc...
Investors may be convinced to buy stock or mutual funds based on factors such as the company's financial performance, growth potential, industry trends, management team, and overall market conditions.
There are many good mutual funds available. According to CNN, some of the best mutual funds available include the American Funds American Mutual A and Sound Shore.