Mutual Funds & Types
A mutual fund is a collective investment scheme, which specializes in investing a pool of money collected from many investors for the purpose of investing in securities such as stocks, bonds, money market instruments and similar assets. A fund's portfolio is structured and maintained to match the investment objectives stated in its prospectus.One of the main advantages of funds is that they give small investors access to professionally managed, diversified portfolios of equities, bonds and other securities, which would be quite difficult (if not impossible) to create with a small amount of capital. The income earned through these investments and the capital appreciations realized are shared by its unit holders in proportion to the number of units owned by them. Open-ended fund units are issued and can typically be purchased or redeemed as needed at the fund's current net asset value (NAV) per share whereas closed-end funds are listed on the stock exchanges and can be freely traded.
Types of Mutual Funds (By Structure)
Funds can be open-ended funds or closed-end funds depending on their structure.
Open-ended Funds
These funds are in a continuous process of issuing shares/ units on demand and redeeming shares/ units on demand. The shares/ units do not trade on a market. The number of shares/ units outstanding varies each time the net asset valuation calculation is carried out, which is daily for most open-ended funds.
Closed-end Funds
Closed-end funds issue a specific number of shares. Their capitalization is fixed. The shares are not redeemable, but are readily transferable and traded on either a stock exchange or the over-the-counter market. The price of a closed-end fund share fluctuates based on investor supply and demand. Closed-end funds are not required to redeem shares and have managed portfolios.
Types of Mutual Funds (By Objective)
Open-ended or closed-end funds can be of several types; however the most basic classifications are stock funds, income funds, hybrid funds or specialty funds. Further classifications evolve as each fund pursues diverse investment strategies for instance: Islamic Equity Funds, Sector Funds, Global Equity Funds, High Yield Debt Funds, Aggressive Equity Funds, Income Funds and so on.
- Stock Funds
- Income and Money Market Funds
- Hybrid Funds
- Pension Funds
- Islamic Funds
- Specialty Funds