Chapter

4 Mutual Funds

McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright © 2009 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
 Learning Objectives

You are probably going to be a mutual fund investor very

soon, so you should definitely know the following:

1. The different types of mutual funds.

2. How mutual funds operate.

3. How to find information about how mutual funds have performed.

4. The workings of Exchange Traded Funds.

4-2
 Mutual Funds: Overview

• Our goal in this chapter is to understand the different types of mutual

funds, their risks, and their returns.

• Around 1980, 5 million Americans owned mutual funds.

• However, by 2007, 96 million Americans in 55 million households

owned mutual funds.

• In 2006 investors added $474 billion in net new funds to mutual

funds.

• In 2006, mutual fund assets totaled $10.4 trillion.

4-3
 Mutual Funds: Overview, Cont.

• Mutual funds are simply a means of combining or pooling the funds

of a large group of investors.

• The buy and sell decisions for the resulting pool are then made by a
fund manager, who is compensated for the service provided.

• Like commercial banks and life insurance companies, mutual funds

are a form of financial intermediary.

4-4
 Investment Companies and Fund Types, I.

• An Investment company is business that specializes in pooling

funds from individual investors and making investments.

• An Open-end fund is an investment company that stands ready to

buy and sell shares in itself to investors, at any time.

• A Closed-end fund is an investment company with a fixed number

of shares that are bought and sold by investors, only in the open
market.

4-5
Investment Companies and Fund Types, II.

4-6
Investment Companies and Fund Types, III.

• Net asset value (NAV) is the value of the assets held by a mutual
fund, divided by the number of shares.

• Shares in an open-end fund are worth their NAV, because the fund
stands ready to redeem their shares at any time.

• In contrast, share value of closed-end funds may differ from their

NAV.

4-7
 Mutual Fund Operations
Organization and Creation

• A mutual fund is simply a corporation. It is owned by shareholders,

who elect a board of directors.

• Most mutual funds are created by investment advisory firms (say

Fidelity Investments), or brokerage firms with investment advisory
operations (say Merrill Lynch).

• Investment advisory firms earn fees for managing mutual funds.

4-8
 Mutual Fund Operations
Taxation of Investment Companies

• A “regulated investment company” does not have to pay taxes on its

investment income.

• To qualify, an investment company must:

– Hold almost all its assets as investments in stocks, bonds, and
other securities,
– Use no more than 5% of its assets when acquiring a particular
security, and
– Pass through all realized investment income to fund shareholders

4-9
 Mutual Fund Operations
The Fund Prospectus and Annual Report

• Mutual funds are required by law to supply a prospectus

to any investor who wishes to purchase shares.

• Mutual funds must also provide an annual report to their

shareholders.

4-10
 Mutual Fund Costs and Fees
Types of Expenses and Fees

• Sales charges or “loads”

– Front-end loads are charges levied on purchases.
– Back-end loads are charges levied on redemptions.

• 12b-1 fees. SEC Rule 12b-1 allows funds to spend up to 1% of fund

assets annually to cover distribution and marketing costs.

• Management fees
– Usually range from 0.25% to 1.00% of the fund’s total assets each year.
– Are usually based on fund size and/or performance.

• Trading costs
– Not reported directly
– Funds must report "turnover," which is related to the amount of trading.
– The higher the turnover, the more trading has occurred in the fund.
– The more trading, the higher the trading costs.

4-11
 Mutual Fund Costs and Fees
Expense Reporting

• Mutual funds are required to report expenses in a fairly

standardized way in their prospectus.
– Shareholder transaction expenses - loads and deferred sales
charges.
– Fund operating expenses - management and 12b-1 fees,
legal, accounting, and reporting costs, director fees.
– Hypothetical example showing the total expenses paid by
investors through time per $10,000 invested.

4-12
Example: Fee Table

4-13
 Mutual Fund Costs and Fees
Why Pay Loads and Fees?

• After all, many good no-load funds exist.

• But, you may want a fund run by a particular manager. All such
funds are load funds.

• Or, you may want a specialized type of fund.

– Perhaps one that specialized in Italian companies
– Loads and fees for specialized funds tend to be higher, because
there is little competition among them.

4-14
 Short-Term Funds, I.

• Short-term funds are collectively known as money market

mutual funds.

• Money market mutual funds (MMMFs) are mutual

funds specializing in money market instruments.
– MMMFs maintain a $1.00 net asset value to make them resemble
bank accounts.
– Depending on the type of securities purchased, MMMFs can be
either taxable or tax-exempt.

4-15
 Short-Term Funds, II.

• Most banks offer what are called “money market” deposit

accounts, or MMDAs, which are much like MMMFs.

• The distinction is that a bank money market account is a

bank deposit and offers FDIC protection.

4-16
 Long-Term Funds

• There are many different types of long-term funds, i.e.,

funds that invest in long-term securities.

• Historically, mutual funds were classified as stock funds,

bond funds, or income funds.

• Today, the investment objective of the fund is the major

determinant of the fund type.

4-17
 Stock Funds, I.

• Some stock funds trade off capital appreciation and dividend

income.
– Capital appreciation
– Growth
– Growth and Income
– Equity income

• Some stock funds focus on companies in a particular size

range.
– Small company
– Mid-cap
– Large-cap

• Some stock funds invest in different parts of the world.

– Global
– International
– Regional
– Country
– Emerging markets

4-18
 Stock Funds, II.

• Sector funds specialize in specific sectors of the economy, such

as:
– Biotechnology
– Internet
– Energy

• Other fund types include:

– Index funds
– Social conscience, or “green,” funds
– “Sin” funds (i.e., tobacco, liquor, gaming)
– Tax-managed funds

4-19
 Bond Funds

• Bond funds may be distinguished by their

– Maturity range
– Credit quality
– Taxability
– Bond type
– Issuing country

• Bond fund types include:

– Short-term and intermediate-term funds
– General funds
– High-yield funds
– Mortgage funds
– World funds
– Insured funds
– Single-state municipal funds

4-20
 Stock and Bond Funds

• Funds that do not invest exclusively in either stocks or bonds

are often called “blended” or “hybrid” funds.

• Examples include:
– Balanced funds
– Asset allocation funds
– Convertible funds
– Income funds

4-21
 Mutual Fund Objectives:
Recent Developments, I.

• A mutual fund “style” box is a way of visually representing

a fund’s investment focus by placing the fund into one of
nine boxes:

Style
Value Blend Growth
Large
Size

Medium
Small

4-22
 Mutual Fund Objectives:
Recent Developments, II.

• In recent years, there has been a trend toward classifying a mutual

fund’s objective based on its actual holdings.

• For example, the Wall Street Journal classifies most general purpose
funds based on the market “cap” of the stocks they hold, and also on
whether the fund tends to invest in “growth” or “value” stocks (or
both).

4-23
Mutual Fund Objectives

4-24
Mutual Fund Selection
(www.morningstar.com)

4-25
 Mutual Fund Performance

• Mutual fund performance is very closely tracked by a

number of organizations.

• Financial publications of all types periodically provide

mutual fund data.

• The Wall Street Journal is particularly timely print source.

• www.morningstar.com has a “Fund Selector” that

provides performance information

4-26
Mutual Fund Performance: Yardsticks

4-27
 Mutual Fund Performance:
Online Version of The Wall Street Journal, I.

Note the fund with symbol: FBGRX

4-28
 Mutual Fund Performance:
Online Version of The Wall Street Journal, II

Result of clicking on “BluCh”

4-29
 Mutual Fund Performance: Cautions

• While looking at historical returns, the riskiness of the

various fund categories should also be considered.

• Whether historical performance is useful in predicting

future performance is a subject of ongoing debate.

• Some of the poorest-performing funds are those with very

high costs.

4-30
 Closed Funds

• Sometimes a fund will choose to close.

• This means that the fund will no longer sell shares to new
investors.

• The use of the word “close” here should not be confused

with “closed-end.”

• The number of shares in a closed fund can still fluctuate

as existing owners buy and sell.

• Why would a fund choose to close?

– When a fund grows rapidly, the fund manager may feel that the
incoming cash is more than the fund can invest profitably.
– Funds that close often reopen at a later date.

4-31
 Closed-End Funds

• A closed-end fund has a fixed number of shares.

• These shares are traded on stock exchanges.

– There are about 600 closed-end funds that have their shares
listed on U.S. Stock Exchanges.
– There are about 8,000 long-term open-end mutual funds.

4-32
Mutual Fund Performance:
Closed-End Funds

4-33
 The Closed-End Funds Discount

• Most closed-end funds sell at a discount relative to their

net asset values.
– The discount is sometimes substantial.
– The typical discount fluctuates over time.

• Despite a great deal of academic research, the closed-

end fund discount phenomenon remains largely
unexplained.

4-34
 Exchange Traded Funds, ETFs

• An exchange traded fund, or ETF,

– Is basically an index fund.
– Trades like a closed-end fund (without the discount phenomenon).

• An area where ETFs seem to have an edge over the more traditional index
funds is the more specialized indexes.

• A well-known ETF is the “Standard and Poor’s Depositary Receipt” or SPDR.

– This ETF mimics the S&P 500 index.
– It is commonly called “spider."

• Another well-known ETF mimics the Dow Jones—it is called "Diamond."

• A list of ETFs can be found at www.amex.com.

4-35
Exchange Traded Funds, Performance

4-36
 Exchange Traded Notes, ETNs

• Introduced in mid-2006 by Barclays Bank.

• To investors, ETNs look like ETFs.

• However, ETNs are unsecured debt—so, unlike holders

of ETFs, holders of ETNs do have default risk.

• ETNs provide investors with exposure to commodities,

but without the leveraged risk of futures contracts.

• Handy web source: www.ipathetn.com

4-37
 Hedge Funds

• Like mutual funds, hedge funds collect pools of money from

investors.

• Like mutual funds, hedge funds are generally required to register

with the SEC. But:
– Hedge funds are not required to maintain any particular degree of
diversification or liquidity.
– Hedge fund managers have considerably more freedom to follow various
investment strategies, or styles.

• Hedge fund fees:

– General management fee of 1-2% of fund assets
– Performance fee of 20-40% of profits

4-38
 Useful Internet Sites

• www.ici.org (mutual fund facts and figures)

• www.vanguard.com (example of a major fund family website)
• www.fidelity.com (website of largest investment advisory firm in US)
• www.mfea.com (information on thousands of funds)
• www.morningstar.com (one of the best mutual fund sites)
• www.domini.com (more “social conscience” funds)
• www.vicefund.com (“vice” funds)
• www.amex.com (exchange traded funds)
• www.ishares.com (more on exchange traded funds)
• www.ipathetn.com (all about ETNs)
• www.hedgeworld.com (hedge fund information)
• www.hedgefundcenter.com (more hedge fund information)
• www.turnkeyhedgefunds.com (how to start your own hedge fund)

4-39
 Chapter Review, I.

• Investment Companies and Fund Types

– Open-End versus Closed-End Funds
– Net Asset Value

• Mutual Fund Operations

– Mutual Fund Organization and Creation
– Taxation of Investment Companies
– The Fund Prospectus and Annual Report

• Mutual Fund Costs and Fees

– Types of Expenses and Fees
– Expense Reporting
– Why Pay Loads and Fees?

• Short-Term Funds
– Money Market Mutual Funds
– Money Market Deposit Accounts

4-40
 Chapter Review, II.

• Long-Term Funds
– Stock Funds
– Taxable and Municipal Bond Funds
– Stock and Bond Funds
– Mutual Fund Objectives: Recent Developments

• Mutual Fund Performance

– Mutual Fund Performance Information
– How Useful are Fund Performance Ratings?

• Closed-End Funds, Exchange Traded Funds, and Hedge Funds

– Closed-End Funds Performance Information
– The Closed-End Fund Discount Mystery
– Exchange Traded Funds
– Exchange Traded Notes
– Hedge Funds

4-41