What Is A 'Mutual Fund'

Mutual Fund
What is a 'Mutual Fund'

A mutual fund is an investment vehicle made up of a pool of moneys collected from many
investors for the purpose of investing in securities such as stocks, bonds, money
market instruments and other assets. Mutual funds are operated by professional money
managers, who allocate the fund's investments and attempt to produce capital
gains and/or income for the fund's investors. A mutual fund's portfolio is structured and
maintained to match the investment objectives stated in its prospectus.
BREAKING DOWN 'Mutual Fund'

Mutual funds give small or individual investors access to professionally managed portfolios
of equities, bonds and other securities. Each shareholder, therefore, participates
proportionally in the gains or losses of the fund. Mutual funds invest in a wide amount of
securities, and performance is usually tracked as the change in the total market cap of the
fund, derived by aggregating performance of the underlying investments.
Mutual fund units, or shares, can typically be purchased or redeemed as needed at the
fund's current net asset value (NAV) per share, which is sometimes expressed as NAVPS. A
fund's NAV is derived by dividing the total value of the securities in the portfolio by the
total amount of shares outstanding.
More on Mutual Funds

A mutual fund is both an investment and an actual company. This may seem strange, but it
is actually no different than how a share of AAPL is a representation of Apple, Inc. When an
investor buys Apple stock, he is buying part ownership of the company and its assets.
Similarly, a mutual fund investor is buying part ownership of the mutual fund company and
its assets. The difference is Apple is in the business of making smartphones and tablets,
while a mutual fund company is in the business of making investments.
Mutual funds pool money from the investing public and use that money to buy other
securities, usually stocks and bonds. The value of the mutual fund company depends on the
performance of the securities it decides to buy. So when you buy a share of a mutual fund,
you are actually buying the performance of its portfolio.
The average mutual fund holds hundreds of different securities, which means mutual fund
shareholders gain important diversification at a very low price. Consider an investor who
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just buys Google stock before the company has a bad quarter. He stands to lose a great deal
of value because all his dollars are tied to one company. On the other hand, a different
investor may buy shares of a mutual fund that happens to own some Google stock. When
Google has a bad quarter, she only loses a fraction as much because Google is just a small
part of the fund's portfolio.
How Mutual Fund Companies Work
Mutual funds are virtual companies that buy pools of stocks and/or bonds as
recommended by an investment advisor and fund manager. The fund manager is hired by
a board of directors and is legally obligated to work in the best interest of mutual fund
shareholders. Most fund managers are also owners of the fund, though some are not.
There are very few other employees in a mutual fund company. The investment advisor or
fund manager may employ some analysts to help pick investments or perform market
research. A fund accountant is kept on staff to calculate the fund's net asset value (NAV), or
the daily value of the mutual fund that determines if share prices go up or down. Mutual
funds need to have a compliance officer or two, and probably an attorney, to keep up with
government regulations.
Most mutual funds are part of a much larger investment company apparatus; the biggest
have hundreds of separate mutual funds. Some of these fund companies are names familiar
to the general public, such as Fidelity Investments, the Vanguard Group, T. Rowe Price and
Oppenheimer Funds.
Kinds of Mutual Funds
Mutual funds are divided into several kinds of categories, representing the kinds of
securities the mutual fund manager invests in.
One of the largest is the fixed income category. A fixed income mutual fund focuses on
investments that pay a fixed rate of return, such as government bonds, corporate bonds or
other debt instruments. The idea is the fund portfolio generates a lot of interest income,
which can then be passed on to shareholders.
Another group falls under the moniker "index funds." The investment strategy is based on
the belief that it is very hard, and often expensive, to try to consistently beat the market. So
the index fund manager simply buys stocks that correspond with a major market
index such as the S&P 500 or the Dow Jones Industrial Average. This strategy requires less
research from analysts and advisors, so there are fewer expenses to eat up returns before
they are passed on to shareholders. These funds are often designed with cost-sensitive
investors in mind.
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If an investor seeks to gain diversified exposure to the Canadian equity market, he can
invest in the S&P/TSX Composite Index, which is a mutual fund that covers 95% of the
Canadian equity market. The index is designed to provide investors with a
broad benchmark index that has the liquidity characteristics of a narrower index. The
S&P/TSX Composite Index is comprised largely of the financials, energy and materials
sectors of the Canadian stock market, with sector allocations of 35.54%, 20.15% and
14.16%, respectively. Performance of the fund is tracked as the percentage change to its
overall adjusted market cap.
Other common types of mutual funds are money market funds, balanced funds, sector
funds, equity funds and even funds-of-funds, or mutual funds that buy shares of other
mutual funds.
Mutual Fund Fees
In mutual funds, fees are classified into two categories: annual operating fees and
shareholder fees. The annual fund operating fees are charged as an annual percentage of
funds under management, usually ranging from 1-3%. The shareholder fees, which come in
the form of commissions and redemption fees, are paid directly by shareholders when
purchasing or selling the funds.
Annual operating fees are collectively as the expense ratio. A fund's expense ratio is the
summation of its advisory fee or management fee and its administrative costs.
Additionally, sales charges or commissions can be assessed on the front-end or back-end,
known as the load of a mutual fund. When a mutual fund has a front-end load, fees are
assessed when shares are purchased. For a back-end load, mutual fund fees are assessed
when an investor sells his shares.
Sometimes, however, an investment company offers a no-load mutual fund, which doesn't
carry any commission or sales charge. These funds are distributed directly by an
investment company rather than through a secondary party.
Some funds also charge fees and penalties for early withdrawals.
Clean Share Mutual Funds
If you want to get the biggest bang for your buck, you might consider mutual funds with
'clean shares,' a relatively new class of mutual fund shares developed in response to
the U.S. Department of Labors fiduciary rule. According to a recent Morningstar Inc. report,
clean shares could save investors at least 0.50% in returns as compared to other mutual
fund offerings. Even better, investors could enjoy an extra 0.20% in savings, as their
advisors will now be tasked with recommending funds that are in investors' best interests,
according to the report.
Clean shares were designed, along with low-load T shares and a handful of other new share
classes, to meet fiduciary-rule goals by addressing problems of conflicts of interest and
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What Is A 'Mutual Fund'

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Mutual Fund

What is a 'Mutual Fund'

BREAKING DOWN 'Mutual Fund'

More on Mutual Funds

How Mutual Fund Companies Work

Kinds of Mutual Funds

Mutual Fund Fees

Clean Share Mutual Funds

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