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What are mutual funds?

Mutual funds are investment strategies that allow you to pool your money together with other investors to purchase a collection of stocks, bonds, or other securities that might be difficult to recreate on your own. This is often referred to as a portfolio. The price of the mutual fund, also known as its net asset value (NAV) is determined by the total value of the securities in the portfolio, divided by the number of the fund's outstanding shares. This price fluctuates based on the value of the securities held by the portfolio at the end of each business day. Note that mutual fund investors do not actually own the securities in which the fund invests; they only own shares in the fund itself.

In the case of actively managed mutual funds, the decisions to buy and sell securities are made by one or more portfolio managers, supported by teams of researchers. A portfolio manager's primary goal is to seek out investment opportunities that help enable the fund to outperform its benchmark, which is generally some widely followed index, such as the Standard & Poor's 500. One way to tell how well a fund manager is performing is to look at the returns of the fund relative to this benchmark. Note that while it may be tempting to focus on short-term performance when evaluating a fund, most experts will tell you that it's best to look at longer-term performance, such as 3- and 5-year returns.

The case for mutual funds

Mutual funds can be a cost-effective way to invest. While individual purchase minimums may vary by fund, most funds will let you buy shares with as little as $2,500, and some can be as low as $100.

In addition, minimums are often waived or reduced if investors buy a fund within a retirement account or use certain brokerage features like automatic investments to regularly invest over a set time period. Buying shares in a mutual fund is also an easy way to help diversify your investments, which is really another way of saying that you won’t have all your eggs in one basket. For instance, most mutual funds hold well over 100 securities. For someone with a small sum to invest, building and managing a portfolio containing that many securities could potentially be highly impractical, if not impossible.

Professional management

As a mutual fund investor, you get the benefit of having a professional manager reviewing the portfolio on an ongoing basis. Professional portfolio managers and analysts have the expertise and technology resources needed to research companies and analyze market information before making investment decisions. Fund managers identify which securities to buy and sell through individual security evaluation, sector allocation, and analysis of technical factors. For those who have neither the time nor the expertise to oversee their investments, this can potentially be invaluable.

Liquidity and convenience

All mutual funds allow you to buy or sell your fund shares once a day at the close of the market at the fund’s NAV. You can also automatically reinvest income from dividends and capital gain distributions or make additional investments at any time. For most stock funds, the required minimum initial investment may be substantially less than what you would have to invest to build a diversified portfolio of individual stocks.

Tax considerations

The securities held within the portfolio often pay dividends or interest. Securities can also be sold by the fund manager after rising in value. These types of events can help generate income for the fund, which by law must be paid out to investors in the form of periodic distributions. For the most part, investors who own shares in the mutual fund at the time these distributions are made are responsible for the taxes on that money. However, the income from funds that invest in municipal bonds may be exempt from federal, and in some cases, state taxes.

Investors who own mutual funds that are not held within an IRA, a health savings account (HSA), or another tax-advantaged account may be subject to different types of taxes:

  • Dividend income, which can be taxed either at long-term capital gains or ordinary income tax rates, depending on whether they’re qualified or non-qualified dividends
  • Capital gains from the sale of securities, which can be taxed at different rates, depending on your situation

Fees

There are a variety of fees that may be associated with mutual funds. Some funds come with transaction charges for buys and sells or commissions known as loads. And there are funds that charge a redemption fee if you sell shares you've only owned for a short time. Investors also pay ongoing expenses to cover the cost of operating the fund; this includes investment advisory fees (paying the fund manager and the research staff), as well as transaction costs associated with buying and selling securities within the fund. When evaluating a fund, remember that fees play a factor and may potentially detract from a fund's performance over time. All Fidelity funds can be bought or sold with no transaction fees when you buy them through Fidelity.

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Before investing, consider the funds' investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses. Contact Fidelity for a prospectus or, if available, a summary prospectus containing this information. Read it carefully.

Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

The S&P 500® Index is a market capitalization-weighted index of 500 common stocks chosen for market size, liquidity, and industry group representation to represent US equity performance. Keep in mind, investing involves risk. The value of your investment will fluctuate over time and you may gain or lose money.

In general, the bond market is volatile, and fixed income securities carry interest rate risk. (As interest rates rise, bond prices usually fall, and vice versa. This effect is usually more pronounced for longer-term securities.) Fixed income securities also carry inflation risk, liquidity risk, call risk, and credit and default risks for both issuers and counterparties. Unlike individual bonds, most bond funds do not have a maturity date, so holding them until maturity to avoid losses caused by price volatility is not possible.

Foreign securities are subject to interest-rate, currency-exchange-rate, economic, and political risks. Stock markets, especially foreign markets, are volatile and can decline significantly in response to adverse issuer, political, regulatory, market, or economic developments. Please note that tax information is general in nature and should not be considered tax or legal advice. Fidelity does not provide legal or tax advice. Consult with an attorney or tax professional regarding any specific legal or tax situation. The Fund Evaluator is provided to help self-directed investors evaluate mutual funds based on their own needs and circumstances. The criteria entered is at the sole discretion of the user and any information obtained should not be considered an offer to buy or sell, a solicitation of an offer to buy, or a recommendation for any securities. You acknowledge that your requests for information are unsolicited and shall neither constitute, nor be considered as investment advice by Fidelity Brokerage Services, LLC., Fidelity Distributors Corporation, or their affiliates (collectively, "Fidelity"). 611120.5.0