Types of mutual funds
Types of mutual funds
The mutual fund is the bets financial instrument developed by the humans. This is best democratization of investment process. Any ordinary person can invest in any type of assets that he is interested in. this was not possible previously. There are lots many type of mutual funds. It is not possible to review all of them in such a short article about the types of mutual funds. We will review some of the important types of mutual funds in this article. There are two types of mutual funds. One is called as open end mutual funds. In this anyone can buy the units of the mutual funds at any time. There is no limitation on the number of units to be sold in case of the open end mutual funds. In case of the closed end mutual funds there are restrictions on the available number of units in mutual funds. After the IPO process, it is the market that will decide the price of the close end mutual funds units. The closed end mutual funds act and behave more as the stocks. The price is dictated by the market conditions just like stocks. Many people feel that closed end mutual funds are not mutual funds if strict definition of the mutual funds is applied. It is well known fact that there are experts managing the mutual funds. This is the real advantage of the mutual funds for ordinary investors, getting experts advice at lower costs. The expenses or the cost of the advice of the experts is an important factor. On this basis there are two types of mutual funds possible. One is called as no load mutual funds. Another is called as loaded mutual funds. In no load mutual funds there is no commission charged when you buy the mutual funds. If you want to get $1000 worth mutual funds units, you buy them without paying any charges or commission. In case of loaded mutual funds, you have to pay a charge or commission. Suppose there is 5% charge on the loaded mutual funds, then in above example only $950 worth mutual funds units will be delivered when you pay $1000 for investments. This will affect return on the investment figures. Due to severe competition, there is not much difference in both of these types of mutual funds. Many mutual funds have introduced additional charges, so it is important to study all fee structures before deciding advantages of no load mutual funds in relation to loaded mutual funds. There are low risk low gain fully government protected money market mutual funds. There are bond funds, stocks funds, equity funds, green funds, and socially responsible funds, commodities funds, off shore funds, real estate funds, precious metals funds and so many other types of mutual funds available in the market.