Presently finance is volatile and the best course of action
is not to touch your investments. The market will correct itself and come back strong, it always does, we just
have to be patient. Another good position to take is to buy more shares of mutual funds at the drastically lower price.
Be armed with mutual fund insight, click on classification averages.
Mutual funds growth, income dividends and capital gains distribution
are important considerations to make an investment that helps maximize gains in a positive market and minimize losses in a
negative market. To prove this point, look at the performances of 105 mutual funds serving 21 classifications.
Over the past 9 years these results have been typical for the majoriy of these mutual funds that distribute income and/or
capital gains.
The performance
provides the current net asset value (share price) - year-to-date return. It can be measured on the fund’s
alpha, beta, yield, return, risk, etc. For example, the beta is a measurement of a fund's volatility compared to the Standard
& Poor's 500 index. As of November 14, 2008, the S&P 500 is -40.5%.
The total
return is a percentage figure showing a mutual fund's gain/loss in net asset value, plus any gains from reinvestment of dividend
income or capital gains.
Where can you find factual and current information to make an investment decision?
Each mutual fund is assigned
a five digit symbol, the mutual fund 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,
LipperWeb.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.
Fund Management: portfolio manager name and bio, fund address
including Email address and 800 number.
