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Mutual fund investing

Author: King Kovacs

A mutual fund’s growth, income dividends and capital gains distribution are
important considerations in making an investment that helps maximize gains
in a positive market and minimize losses in a negative market.  

There are many factors to consider and evaluate before making an
investment.  The performance provides the net asset value (share price). 
It can be measured on the fund’s alpha, beta, yield, return, risk, etc. 

For example, the beta is a measurement of a mutual fund’s volatility compared to the Standard & Poors 500 index. 

A mutual fund’s total return is a percentage figure showing a fund’s gain in net asset value, plus any gains from reinvestment of dividend income or capital gains.  The dividends and interest earned by a fund on its investment is the fund’s income.  Many equity mutual
funds distribute income quarterly.  A Fund selling an investment security for a higher price than originally paid, has a gain.  A Fund selling an investment security for a lower price than originally paid, has a loss.   If the investment security is held by the mutual fund for more than one year, the gain or loss will be a long-term capital gain or loss.  If the investment security is held by the fund for less than one year, the gain or loss will be a short-term capital gain.  Mutual funds gains and losses are netted together and when the fund has a net gain, that gain is usually distributed to the shareholder once a year.  An excellent source of additonal

Where can you find factual and current information to make an investment decision?  Each mutual fund is assigned a  ticker symbol , which is your key to unlock a wealth of investment data.  Most Internet financial search engines like  Finance.Google.com, Finance.Yahoo.com, provide information needed to make decisions based on facts. To view the vast resource of mutual fund data readily available, the website requires the ticker symbol placed in the dialog box. Here is a thumbnail sketch of the invaluable type of source material provided.

Profile: lists the mutual fund’s family – address – toll free number – name of the Manager and tenure – inception date – net assets – investment category – investment objective, etc.

Purchase: includes the minimum initial purchase – minimum initial IRA purchase – maximum 12b1 fee – maximum front end sales load – maximum deferred sales load – brokerage
availability.

Performance: provides the current net asset value (share price) – year-to-date return – long-term average return – best one/three year total return – worst one/three year total return –
performance vs. benchmarks.

Risk: shows the risk rating – 3 year Alpha rating – 3 year Beta rating – 5 year Alpha rating – 5 year Beta rating – total expense ratings

Investment Holdings:  list the top 10 investments by company name, trade symbol, percent of asset investment, etc.

Portfolio:  percent of cash, stocks, bonds,and other investments held by the fund.

Fund Management:  portfolio manager name and bio,fund address including Email address and 800 phone number.

Good luck on your investing future and always read the mutual fund’s
prospectus before making an investment

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/investing-articles/mutual-fund-investing-5843505.html

About the Author

Hi and welcome to my website which provides unique, current and valuable data on  mutual funds.  My name is King Anthony Kovacs and I am the owner and founder of Mutual Interest Data Service, Ltd.  Being the administrator of LargeDividends.com keeps me quite busy; my forte being investment research on the Internet.    Before establishing the business, in the early 90′s, I searched for mutual funds with 1) average or low risk, 2) above average performance, and 3) distribution of large dividends. After several years of burning the midnight oil and analyzing thousands of mutual funds; I established and built an investment portfolio. But, I also wanted the portfolio to grow in the long-term for myself and family. Not having a financial advisor, the objectives were achieved. Realizing other individuals could also benefit from a Website with this kind of factual information, I than created LargeDividends.com with a data bank of more than 1,000 mutual funds that met my standards. In 2000 I was granted permission (reference file No. 137-1) by the staff of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Investment Management to operate an Internet Website (www.largedividends.com). Through this website, a customer can order a variety of reports on mutual funds prepared by the Company.  The Company performs mathematical computations to produce its analyses and reports.  The Company does not recommend that purchasers of a report or reports buy, hold or sell a particular fund, nor does the Company have any direct or indirect financial interest in whether a customer uses the Company’s reports to purchase, hold or sell a particular security.A certificate of Registration titled Mutual Fund Five Year Analysis was granted by the U.S. Copyright Office.  The copyright is to author, compile data and analyze same relating to various mutual funds and their performance.  Compilation of a variety of mutual funds dividend distribution and yearly net asset value and analyze data and performance for five year period.