FINC 321 Disc ***Professor Anthony****

Janae:

Mutual fund is the company that holds and invests your money within a portfolio including a combination of various bonds, stocks, and short-term debts. You buy or sell your funds directly through this portfolio rather than through other investors. The general appeal to investors include professional management by experts, diversification (don't put all your eggs in one basket), the initial and future purchase affordability, and its liquidity.

This article also covers the different types of mutual funds such as money market funds, bond funds, stock funds, and target date funds. Money market funds are relatively low risk and invested in high-quality, short term investments backed by a government entity. Bond funds tend to be more risky than money market funds but each term and risk per bond is unique and therefore carry a drastically difference in possible outcomes. Stock funds can be growth funds, income funds, index funds, or sector funds that are invested in different corporate stocks. Lastly target date funds, or lifestyle funds, hold a mixture of stocks, bonds, and other investments that shift over time according to the targeted retirement dates.

Next, there are risks and benefits to choosing mutual fund investing. Not only do they offer professional management and diversification, but also provide three ways to earn money in return. The individual can acquire dividends, capital gains, and an increase in NAV. Just as you can collect on these gains, the market or bonds can change and cause you to lose money as well; there is always some level of risk for any particular investment. By looking at the past history of the investments you can see the potential level of volatility or stability, but keep in mind that it is not a way to predict your future gains or losses. Lastly, there are fees and expenses for handling that varies for each portfolio which can be found in the prospectus that covers all the fees and performance information reported quarterly or annually to the individual. 

https://www.investor.gov/investing-basics/investment-products/mutual-funds

Sydnee:

Go to the internet and find an article that discusses Mutual Funds, summarize key points and post in Discussions area.

The article I found was about Britain leaving the EU.  The article says that "On Friday it was a hard day. For U.S. mutual funds with a significant share of their money in European bank stocks, it was especially brutal. The five worst-performing major equity funds -- each of which lost about 10 percent -- focus on international investing and hold anywhere from 12 percent to 20 percent of their assets in bank stocks" (Stein, 2016) David Herro, manager of the $23 billion Oakmark International, said that global banks are much stronger now than they were during the 2008 financial crisis because they have larger capital cushions. So as time goes on,Britain and the world will just have to wait and see what happens and the aftermath of Britain leaving the EU and the effect on other markets not just in Europe, but over here in the United States.

Source:

Stein, Charles. June 27, 2016. "Worst U.S. Mutual Funds in Brexit Rout Bruised by European Banks" Retrieved from http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-06-27/worst-u-s-mutual-funds-in-brexit-rout-bruised-by-european-banks