Are you thinking about investing in the stock market? If you are, it is highly likely that you are considering investing in a mutual fund. A mutual fund gives you stock market exposure, diversification, and the professional selections of a seasoned stock picker.

Most average investors park at least some of their money in mutual funds. Often though, they are confused by some of the terminology and concepts associated with mutual fund investing. Sometimes, this is not a big deal, whereas other times ignorance of a few key concepts can severely impact their long-term returns. Here’s a few key mutual fund concepts.

Load: This is the up-front fee the mutual fund charges for investing in the fund. Whatever load you pay goes straight to the mutual fund and anyone that happened to be marketing the fund. People that try to sell mutual funds that charge loads try to claim that they are somehow better than other mutual funds. This is nonsense. Paying a load is simply paying an extra, unnecessary fee. Always invest in no-load mutual funds , otherwise you are just wasting 5% of your investment by paying someone’s commission.

NAV: Net asset value. This is the closing price of the mutual fund after a day’s trading. You can see how well the mutual fund is performing by changes in its NAV.

Management Fee: This is the fee the mutual fund charges you for investing your money. All mutual funds charge a management fee; otherwise they would not be able to operate. However, you do not want to be needlessly paying too high of a management fee. Look for mutual funds that charge management fees of 1.5% or less.

Morningstar Rating: This is the rating the mutual fund was given due to its past performance compared to its peers. While past performance is not a guarantee of future performance, it is a somewhat useful indicator in helping you decide whether or not you want to trust your money to this mutual fund or not. Remember though that the mutual fund’s performance will largely be a result of the fund’s chief manager. If the manager changes, then looking to the past performance of the fund is somewhat worthless.

Net Assets: This is how much money the mutual fund manages. Some mutual funds just manage $100-$200 million of investor’s money. Others manage up to $50 billion. The advantage of a larger mutual fund is that they sometimes charge lower fees due to efficiencies of scale. However, in general, a smaller mutual fund is better. This is because they are more nimble and can invest in more of a variety of companies. The larger mutual funds have to invest in very large companies. After all, if a $50 billion mutual fund invested in a $500 million, just parking 1% of the fund’s assets would buy the whole company!

By: Ling Tong

Definition

One definition of Mutual fund states that they are mutually admitted assets invested in different securities. Shareholders are issued bonds as grounds of their control and benefit proportionately in the earnings of the fund.

Various mutual fund options

One of the vital factors that an individual must study when looking at various mutual fund options is that if their money should be an actively managed fund or an indexed fund. All assets include individual stocks, but an actively managed fund will modify these stocks on a regular basis in an endeavor to acquire as much profit as possible. Indexed assets are intermeshed around specific index containing a good cross section of the stocks within this index. The shares are rarely traded and the performance is usually indicates the sole performance of the index. While it is wise to consider the gains form certain sectors, you also should be cautious about sectors that can be adversely affected by a single factor.

Some of the benefits of mutual fund

As in any other investment opinions differ, some suggest that mutual funds do not have a diverse investment potential, whereas other argue that there are a number of advantages in mutual funds.

Mutual funds adapt a strategy to invest funds in various investments, which is the key to high profits. As mutual funds do not compel clients to invest big money, the low investment capital encourages even the small investor to utilize the opportunity to earn high profits. Purchasing mutual funds certificates or selling them is very easy, which makes it convenient for every type of investor. As mutual funds are managed by professionals with good experience in investments, the chances of high profit is greater than in other investments made by an individual.

Safety concerns

As far as mutual funds are concerned safety of the investments are not guaranteed. Moreover the performance of the mutual fund highly depends on the expertise of the managing professionals. With no assurance of guaranteed profits and possibilities of losing money in case of major change in economy, mutual funds only become a secondary or tertiary option for long term investors. However, most short term investors have gained much by investing in the mutual funds only at their own risk.

Securities and Exchange Commission which regulates the mutual funds ensures that all mutual funds are set up and run according to the rules of the government. The commission also sees to that there is a certain degree of transparency between the mutual funds and the investors. It also ensures that other costs and fees of the mutual funds are properly documented so that it gives the investor a crystal clear picture of their investments.







By: KAMS

About the Author:

As our economic outlook continues to be poor and as the stock market is in turmoil, stock investing has become increasingly difficult. Maintaining a solid investment portfolio can be hard work. One alternative to the difficult work of stock selection is to invest in mutual funds. With thousands of mutual funds to choose from, how can you tell which ones are the best?

That’s why I have compiled a list of the 7 Best Mutual Funds for 2009. After researching the performance, stability, and income of hundreds of top-rated funds, I found the best mutual funds to invest in for 2009 and beyond.

Income-Dividends

One part of my selection process was to find mutual funds with cash flow, either through dividends or bond interest payments (in the form of dividends for mutual funds). This factor is becoming ever more important during a time when stocks continue to decline. Through dividends you can know that you will have an income of the yield percentage.

Future Trends

Another selection criteria was to find mutual funds that are going to perform well for years to come. As you will see, I have included a mutual fund that invests in stocks of alternative energy or “green” companies. The whole environmentally-friendly, green movement is just getting started and will be a boon to the economy for the next 10-20 years. One aspect that is somewhat more of a near-term strategy is the gold focused fund because of the predicted rise in the price of gold over the next year or two.

Long-Term Performance

The last and most important selection criteria was the long-term performance of the mutual fund. Any one stock or mutual fund can perform well over one or two years by luck, but it takes true skill to manage a portfolio that has good returns over a ten year period. A major failure of many investors that buy mutual funds is that they chase the fund that is currently performing the best or just recently had its best year. If the mutual fund is having an unbelievably great year, then either stay away from it because it’s too late or sell it if you own it.

The 7 Best Mutual Funds for 2009:

1. American Century High-Yield Fund (AHYVX)

- With the current state of the economy, your best bet for making money is finding an investment with a stated income (i.e. dividends, bond interest payments). American Century’s High Yield Fund has a dividend yield of 9.38%, which is much larger than most high yielding mutual funds or stocks.

2. The New Alternatives Fund (NALFX)

- this is the perfect mutual fund for times when people and companies are looking for environmentally-friendly ways of doing things. This mutual fund invests in companies that focus on renewable energy sources, as well as companies that are concerned with energy conservation and environmental protection. Over the next decade green and alternative energy stocks will most likely sky-rocket with gaining popularity and necessity.

3. Franklin Utilities Fund (FKUTX)

- A utilities fund is also a great way to get a flow of decent income during a time of poor stock performance. This mutual fund has a dividend yield of 4% and a 10-year annualized return of 5.17%, which is very impressive. Utility companies are a solid investment for having a stream of dividend income.

4. ING Corporate Leaders Trust Fund (LEXCX)

- Although its 10-year annualized return has been hurt by the recent stock market downturn putting it at 3.67% (which is better than all but two main value strategy mutual funds), ING’s fund has performed 10% better than the S&P 500 over the past year. It also has a dividend yield of 2.46%.

5. Franklin Gold and Precious Metals (FKRCX)

- This mutual fund has been a top performer over the past decade with a 10-year annualized return of 14.42% and a current dividend yield of 8.34%. This mutual fund has performed amazingly, and it will continue to perform with gold becoming more of a flight-to-safety investment for investors.

6. Vanguard Energy Fund (VGENX)

- although the commodities boom of earlier this year has faded, oil prices will come back. It is only a matter of time. Vanguard’s Energy Fund has had a 10-year annualized return of 14.81%, which is better than most mutual funds of any kind. It is positioned to perform well over the next few years.

7. Municipal Bond Fund (of your choice)

- municipal bond rates have gone up in recent months and continue to be a great source of extra income. For example, some bonds in Florida are paying 6% a year in interest. Remember with municipal bonds that interest payments are tax-exempt; just make sure you pick a bond that is within your state (otherwise interest payments become taxable). How does a tax-free income of 5% or 6% on your investment sound for 2009- with the U.S. still in recession?



By: Jared Schneider

About the Author:

With so many options out there for the individual investor, it is sometimes difficult to determine that investments are right for you. The key to having a long-term, stable and profitable portfolio is to diversify your investments. For many investors the process of diversification includes investing in both mutual funds and stocks. The best course is to learn all you can about both types of investments and find your ideal balance between the two.

Mutual funds are open-end funds that are not listed for trading on a stock exchange. They are created by companies who use their capital to invest in other companies. Mutual funds will sell their own new shares to investors. Capitalization is not fixed and normally shares are issued as people want them.

1. Mutual funds have great characteristics for investors

Mutual funds are professionally managed. The mutual funds employ professional managers to operate all investing. These professional managers bring with them many years of experience. They are experts in selecting and evaluating investments for the fund. The managers make all of the buying decisions and selling decisions that relieves the individual investors from that responsibility.

2. Mutual Funds Are Diversified

Another advantage of mutual funds is that most of their portfolios are highly diversified. This means that the mutual fund is invested in a wide variety of stocks. The advantage of diversification is that if a few stocks drop in price the entire fund won™t be dramatically affected. Diversification occurs by investing in many different companies. It can also be accomplished by investing in several different industries. The advantage of diversifying through mutual funds is that the funds can reach a wider diversification than can be reached by individual investors.

3. There are thousands of mutual funds to choose from

Depending on your preferences, you can choose to invest with a mutual fund that covers the whole market or with a fund that focuses on one or two industries. There are even mutual funds available that invest only in foreign markets. Mutual funds can be very convenient for the investor since the fund does all the record keeping. Your mutual fund will provide you with all the forms you need to file your taxes. Additionally, many may offer perks such as the ability to write checks against the money market fund.

4. Stocks Have Greater Returns (Potentially)

On the other hand, purchasing individual stocks has attractive features as well. After the brokerage fee is paid, there is no ongoing fee associate with owning individual stocks. This is in contrast to mutual funds that charge a participation fee. Mutual fund fees can totally negate the mutual fund return that you are expecting.

With investing in individual stocks, an investor has the ability to be very flexible with their investing and move with market if they so desire. Mutual funds are very stable but this also keeps them slow. Individual stock investments can be traded quickly if need be, and purchased just as quickly if the investor finds an undervalued stock.

5. More Control

With individual stock investing, an investor has a greater level of control over their investing. Although brokerage firms are involved there is the opportunity to be more hands on with the stock purchases. This level of involvement is impossible with mutual funds. Many investors like to know exactly where their money is going and this can be hard with a mutual fund that holds shares in 50 or more companies. Investing in individual stocks allows the investor to have a larger relationship with the company they are investing in. This can create a sense of comfort for the investor because they know where their money is being used. They can track the activities of the company they have invested in and feel like a true part of that company.

6. The Verdict

Investing a mixture of mutual funds and individual stocks seems to the best method for a majority of investors. Those who do not want to take the time to research their stocks and would rather let an expert handle things are more comfortable with mutual funds. On the other end of the spectrum, those who want a greater level of participation with their investments will find individual stock investing attractive. As part of a long-term diversification strategy it may be best to look into both in the ratio that you are comfortable with.

By: John Morris