What are the top performing mutual funds in India today. Can you please elaborate since i am new to mutual funds and am thinking of investing in one. Also, what type of fund (balanced/equity) would be best suited for a newbie?
Archive for November, 2009
What Are The Top Performing Mutual Funds In India Today To Invest In?
Saturday, November 28th, 2009How Exactly Does Mutual Funds Work?
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009Hello, as a beginner investor how do you actually earn money from mutual funds? I heard that it’s not about compounding interest and that it’s about the NAV on the day you wish to withdraw the funds that will determine your profit?
I had a perception that it was like time deposit, that your initial investment will earn interest and interest is added up to your initial investment and it will compound over time only that the interest rates varies every time. This is not the case in mutual funds right or is it?
Can someone enlighten me on this? Thanks.
How to Buy Mutual Funds
Saturday, November 21st, 2009Millions of Americans buy mutual funds by simply choosing them as an investment option in their 401k plan. How do people go about investing in mutual funds outside of their retirement plan at work?
There are at least three popular ways average people buy mutual funds, each with its advantages and disadvantages. Where to invest depends to a large extent on how involved you are willing to get in the process. Some people want to learn how to invest, and others want to rely on someone else to handle their investments.
Let’s look at three popular ways to buy mutual funds, starting with how to invest if you want to rely on someone else.
If you want to buy mutual funds with a minimum of time and effort on your part, contact an investment professional. Even though these folks usually call and solicit you, you can call them. Look in the phone book under financial planners, stock brokers, or investment services. Some life insurance agents sell mutual funds as well. Perhaps your local bank or credit union has a representative on board who sells mutual funds.
The advantage of this approach is that someone helps you make financial decisions, and deals with the details, including the paper work. The disadvantage is that you will pay sales charges (loads) and/or other fees that you can otherwise avoid. Rather than choosing a professional at random, I suggest you ask investors you know who they deal with, and how they feel about them. Needless to say, some professionals in the investing business are better than others at their job.
A second popular way to buy mutual funds is the “supermarket” approach. For example, by opening a brokerage account with a major discount broker, you should have access to hundreds of funds to buy. To get started, go to your computer and search for “discount brokers”. Once you have an account with money in it, to buy mutual funds you just click to buy.
The advantage here is the wide selection of funds available from several different fund families. You should be able to buy funds without sales charges, but there will be transaction fees, which are often quite reasonable. On the other hand, this is basically a self-serve supermarket. If you want advice on how to invest or where to invest your money, service is limited.
The third approach is to go with a no-load fund family like Vanguard, Fidelity, or T. Rowe Price. Search “no-load funds” on your computer to find a list of them. These investor-friendly investment companies have toll-free numbers you can call for assistance in opening up a mutual fund account.
There are numerous advantages to this third approach to investing in mutual funds. You deal directly with the mutual fund company, there are no middlemen. You can talk to their representatives toll-free and ask questions without sales pressure. They are used to talking to average folks who are not rich, and who don’t speak the language of Wall Street.
The major no-load fund families offer a broad variety of mutual funds that have no sales charges, and often have some of the lowest yearly expenses in the industry. This makes their no-load funds a low-cost way to buy and hold mutual funds. Plus, these mutual fund companies offer investor assistance and services that are free of extra charges and fees.
When you invest with a no-load fund family, you can buy or sell mutual funds on your computer or toll-free on the telephone without paying any sales charges or transaction fees.
The disadvantage here is that you make your own investment decisions. You decide how to invest and where to invest your money in the various mutual funds they offer. Plus, you may be required to fill out your own forms, like the application required to open an account.
You can save thousands by buying no-load funds directly from a no-load fund company. This is the best way to go IF you are up to speed on how to invest and investment basics. If you are still clueless, there are plenty of articles available to help you learn about investing and mutual funds.
Compare Mutual Funds With These Key Statistics
Wednesday, November 18th, 2009Comparing mutual funds is fairly simple when you have a good understanding of the key statistics and know how to employ them effectively. The key statistics listed below should serve you well in comparing mutual funds.
Mutual Fund Returns
*Average Return
*Risk-Adjusted Return
Mutual Fund Risk
*Standard Deviation
*Beta
Risk-to-Return
*Sharpe Ratio
*Coefficient of Variation
*Treynor Ratio
You’ll find these statistics readily available on the Internet at sites like Yahoo! Finance. These key statistics should be used in the order in which they are listed.
Risk and return should not be used independently to compare mutual funds. Indeed, you need to use one of the measures of risk-to-return to compare mutual funds on a relative basis.
Published annual returns are usually computed by compounding monthly returns and multi-year averages are usually computed as the geometric mean of the annual returns, which yields a compound return and is the metric that will tell you how well you would have done if you had been invested in a fund over the period of interest. However, the arithmetic mean, i. e. , a simple average of the annual means, is the appropriate metric for evaluating a mutual fund’s ability to deliver good returns. The returns delivered over various periods of time will give you a good feel for a fund’s ability to consistently deliver good returns. More weight should be given to the longer periods.
The returns published by independent sources should be total returns (they include dividend and capital gains distributions) net of fees and expenses. Be sure to verify this.
In investing, risk is measured in terms of volatility. Total risk is measured by the standard deviation of returns and it is the standard deviation that should be used to compare mutual funds. Beta is a measure of residual risk, i. e. , the risk inherent in the overall market. Beta is an indicator of the volatility of a security relative to a broad market index such as the S&P 500.
Although we have a natural aversion to risk, risk is what justifies earning a return in excess of that of riskless securities like T-bills, but expected returns must be commensurate with the level of risk. If two mutual funds have equivalent returns but one has a significantly higher standard deviation, the one with the higher standard deviation should be rejected in favor of the other. If, on the other hand, two mutual funds have equivalent risk-adjusted returns, you may prefer the riskier of the two if you have a high risk tolerance, as it has the potential to deliver higher returns.
The risk-adjusted return is calculated by dividing a fund’s return by its standard deviation then multiplying by the standard deviation of a relevant index. For example, if you are comparing emerging markets stock mutual funds, an appropriate index would be an emerging markets stock index. Using a relevant index rather than the S&P 500 isn’t absolutely necessary but it has the advantage of providing you with the opportunity of comparing the individual funds with the index. If none of the funds you are comparing can beat the index on a risk-adjusted basis, then you should look at some other funds or buy the index.
The final quantitative step in comparing mutual funds is the use of some measure of risk-to-return. Here the Sharpe ratio is the hands-down winner for use in comparing mutual funds, as it is computed using total risk. The coefficient of variation is a quick and dirty substitute for the Sharpe ratio. The Treynor ratio considers the degree of diversification in its computation and is best used for evaluating the competence of funds’ managers.
The Sharpe ratio is the excess return (the actual return less the risk-free rate) divided by the standard deviation. The result is the real return per unit of risk. When comparing similar mutual funds, preference should always be given the one with the highest Sharpe ratio. Choosing one with a slightly lower Sharpe ratio might be appropriate if it displayed a lower degree of correlation with the other securities in your portfolio.
By themselves, the yield and expense ratio won’t tell you a lot, but they should be factored into returns and you should verify that they have been. Yield is a consideration if one of your objectives is to produce a stream of income. Also, in taxable accounts, yield creates a tax liability.
Turnover will affect return to the extent that trading costs eat into returns, but it will always be reflected in the returns. In tax-deferred accounts, turnover that pays its way is not an issue. Turnover is an issue in taxable accounts, as it generates capital gains tax liabilities.
Finally, manager tenure should always be a consideration when evaluating and comparing mutual funds other than index funds. A mutual fund with a good long-term record under the same manager is highly desirable, and there should be a co-manager or fully indoctrinated protégé to carry on in the manager’s absence.
Always compare apples to apples. Your comparisons will be most valid if you compare mutual funds that are in the same asset category, similar in size and managed by the same style. For instance, don’t compare a huge large-cap growth fund with a tiny small-cap value fund.
If you use these key statistics effectively to compare mutual funds, you should be very satisfied with most of your selections. But nothing is certain in investing, so be prepared for an occasional disappointment.
Important Mutual Fund Concepts
Sunday, November 15th, 2009thinking of investing in the stock market? If so, chances are you are considering investing in a mutual fund. A mutual fund gives you exposure to the stock market, diversification, and professional selection of an expert stock picker.
Most of the media, at least some investors park their money in mutual funds. Often, however, are confused about some terms and concepts associated with investing in mutual funds. Sometimes this is not a big problem, and sometimes the ignorance of some key concepts can seriously affect their statements in the long term. Here are some of the key concepts of mutual funds.
Freight: This is the initial payment of liabilities of investment funds in the fund. Whatever weight you pay goes directly to the pool and all that became the marketing of the fund. People trying to sell mutual funds that charge loads try to argue that they are somehow better than other investment funds. This is absurd. The payment of a charge is simply paying an extra fee applies. Always invest in mutual funds not otherwise lose no more than 5% of your investment to pay commissions to anyone.
NAV: net asset value. This is the closing price of investment funds after a trading day. You can see how investment funds are doing by changes in its net asset value.
Management fee: This is the part of mutual fund expenses to invest their money. All mutual funds charge a management fee, otherwise it would not be able to operate. However, I will not be unnecessarily 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 of the pool was due to his past performance against their peers. While past performance is no guarantee of future performance, is a useful indicator to help you decide whether or not to trust your money with this fund or not. Remember though that the investment fund's performance will be largely the result of executive director of the fund. If changes of manager, then look at the newest results for this fund is a bit "useless.
Net Assets: This is money that manages the fund. Some investment funds managing only $ 100 – $ 200 million of investor money. Others get up to $ 50 billion. The advantage of a common fund that sometimes higher prices due to lower load efficiencies of scale. However, in general, an investment fund smaller is better. This is because they are more agile and can invest in more of a variety of businesses. The biggest mutual fund to invest in larger companies. After all, if a fund of $ 50 million invested in a $ 500 million mutual parking only 1% of the assets of the funds to buy the entire company!
7 Best Mutual Funds for 2009
Thursday, November 12th, 2009As our economic vision remains poor and how the stock market is in crisis, capital investment has become increasingly difficult. Maintaining a solid investment portfolio can be hard work. An alternative to the difficult task of stock selection is to invest in mutual funds. With thousands of mutual funds to choose, how would you know which ones are best? That's why I've compiled a list of the 7 best mutual funds for 2009. After examining the performance, stability, and income for hundreds of the best rated funds, I found the best way to invest in mutual funds for 2009 and beyond. Divide the income part of my selection process to find mutual funds with cash flows, either through dividends or interest payments on bonds (in the form of dividends, investment funds). This factor is increasingly important at a time when populations continue to decline. Through dividends may know that you will have an income of percentage yield. Future trends Another selection criterion was to find funds that will perform well in the coming years. As we shall see, I've included a mutual fund that invests in stocks of alternative energy or "green" businesses. The eco-friendly package, the green movement has begun and will be a boon to the economy for the next 10-20 years. One aspect that is a bit "over a long term quasi-long-term strategy focuses on the money in the fund because of the anticipated rise in gold prices over the next year or two. Selection criterion of long-term performance The last and most important was the long-term performance of investment funds. A stock or mutual fund can make more than one or two years, fortunately, but it takes real skill to manage a portfolio that has a good performance over a period of ten years. A great failure of many investors who buy mutual funds is that funds that currently hunting for the best results, or only recently had its best year. If the fund is having one year too large, then stay out of it, because it is too late or sell 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, the best place to make money is to find an investment with a declared income (ie dividends, interest on bonds). American Century High Yield Fund has a dividend yield of 9. 38%, which is much greater than the highest performing mutual funds or stocks. 2. The Fund for new alternatives (NALFX) – This is the ideal base for the other times when people and businesses are looking for eco-friendly ways of doing things. This mutual fund invests in companies focusing on renewable energy sources as well as companies involved in energy saving and environmental protection. In the next decade, green energy stocks and alternative is likely to soar skyward gaining popularity and necessity. 3. Franklin Utilities Fund (FKUTX) – A utility fund is also a great way to get a decent income in a period of poor stock performance. This investment fund has a dividend yield of 4% and a 10-year annualized return of 5. 17%, which is very impressive. Utilities are a sound investment for a stream of dividends. 4. ING Corporate Leaders Trust Fund (LEXCX) – Despite his 10-year annualized return has been affected by the recent stock market decline that put it at 3. 67% (which is better than all but two principal value funds mutual approach), the ING fund has performed 10% better than the S & P 500 last year. It also has a dividend yield of 2. 46%. 5. Franklin Gold and Precious Metals (FKRCX) – The investment fund was a better performance in the last ten years, with 10-year annualized return of 14. 42% and a current dividend yield of 8. 34%. This mutual fund has an incredible level, and continue playing with the gold every time a flight over security investment to investors. 6. Vanguard Energy Fund (VGENX) – Although the raw material boom earlier this year are off, oil prices again. It's just a matter of time. Vanguard Energy Fund has had in 10 years annualized return of 14. 81%, which is better than most mutual funds of any kind. E 'in a position to do well in the coming years. 7. Municipal Bond Fund (your choice) – The municipal bond rates have risen in recent months and remain a great source of additional income. For example, some licenses in Florida pay 6% a year in interest. I remember with municipal bonds, which interest payments are tax free, just make sure you select a link that is inside the country (if not the interest payments taxable). How does a tax-free income of 5% or 6% of the sound investment for 2009 – with the United States is in recession?
Capital Group Companies shuttle bus, Irvine, Ca.
Sunday, November 8th, 2009
Image taken on 2008-08-27 08:15:06 by LA Wad.
What Mutual Funds Are Considered A Good Investment?
Thursday, November 5th, 2009I still feel that you should invest in mutual funds, which are a combination of approximately 60% stocks and 40% of mutual funds. Perhaps someone with experience in mutual funds recommend a company (like Vangard Fidelity), which sells mutual fund that invests in these settings (60/40)?