Chapter 10

Finding and Buying Mutual Funds

IN THIS CHAPTER

Bullet Seeing the advantages — and disadvantages — of mutual funds

Bullet Finding mutual funds online that fit your needs

Bullet Finding out where to buy and sell mutual funds online

Bullet Understanding funds’ risks and returns

Bullet Determining the best ways to buy mutual funds

Online investing isn’t just for individual stock pickers. The Internet can also be used to pick, track, and monitor investments in mutual funds — funds that pool money from many investors so that it can then be invested in stocks, bonds, or other assets. By pooling money, mutual funds give many investors some of the benefits that larger investors enjoy, especially the ability to spread money over multiple investments, or diversify. Mutual funds are the way most people invest. More than 100 million individual investors, and nearly half the nation’s households, own a piece of mutual funds either directly or through a retirement plan like a pension fund. U.S. mutual funds hold more than ...

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