What are the Types of Mutual funds
Basics of Mutual funds: Mutual funds are financial instruments that allow a large number of individuals investors to pool their money into a large pool of money. This pool of money which is subscribed by multiple investors is invested in different instruments in the capital markets such as company shares, gold, bonds and others. Now the returns(such as dividends or others monetary returns) from these investments(shares, gold, bonds and others) is given back to the investors who have invested their money in the pool in proportion to their investment amount. This pool of money is managed by experienced professionals and experts who work for a company called Mutual Fund company. This company will in time deduct all the charges such as the operating expenses, salaries of the professionals and other expenses from the returns(pool of money by investors) of the money. We will discuss the types of Mutual funds in this article
types of Mutual funds: The popular Mutual fund companies in India are ICICI Prudential, Aditya Birla Tata Mutual Funds, Reliance MF and others. Each company in turn have large different types of mutual funds. Cumulatively there are thousands of mutual funds in India managed by the professional. It is important that form such a large number of mutual funds available, you select the best possible one for achieving the type of financial goal you intended for.
What are the Types of Mutual funds
Types of Mutual funds – Open Ended / Close Ended
Basically, there are two different types of mutual funds depending on the type of instruments the mutual fund will be invested in and the time frame for the investment. The classification is as below
1. Open Ended
Open-ended Mutual funds are those funds which are open for investment from the investors at any time and the investors can exit from the fund and get his money at any time. In simple these type of mutual funds is for entry and exit at any time during the tenure of the fund.
2. Close Ended
In the case of close-ended mutual funds, there is a specific timeline for entry and exit. The investor can invest in the fund only during the time f entry and the money will be invested in different securities for a specified period of time after which the investor can exit from the fund only during the specified period of time. New investors cannot invest in the fund once the time of entre is over.
Types of Mutual funds – Type of Investment
Understand all the basics of Mutual funds: The second type of classification of Mutual funds is based on the type of funds. This classification is based on the objective of the funds and the type of securities in which the fund will be invested in.
The different types of mutual funds are enlisted below:
- Diversified Equity Funds
- Tax saving Funds (ELSS)
- Balanced Funds
- Sectoral Funds
- Mid Cap and Small Cap Funds
- Index funds
- Exchange-Traded Funds
- Fund of Funds
- Debt Funds
- Liquid Funds
1. Diversified Equity Funds
These are the funds which diversify their portfolio by investing in all the sectors in the stock markets. They invest in large companies to small companies. Which results in wide diversification. It helps in spreading risk across all sector and return potential is very good.
2.Tax saving Funds (ELSS)
These are a special category of mutual funds which are tax saving funds called ELSS (Equity Linked Saving Schemes). These have a lock-in period of 3 years. They are Diversified mutual funds in nature.
3. Balanced Funds
These funds distribute the funds in both equity and debt instruments to reduce the risk exposure. The ratio with which these funds are invested in both equity and debt depends on the fund. Some invest in the ration 70:30 and others in the ration 80:20 and so on. In most of the cases, 70:30 will observe across the funds.
4. Sectoral Funds
This is another type of Mutual funds. These funds are specific to one sector of the economy. They wanted to make use of the growth in the sector. They invest the fund in the companies that below to one particular sector. For example, the fund that invests in the stocks of all the top banks of the company belongs to the financial sector fund.
5. Large cap, Mid Cap and Small Cap Funds
These are the Mutual funds that specifically invest the funds in the stocks of those companies that belong either to large-cap, Midcap or small-cap. like the mutual fund, Large-cap Mutual fund invests the stocks in the top Large-cap companies of the country.
6. Index funds
This is another type of Mutual funds called Index funds which are the most popular and most suggested fund by the new investors. These mutual funds invest their money in the stocks of the companies which are part of the Indices of the country. For example, investing in all the companies which are the party of Nifty50 or companies which are part of Sensex. In the long run, Index always gives good returns and hence based on this view, the mutual fund wants to make use of this upward and consistent returns.
7. Exchange Traded Funds
This is another type of Mutual funds called ETFs which are just like Index funds with some differences, ETFs are a mix of a stock and a MF in the sense that
- Like ‘mutual funds’ they comprise a set of specified stocks e.g. an index like Nifty/Sensex or a commodity e.g. gold; and like equity shares they are ‘traded’ on the stock exchange on a real-time basis
- ETFs are passively managed, have low distribution costs and minimal administrative charges. Hence most ETFs have lower expense ratios than conventional MFs.
- Convenient to trade as it can be bought/sold on the stock exchange at any time of the day when the market is open (index funds can be bought only at NAV based on closing prices)
8. Fund of Funds
These are the type of Mutual funds that invests the money in other mutual funds. They put money in different mutual funds in some proportion depending on their goals and objectives.
9. Debt Funds
This is another type of Mutual funds called Debt funds which are comparatively less risky funds that invest the funds in Fixed deposits, bonds and other such secure instruments. Very less percentage of the money is invested in high risky equity.
10. Liquid Funds
These types of mutual funds are a good alternative to fixed deposits. They can be invested and can be withdrawn in a short term period. There will not be any lock-in period or some times the lock-in period will be 3 days. These funds give good returns when compared to Short term fixed deposits.
