A mutual fund is a pool of money managed by a professional Fund Manager.
It is a trust that collects money from a number of investors who share a common investment objective and invests the same in equities, bonds, money market instruments and/or other securities.
The income / gains generated from this collective investment is distributed proportionately amongst the investors after deducting applicable expenses and levies, by calculating a scheme’s “Net Asset Value” or NAV. Simply put, the money pooled in by a large number of investors is what makes up a Mutual Fund.
“Net Asset Value” or NAV. Just like an equity share has a traded price, a mutual fund unit has Net Asset Value per Unit. The NAV is the combined market value of the shares, bonds and securities held by a fund on any particular day (as reduced by permitted expenses and charges). NAV per Unit represents the market value of all the Units in a mutual fund scheme on a given day, net of all expenses and liabilities plus income accrued, divided by the outstanding number of Units in the scheme.
Mutual funds invest in various kinds of securities. The various types of securities that a particular fund may invest in are mentioned in the fund's prospectus, which explains the fund's investment’s objective, its approach, and the permitted investments. The objective of the investment describes the kind of income that the fund is looking for. For e.g., a "capital appreciation" fund generally looks to earn most of its returns from the increase in prices of the securities it holds rather than from a dividend or the interest income. The approach of the investment describes the criteria that the fund manager may have used to select the investments for the fund.
The investment portfolio of a mutual fund is continuously monitored by the fund's portfolio managers who are either employed by the AMC or the sponsor.
An open-end fund is a diversified portfolio of pooled investor money that can issue an unlimited number of shares. The fund sponsor sells shares directly to investors and redeems them as well.
A closed-end fund (CEF) or closed-ended fund is a collective investment model based on issuing a fixed number of shares which are not redeemable from the fund.
An equity fund is a mutual fund that invests principally in stocks. It can be actively or passively (index fund) managed. Equity funds are also known as stock funds.
A bond fund or debt fund is a fund that invests in bonds or other debt securities. Bond funds can be contrasted with stock funds and money funds.
Hybrid funds are mutual funds or exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that invest in more than one type of investment security, such as stocks and bonds.
Income funds are mutual funds or ETFs that prioritize current income, often in the form of interest or dividend paying investments.
Real assets are physical assets that have an intrinsic worth due to their substance and properties. Real assets include precious metals, commodities, real estate, land, equipment, and natural resources.
A sector fund is a fund that invests solely in businesses that operate in a particular industry or sector of the economy. Sector funds are commonly structured as mutual funds or exchange-traded funds
Vivek Nagpal is an ace personal financial professional. He has more than 18 years of experience across banking, broking & mutual funds. He has worked with large institutions managing public & institutional money.
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