Mutual Funds
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 units, which represent a portion of the holdings of the fund.
Mutual Funds provide investors access to different asset classes. Using Mutual Funds, you can invest in Equity, Debt & Gold. Mutual Funds even allow you to invest in International Funds, NIFTY/SENSEX Index Funds and now there are options of Debt Index Funds as well!
Investing in mutual funds has various benefits which makes it an ideal investment instrument for all investors. Following are some of the primary benefits.
Benefits of mutual Funds
Transparency
Regulations for mutual funds have made the industry very transparent. You can track the investments that have been made on you behalf and the specific investments made by the mutual fund scheme to see where your money is going. In addition to this, you get regular information on the value of your investment.
Variety
There is no shortage of variety when investing in mutual funds. You can find a mutual fund that matches just about any investing strategy you select. There are funds that focus on blue-chip stocks, technology stocks, bonds or a mix of stocks and bonds. The greatest challenge can be sorting through the variety and picking the best for you.
Diversification
A crucial element in investing is asset allocation. It plays a very big part in the success of any portfolio. However, small investors do not have enough money to properly allocate their assets. By pooling your funds with others, you can quickly benefit from greater diversification. Mutual funds invest in a broad range of securities. This limits investment risk by reducing the effect of a possible decline in the value of any one security. Mutual fund unit-holders can benefit from diversification techniques usually available only to investors wealthy enough to buy significant positions in a wide variety of securities.
Professional Investment Management
One of the primary benefits of mutual funds is that an investor has access to professional management. A good investment manager is certainly worth the fees you will pay. Good mutual fund managers with an excellent research team can do a better job of monitoring the companies they have chosen to invest in than you can, unless you have time to spend on researching the companies you select for your portfolio. That is because Mutual funds hire full-time, high-level investment professionals. The managers have real-time access to crucial market information and are able to execute trades on the largest and most cost-effective scale. When you buy a mutual fund, the primary asset you are buying is the manager, who will be controlling which assets are chosen to meet the funds’ stated investment objectives.
Convenience and Flexibility
Investing in mutual funds has it’s own convenience. While you own just one security rather than many, you still enjoy the benefits of a diversified portfolio and a wide range of services. Fund managers decide what securities to trade, collect the interest payments and see that your dividends on portfolio securities are received and your rights exercised. It also uses the services of a high-quality custodian and registrar. Another big advantage is that you can move your funds easily from one fund to another within a mutual fund family. This allows you to easily re-balance your portfolio to respond to significant fund management or economic changes.
A mutual fund let’s you participate in a diversified portfolio for as little as Rs. 500, and sometimes less.
Liquidity
In open-ended schemes, you can get your money back promptly at net asset value related prices from the mutual fund itself.