Having grasped the basic of mutual funds, let us try to understand why you as an investor would want to invest

in them.

Professional expertise: Investing requires skill. It requires a constant study of the dynamics of the markets and of the various industries and companies within it. Anybody who has surplus capital to be parked as investments is an investor, but to be a successful investor, you need to have someone managing your money professionally. Just as people who have money but not have the requisite skills to run a company (and hence must be content as shareholders) hand over the running of the operations to a qualified CEO, similarly, investors who lack investing skills need to find a qualified fund manager. Mutual funds help investors by providing them with a qualified fund manager. Increasingly, in India [ Images ], fund managers are acquiring global certifications like CFA and MBA which help them be at the cutting edge of the knowledge in the investing world. Diversification: There is an old saying: Don't put all your eggs in one basket. There is a mathematical and financial basis to this. If you invest most of your savings in a single security (typically happens if you have ESOPs (employees stock options) from your company, or one investment becomes very large in your portfolio due to tremendous gains) or a single type of security (like real estate or equity become disproportionately large due to large gains in the same), you are exposed to any risk that attaches to those investments. In order to reduce this risk, you need to invest in different types of securities such that they do not move in a similar fashion. Typically, when equity markets perform, debt markets do not yield good returns. Note the scenario of low yields on debt securities over the last three years while equities yielded handsome returns. Similarly, you need to invest in real estate, or gold, or international securities for you to provide the best diversification. If you want to do this on your own, it will take you immense amounts of money and research to do this. However, if you buy mutual funds -- and you can buy mutual funds of amounts as low as Rs 500 a month! -- you can diversify across asset classes at very low cost. Within the various asset classes also, mutual funds hold hundreds of different securities (a diversified equity mutual fund, for example, would typically have around hundred different shares). Low cost of asset management: Since mutual funds collect money from millions of investors, they achieve economies of scale. The cost of running a mutual fund is divided between a larger pool of money and hence mutual funds are able to offer you a lower cost alternative of managing your funds. Equity funds in India typically charge you around 2.25% of your initial money and around 1.5% to 2% of your money invested every year as charges. Investing in debt funds costs even less. If you had to invest smaller sums of money on your own, you would have to invest significantly more for the professional benefits and diversification. Liquidity: Mutual funds are typically very liquid investments. Unless they have a pre-specified lock-in, your money will be available to you anytime you want. Typically funds take a couple of days for returning your money

to you. Since they are very well integrated with the banking system, most funds can send money directly to your banking account. Ease of process: If you have a bank account and a PAN card, you are ready to invest in a mutual fund: it is as simple as that! You need to fill in the application form, attach your PAN (typically for transactions of greater than Rs 50,000) and sign your cheque and you investment in a fund is made. In the top 8-10 cities, mutual funds have many distributors and collection points, which make it easy for them to collect and you to send your application to. Well regulated: India mutual funds are regulated by the Securities and Exchange Board of India, which helps provide comfort to the investors. Sebi forces transparency on the mutual funds, which helps the investor make an informed choice. Sebi requires the mutual funds to disclose their portfolios at least six monthly, which helps you keep track whether the fund is investing in line with its objectives or not

Types
The Investment Company Act of 1940 established three types of registered investment companies or RICs in the United States: open-end funds, unit investment trusts (UITs); and closed-end funds. Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are open-end funds or unit investment trusts that trade on an exchange; they have gained in popularity recently. While the term "mutual fund" may refer to all three types of registered investment companies, it is more commonly used to refer exclusively to the openend type. [edit]Open-end

funds

Main article: Open-end fund Open-end mutual funds must be willing to buy back their shares from their investors at the end of every business day at the net asset value computed that day. Most open-end funds also sell shares to the public every business day; these shares are also priced at net asset value. A professional investment manager oversees the portfolio, buying and selling securities as appropriate. The total investment in the fund will vary based on share purchases, share redemptions and fluctuation in market valuation. There is no legal limit on the number of shares that can be issued. Open-end funds are the most common type of mutual fund. At the end of 2011, there were 7,581 [13] open-end mutual funds in the United States with combined assets of $11.6 trillion. [edit]Closed-end

funds

Main article: Closed-end fund Closed-end funds generally issue shares to the public only once, when they are created through an initial public offering. Their shares are then listed for trading on a stock exchange. Investors who no longer wish to invest in the fund cannot sell their shares back to the fund (as they can with an open-end fund). Instead, they must sell their shares to another investor in the market; the price they receive may be significantly different from net asset value. It may be at a "premium" to net asset value (meaning that it is higher than net asset value) or, more commonly, at a "discount" to net asset value (meaning that it is lower than net asset value). A professional investment manager oversees the portfolio, buying and selling securities as appropriate.

Closed-end funds have been declining in popularity. At the end of 2010, there were 624 closed-end [13] funds in the United States with combined assets of $241 billion. [edit]Unit

investment trusts

Main article: Unit investment trust Unit investment trusts or UITs issue shares to the public only once, when they are created. Investors can redeem shares directly with the fund (as with an open-end fund) or they may also be able to sell their shares in the market. Unit investment trusts do not have a professional investment manager. Their portfolio of securities is established at the creation of the UIT and does not change. UITs generally have a limited life span, established at creation. Like closed-end funds, UITs have been declining in popularity. At the end of 2010, there were 5,971 [13] UITs in the United States with combined assets of $51 billion. [edit]Exchange-traded

funds

Main article: Exchange-traded fund A relatively recent innovation, the exchange-traded fund or ETF is often structured as an open-end investment company, though ETFs may also be structured as unit investment trusts, partnerships, investments trust, grantor trusts or bonds (as an exchange-traded note). ETFs combine characteristics of both closed-end funds and open-end funds. Like closed-end funds, ETFs are traded throughout the day on a stock exchange at a price determined by the market. However, as with openend funds, investors normally receive a price that is close to net asset value. To keep the market price close to net asset value, ETFs issue and redeem large blocks of their shares with institutional investors. Most ETFs are index funds. ETFs have been gaining in popularity. At the end of 2010, there were 923 ETFs in the United States [13] with combined assets of $992 billion. [edit]Investments

and classification
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Mutual funds are classified by their principal investments. The four largest categories of funds are money market funds, bond or fixed income funds, stock or equity funds and hybrid funds. Within these categories, funds may be subclassified by investment objective, investment approach or specific focus. The SEC requires that mutual fund names not be inconsistent with a fund's investments. For example, the "ABC New Jersey Tax-Exempt Bond Fund" would generally have to invest, under normal circumstances, at least 80% of its assets in bonds that are exempt from federal income tax, [15] from the alternative minimum tax and from taxes in the state of New Jersey. Bond, stock and hybrid funds may be classified as either index (passively-managed) funds or activelymanaged funds. [edit]Money

market funds

Main article: Money market fund Money market funds invest in money market instruments, which are fixed income securities with a very short time to maturity and high credit quality. Investors often use money market funds as a

substitute for bank savings accounts, though money market funds are not government insured, unlike bank savings accounts. Money market funds strive to maintain a $1.00 per share net asset value, meaning that investors earn interest income from the fund but do not experience capital gains or losses. If a fund fails to maintain that $1.00 per share because its securities have declined in value, it is said to "break the buck". Only two money market funds have ever broken the buck: Community Banker's U.S. Government Money Market Fund in 1994 and the Reserve Primary Fund in 2008. At the end of 2010, money market funds accounted for 24% of the assets in all U.S. mutual funds. [edit]Bond
[13]

funds

Main article: Bond fund Bond funds invest in fixed income securities. Bond funds can be sub classified according to the specific types of bonds owned (such as high-yield or junk bonds, investment-grade corporate bonds, government bonds or municipal bonds) or by the maturity of the bonds held (short-, intermediate- or long-term). Bond funds may invest in primarily U.S. securities (domestic or U.S. funds), in both U.S. and foreign securities (global or world funds), or primarily foreign securities (international funds). At the end of 2010, bond funds accounted for 22% of the assets in all U.S. mutual funds. [edit]Stock
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or equity funds

Main article: Stock fund Stock or equity funds invest in common stocks. Stock funds may invest in primarily U.S. securities (domestic or U.S. funds), in both U.S. and foreign securities (global or world funds), or primarily foreign securities (international funds). They may focus on a specific industry or sector. A stock fund may be subclassified along two dimensions: (1) market capitalization and (2) investment style (i.e., growth vs. blend/core vs. value). The two dimensions are often displayed in a grid known as a "style box." Market capitalization or market cap indicates the size of the companies in which a fund invests, based on the value of the company's stock. Each company's market capitalization equals the number of shares outstanding times the market price of the stock. Market capitalizations are typically divided into the following categories: Micro cap Small cap Mid cap Large cap

While the specific definitions of each category vary with market conditions, large cap stocks generally have market capitalizations of at least $10 billion, small cap stocks have market capitalizations below $2 billion, and micro cap stocks have market capitalizations below $300 million. Funds are also classified in these categories based on the market caps of the stocks that it holds. Stock funds are also subclassified according to their investment style: growth, value or blend (or core). Growth funds seek to invest in stocks of fast-growing companies. Value funds seek to invest in stocks that appear cheaply priced. Blend funds are not biased toward either growth or value. At the end of 2010, stock funds accounted for 48% of the assets in all U.S. mutual funds.
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Hybrid funds
Hybrid funds invest in both bonds and stocks or in convertible securities. Balanced funds, asset allocation funds, target date or target risk funds and lifecycle or lifestyle funds are all types of hybrid funds. Hybrid funds may be structured as funds of funds, meaning that they invest by buying shares in other mutual funds that invest in securities. Most fund of funds invest in affiliated funds (meaning mutual funds managed by the same fund sponsor), although some invest in unaffiliated funds (meaning those managed by other fund sponsors) or in a combination of the two. At the end of 2010, hybrid funds accounted for 6% of the assets in all U.S. mutual funds.
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