Investment Terms

Liquid Mutual Fund Schemes

The objective of liquid mutual fund schemes  is to invest in short-term money market instruments of good credit quality. The fund predominantly invests in money market instruments and provides investors the returns that are available on these instruments. The investment portfolio is very liquid, and enables investors to hold their investments for very short horizons of a day or more. The liquid funds are normally open-ended. It provides with the following options/schemes, which are sub-products within the liquid fund.

  • Overnight Option (Growth): This option is meant to be used by investors with very short-term investment horizon and is fully invested in the call money market.
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Balanced Mutual Funds

Mutual funds that invest both in debt and equity markets are called balanced mutual funds or simply balanced fund. A typical balanced fund would be almost equally invested in both the markets. The variations are equity funds that invest predominantly in equity (about 70%) and keep a smaller part of their portfolios in debt securities. These funds seek to enhance the income potential of their equity component, by bringing in debt. Similarly, there are predominantly debt funds (over 70% in debt securities) which invest in equity, to provide some growth potential to their funds. A balanced fund also tends to provide investors exposure to both equity and debt markets in one product.… Read the rest

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Mutual Fund NAV Calculation

The net asset value is the market value of the assets of the scheme deducting its liabilities. Simply put, the NAV is what investors are required to pay to buy or sell one share of the mutual fund. Keep in mind any additional fees are not included in this amount. In accounting terms, NAV is also known as the book value of the mutual fund.

The net asset value per mutual fund unit on any business day is computed as follows:

NAV = (Market value of the fund’s investments + Receivables + Accrued income -Liabilities -Accrued expenses)/Number of units outstanding

Rules Governing the Mutual Fund NAV Calculation
  1. Accrued Income and Expenses: The correct accrual of all incomes and expenses is a requirement for computing NAV.
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Mutual Fund Prospectus

A mutual fund prospectus is an offer document issued at the time of new issue of mutual funds, as an invitation to the public to subscribe to the units of a particular scheme. It contains the key information about the terms, conditions and the features of the mutual fund schemes and the application form. All mutual funds are required to give information about their schemes as per the format of the offer document prescribed by SEBI. Everyone agrees that the prospectus is the single best source of information about a mutual fund, yet as many of mutual fund investors do not use this critical document when investing their savings and retirement assets.… Read the rest

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What is a Mutual Fund Load?

Load is the factor that is applied to the Net Asset Value (NAV) of a mutual fund scheme to arrive at the price. If a commission is paid to agents to bring in new business this represents the cost incurred by the mutual fund for additional sale. The fund may therefore decide that, investors who are already in the scheme need not bear this cost. Therefore, it may decide to impose this cost on the new investors by increasing the price at which they can buy units. This is called the sales load. Similarly, if an investor stays in a fund for a short while and decides to repurchase his units, the fund may incur some costs in liquidating the portfolio and paying off this investor.… Read the rest

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Stock – Meaning and Definition

Stock is the share in the ownership of the company. Stock represents the claim on the company’s assets and earnings. In other words, it means, the more the stock, the ownership stake in the company becomes greater. The stock is represented by a stock certificate which is a document that proves the ownership in the company. Few years ago when the person wanted to buy or sell shares, he/she physically took the certificates to the brokerage firm. But now information technology has increased, because of which this stock document is stored electronically. Now trading with a click of mouse or a phone call has made transacting easier.… Read the rest

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