Mutual Funds Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Mutual Funds - Essay ExampleMutual monetary resource are securities that are registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Broadly speaking, they are compose of stocks, bonds, short-term money market instruments, and other securities that function as a office of hedging against possible declines in a security or coronation sector. The main infrastanding is that this diversified approach will provide the investor an woof that protects them against market fluctuations, as when one security drops in encourage, another will increase. A manager or board of directors oversees these funds. The board hires a fund manager and works to ensure that the mutual fund is managed in the intended interest of the shareholders. This analyze examines the advantages, disadvantages, and different types of mutual funds. Advantages There are a enceinte variety of advantages to investing in mutual funds. One of the most prominent such aspects is the increase amount of diversification . In terms of portfolio theory, diversification constitutes perhaps the most overarching concept. Essentially diversification is the gathering together of diverse investment securities as a means of guarding against the failure of one specific sector. While it is possible for investors to diversify their portfolio through a all-embracingspread procure of stocks, such a process is both vast and besides contains liquidity issues. In terms of liquidity, most brokerage firms attach a fee to individual trades, such that an individual attempting to withdraw money from a portfolio of diversified stocks would be required to pay a series of fees mutual funds offer liquidity in terms of one direct and slowly accomplished sale (Pozen, Hamacher, 2011). Another prominent advantage of mutual funds is that they operate in terms of economies of scale. Essentially the equivalent of economies of scale is volume discounts in department stores. In the context of mutual funds, a wide variety of inv estment funds are collated allowing the fund manager to gain greater value per purchase (Pozen, Hamacher, 2011). Divisibility is another prominent advantage to investing in mutual funds. Divisibility can be understood in terms of the purchase of a wide variety of stocks. Its noted that, Smaller denominations of mutual funds provide mutual fund investors the ability to make periodic investments through monthly purchase plans while taking advantage of dollar-cost averaging (Advantages of mutual, 2009). Essentially this indicates that through a mutual fund, an individual with modest means is able to invest in a great amount more stocks than they would if they only purchased the securities on their own. This allows for considerably greater amounts of diversification. Another prominent benefit of investing in mutual funds is that they are under professional management. The obvious implications of this are that an experienced and knowledgeable professional will be overseeing the securitie s and investment strategy. Ultimately, the cumulative advantage of these benefits makes mutual funds an attractive option for conservative or inexperienced investors. Disadvantages While there are a great variety of advantages to investing in mutual funds, there are also a number of prominent disadvantages. Even as mutual funds offer a generally conservative investment option as compared to stocks, incomparable metals, or derivatives, there is nonetheless a degree of risk associated. The main understanding in these regards is that even with extensive levels of diversification, macroeconomic elements oftentimes contribute to a large-scale market decline. In these regards, individuals that do not have the financial wealth or patience to out-wait market downturns might find mutual funds an unattractive option