Mutual Funds
Funds are easy to buy and sell, even for first-time investors.
You can buy some mutual funds directly from the investment company that offers those funds for sale.
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You can judge a mutual fund by its performance.
Since mutual funds have different investment objectives, which impact the types of investments they make, and different risk profiles, which communicate the types of risk they take, the first step in choosing a new fund for your portfolio is to identify the category of fund you want to add.
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Mutual fund companies have expanded their horizons — and the opportunities they offer to investors — by developing specialty funds.
Stock funds are the oldest and still the largest category of mutual funds. But as investing in funds has grown increasingly popular, fund companies have responded by expanding their offerings in an effort to appeal to people with specific investment goals.
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A fund tells you what it wants to achieve and how it plans to do it.
Each mutual fund has an investment objective — a goal or financial result it wants to realize.
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There are several formulas for measuring mutual fund performance.
The bottom line is measured by return and yield over several time periods.
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Mutual fund sales charges aren’t necessarily a burden, but they are a load.
When you buy shares of a mutual fund from a fund company that pays intermediaries, such as brokers, to sell its funds, you pay a sales charge, or commission, to cover that cost.
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Mutual funds operate virtually around the clock, managing their portfolios and serving their investors.
A mutual fund has two distinct yet intertwined businesses: making a profit and providing services to its clients.
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By buying shares of certain mutual funds, you can invest in markets around the world.
While all stock mutual funds are diversified to some extent, they typically buy domestic stock, which are issued by companies doing business in the country where the fund operates.
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When you’re investing in mutual funds, fees are a fact of life.
You pay shareholder fees if you buy load funds, redeem shares within a restricted period, or allow your account balance to fall below the required minimum.
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You can find extensive information about mutual funds in print and online.
Mutual fund companies provide information on the funds they offer on their websites and in quarterly and annual reports to shareholders.
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A mutual fund buys investments with money it gets from selling shares in the fund, and manages its portfolio to meet its financial goals.
Most investment professionals agree that it's smarter to own a variety of stocks and bonds than to gamble on the success of a few.
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Mutual funds aim at particular targets. To hit them, the funds make certain types of investments.
Every mutual fund — stock, bond, or money market — is established with a specific investment objective that focuses on one of three basic goals:
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Mutual funds don’t keep performance secrets from their shareholders.
You can find a mutual fund’s current price — and often much more information about the fund — in a newspaper or other financial publication, on financial news websites, or on an investment company’s website.
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Mutual funds never invest at random.
Each shops for products that support its investment strategy.
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The prospectus provides a detailed roadmap of a fund — covering everything from its objective and fees to its portfolio holdings and management.
Mutual funds are tightly regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
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There are several formulas for measuring mutual fund performance.
The bottom line is whether the fund is meeting your investment goals.
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Variable annuities offer buyers a range of investment choices.
Variable annuities provide many of the benefits of fixed annuities — including tax-deferred earnings — plus the opportunity to make a potentially unlimited contribution if the annuity is nonqualified.
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