Mutual Funds: Reading a Mutual Fund
Table
Columns 1
& 2: 52-Week Hi and Low - These show
the highest and lowest prices the mutual fund has experienced over the
previous 52-weeks (one year). This typically does not include the
previous day's price.
Column 3: Fund Name - This column lists the name of the mutual
fund. The company that manages the fund is written above in bold type.
Column 4: Fund Specifics - Different letters and symbols have
various meanings. For example, "N" means no load, "F" is front end load,
and "B" means the fund has both front and back-end fees. For other
symbols see the legend in the newspaper in which you found the table.
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Column 5: Dollar Change - This
states the dollar change in the price of the mutual fund
from the previous day's trading.
Column 6: % Change - This states the percentage change in the
price of the mutual fund from the previous day's trading.
Column 7: Week High - This is the highest price the fund
traded at during the past week.
Column 8: Week Low - This is the lowest price the fund
traded at during the past week.
Column 9: Close - The last price at which the fund was traded is
shown in this column.
Column 10: Week's Dollar Change - This represents the dollar
change in the price of the mutual fund from the previous week.
Column 11: Week's % Change - This shows the percentage change in
the price of the mutual fund from the previous week.
The Value of Your Fund:
Net Asset Value (NAV) is the dollar value of one
share of a mutual fund. It is calculated by totaling the value of all the
fund's holdings and dividing by the number of outstanding shares.
That means the NAV changes
regularly, though day-to-day fluctuation are usually small.
You can basically just think of NAV per share as the price of a mutual
fund. With no-load funds, the NAV and the offering price, or what you pay
to buy a share, are the same. With load funds,
you pay the current NAV per share plus any sales front-end
load. When you sell your shares, the fund will pay you NAV less any
back-end load.
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What is a
mutual fund prospectus?
Each mutual fund provides a
prospectus to potential investors, explaining its objectives,
policies, investment strategy, and performance. And most importantly,
the prospectus also summarizes the fees the fund charges and analyzes
the risks you take in investing in the fund. |
Tracking your Mutual Fund:
Most likely you will find mutual fund prices on your daily newspaper
under business section or you can look in the financial newspapers like
Wall Street Journal and Investor Business Daily. Monthly publications
such as Kiplinger's and Money will have list of top performing mutual
funds for 1 year, 3 years and 5 years within each category of funds. If
you want more detailed information on the past performance and holdings,
you may want to look in the Value Line
Mutual Funds and
Morningstar Mutual funds publications. (Get the best prices on
Kiplinger's Personal Finance and Money Magazines at
NBAF Magazine Subscriptions) Don't follow your mutual funds daily.
Short-term profits and losses may blind your views of an investment.
It's more important to look at the long-term trend of an investment.
Monitor your mutual funds monthly. This will keep you from making
emotional decision based on short-term volatility.
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Table of Contents for Mutual Funds
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