What is a Mutual Fund?

A mutual fund is a company that pools the money of many investors -- its shareholders -- to invest in a variety of different securities. Investments may be in stocks, bonds, money market securities or some combination of these. Those securities are professionally managed on behalf of the shareholders, and each investor holds a pro rata share of the portfolio -- entitled to any profits when the securities are sold, but subject to any losses in value as well.

For the individual investor, mutual funds provide the benefit of having someone else manage your investments, take care of recordkeeping for your account, and diversify your dollars over many different securities that may not be available or affordable to you otherwise. Today, minimum investment requirements on many funds are low enough that even the smallest investor can get started in mutual funds.

A mutual fund, by its very nature, is diversified -- its assets are invested in many different securities. Beyond that, there are many different types of mutual funds with different objectives and levels of growth potential, furthering your chances to diversify.