Mutual funds
mutual funds
One pooled fund, many underlying holdings
Money from many investors is pooled and managed as a single portfolio by an asset management company, under SEBI regulation.
you own units, not shares
Your holding is measured in units. Their value moves with the net asset value of the underlying portfolio.
a spread of holdings
A single fund typically holds dozens of underlying securities, so no one of them dominates the outcome.
at a glance
How this one behaves
Open-ended funds are the most liquid and the least demanding to start of the categories here. What varies enormously is what sits inside them.
- What you hold
- Units of a pooled fund, not the underlying securities
- Priced
- Once a day, at net asset value
- Getting out
- Usually a few working days, subject to any exit load
- What drives the outcome
- The scheme’s mandate and the markets it invests in
how it works
The categories matter more than the name
Fund names tell you very little. The category tells you almost everything about how a fund is likely to behave. SEBI requires funds to be classified, and those classifications are the first thing worth reading.
Equity funds invest primarily in shares. They carry the widest range of outcomes — the strongest long-term growth potential and the largest falls along the way. Within equity, a large-cap fund and a sectoral or thematic fund are very different propositions: the latter concentrates on one part of the market and can diverge sharply from it, in both directions.
Debt funds invest in bonds and other fixed income instruments. They are generally less volatile than equity but they still carry real risk: credit risk if an issuer fails to pay, and interest-rate risk, which means their value can fall when prevailing rates rise. Longer-duration debt funds are more sensitive to this than short ones.
Hybrid funds hold a mix of both, in proportions set by their mandate. Index funds and ETFs track an index rather than trying to beat it, usually at a lower cost, and their risk is close to that of the index itself plus a small tracking difference.
Two costs are worth understanding. The expense ratio is charged annually as a percentage of your holding, and it is deducted from the fund whether it performs well or badly — so it compounds against you over long periods. An exit load may apply if you redeem within a defined window. Separately, a direct plan carries a lower expense ratio than a regular plan of the same scheme, because the regular plan includes distributor commission. That difference is permanent and worth being aware of when comparing.
A SIP is not a product and not a fund type. It is simply a method of contributing a fixed amount at regular intervals. It spreads your entry across different price levels, which removes the need to judge timing, but it does not protect against loss — if the underlying market falls over your whole holding period, a SIP falls with it.
risk
What can go wrong
Every investment on this site carries risk. These are the ones that matter most for this category.
market risk
Unit values rise and fall with the underlying holdings. You can get back less than you invested, and no particular outcome is promised.
credit and rate risk
In debt funds, an issuer can default, and values can fall when interest rates rise. "Debt" does not mean capital is protected.
concentration risk
Sectoral and thematic funds deliberately concentrate. That widens the range of outcomes in both directions.
faqs
Questions about mutual funds
It is not safer in the sense of protecting capital — both are exposed to the same underlying market. What a SIP does is spread your entry over time, so the outcome depends less on the single day you happened to invest. If the market declines across your entire holding period, a SIP declines too.
They are the same underlying scheme with different cost structures. A regular plan includes distributor commission in its expense ratio; a direct plan does not, so its ongoing cost is lower. Over long holding periods that difference compounds. It is a fair question to ask about any fund you are considering.
It depends entirely on the category. Equity funds are generally considered for longer horizons, because they need time to absorb periods of decline. Short-duration debt funds may suit much shorter periods. Matching the fund category to when you actually need the money is more important than the choice of fund within a category.
No. Past performance does not indicate future results, and strong recent returns sometimes reflect a period that particularly suited that fund's mandate rather than durable skill. Category, mandate, cost and consistency of process are more informative than a single trailing return figure.
Risk and important information
Mutual fund investments are subject to market risk. Please read all scheme-related documents carefully before investing. The value of units can go up or down depending on the factors and forces affecting securities markets, and you may get back less than you invested. Returns are not guaranteed and past performance does not indicate future results. Nothing on this page is investment advice or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any scheme.
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