Mutual funds are professionally managed
collective investments that pools investments from various investors
and invests in Stocks, bonds,money market and other securities. There
are various types of mutual funds and each will have a fund manager and
they invest according to their set priorities. The value of all mutual
funds in the world are around $26 trillion.
+ Mutual funds and US
Massachusetts
Investors Trust (now MFS Investment Management) was founded on March
21, 1924, and, after one year, it had 200 shareholders and $392,000 in
assets. The entire industry, which included a few closed-end funds
represented less than $10 million in 1924.
The
Stock Market crash in the year 1929 hindered the growth of Mutual. US
congress passed two Acts Securities Act of 1933 and Securities Exchange
Act of 1934. The Law made it mandatory for all funds to be registered
with Securities and Exchange Commission SEC. It also made mandatory
that all investors are provided with Prospectus that will list the risk
factor among all details. As of October 2007, there are 8,015 mutual
funds that belong to the Investment Company Institute (ICI), a national
trade association of investment companies in the United States, with
combined assets of $12.356 trillion.
Types of Mutual Funds in America
There
are various types of mutual funds in America and Canada. They are Open
end fund, Exchange traded funds, Equity Funds, Closed end funds etc
