Mutual Funds

A mutual fund is a professionally managed investment fund that pools money from many investors to purchase securities. These investors may be retail or institutional.

Mutual funds have advantages and disadvantages compared to direct investing in individual securities. The primary advantages of mutual funds are that they provide economies of scale and a higher level of diversification, they provide liquidity, and they are managed by professional investors. On the negative side, investors in a mutual fund must pay various fees and expenses.

Primary structures of mutual funds include open-end funds, unit investment trusts, and closed-end funds. Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are open-end funds or unit investment trusts that trade on an exchange. Some close-ended funds also resemble exchange-traded funds as they are traded on stock exchanges to improve their liquidity.

Equity fundA private equity fund is a collective investment scheme used for making investments in various equity securities according to one of the investment strategies associated with private equity.

debt fundA debt fund is an investment pool, such as a mutual fund or exchange-traded fund, in which the core holdings comprise fixed income investments.

balanced fundA balanced fund is a mutual fund that contains a stock component, a bond component and sometimes a money market component in a single portfolio.

elss fundMany mutual fund investors are hunting for the best Equity Linked Saving Scheme or ELSSs to save taxes under Section 80C of the Income Tax Act.

small cap fundThese mutual funds select stocks for investment from the small cap category, which includes all stocks except largest 250 stocks (by market capitalization).

large cap fundThese mutual funds select stocks for investment from the largest 100 stocks listed in the Indian markets (highest market capitalization).