Mutual Fund Investments

Many Investors pool their funds and in effect then hand it over to a Trusted Professional Fund Manager to make good Investments for them in the hope that they will earn exceptional returns on their Investments.

In the United States, there were more than 9 000 ( nine thousand ) Mutual Funds in 2014, managing assets worth approximately 15.85 trillion U.S. dollars. Domestic equity funds constituted 42 percent of the Fund Market in the United States. The second most popular were Bond Funds, with 21 percent of the market share.

" Unit trusts, which are commonly known as Mutual Funds outside South Africa, are a collection of shares from many different companies. Every day the stock exchange is open, people buy and sell these shares. "

Why a Mutual Fund is like a Herd of Cattle -

CLICK HERE to read the Full Article.

ETFs And Mutual Funds Investing In Africa

By Greg McFarlane | November 26, 2014

“Invest in Mutual Funds,” the standard grandfatherly advice goes. Reduced risk, no over exposure, etc. It’s the responsible, conservative way to build a substantial — if unimpressive — nest egg. And judging by the size of the Mutual Fund Market ($24 trillion worldwide), plenty of people indeed heed that counsel.

Now add the qualifier “…in Africa” and see what happens. Immediately, we’ve gotten a lot less conservative, at least in the eyes of conventional investors. Mutual funds invested in Africa ? Why ? To read the full article CLICK on the Heading in RED.

Mutual Funds : Conclusion
By Investopedia

The Definition
A Mutual Fund is nothing more than a collection of Stocks and/or Bonds. You can think of a Mutual Fund as a company that brings together a group of people and invests their money in stocks, bonds, and other securities. Each investor owns shares, which represent a portion of the holdings of the fund.

You can make Money from a Mutual Fund in Three ways :

1. Income is earned from Dividends on Stocks and Interest on Bonds. A Fund pays out nearly all of the income it receives over the year to fund owners in the form of a Distribution.

2. If the Fund sells Securities that have increased in price, the Fund has a Capital Gain. Most Funds also pass on these gains to investors in a distribution.

3. If Fund Holdings increase in price but are not sold by the Fund Manager, the Fund's shares increase in price. You can then sell your mutual fund Shares for a profit.

Funds will also usually give you a choice either to receive a check for distributions or to reinvest the earnings and get more shares.

Let's recap what we've learned in this Tutorial :

A Mutual Fund brings together a group of people and invests their money in Stocks, Bonds, and other securities, which is called - Equity Funds ( Stock ); Fixed Income Funds ( Bonds ) and Money Market Funds ( Cash ).
The Advantages of mutuals are professional management, diversification, economies of scale, simplicity and liquidity.
The Disadvantages of mutuals are high costs, over-diversification, possible tax conse-quences, and the inability of Management to guarantee a superior return.
There are many, many types of Mutual Funds. You can classify funds based on asset class, investing strategy, region, etc.
Mutual funds have lots of costs.
Costs can be broken down into ongoing fees (represented by the expense ratio) and transaction fees (loads).
The biggest problems with Mutual Funds are their costs and fees.
Mutual Funds are easy to buy and sell. You can either buy them directly from the fund company or through a third party
Mutual fund ads can be very deceiving.