The founder of The Vanguard Group, and a major figure in the index investing community. John Bogle was the first person to offer an index fund to retail customers. Bogle's flagship Vanguard 500 Fund became the world’s largest mutual fund by assets in 2002. Bogle is an author which has long been a proponent of passive investing over active management, and for low fees and no sales charges. John Bogle is considered the Godfather of Index investing, believing that the average investor cannot "beat the market" over time, and shouldn’t pay (or at least overpay) for anyone else to try. His Vanguard funds are renowned for their ultra-low expense ratios, and for having no loads. The Vanguard 500 Fund carries a total expense ratio of less than 0.5% of assets annually, and has outperformed the majority of mutual funds over the past 25 years.
Mutual fund shares purchased by individual investors as opposed to institutional shareholders. In general, the amount invested in the fund is what distinguishes investors from institutional shareholders. In many cases, a fund will have a minimum investment that must be made to qualify as an institutional shareholder. For example, Vanguard has a shareholder category called Admiral Shares, which requires a minimal investment level of $100,000 in a fund. At this level, a fund shareholder will benefit from a slightly lower expense ratio as well as certain service benefits.If a fund carries a load, it will apply to investor shares, whereas institutional shareholders will generally have this fee reduced or waived completely because of the size of their investment.
A corporation or trust engaged in the business of investing the pooled capital of investors in financial securities. This is most often done either through a closed-end fund or an open-end fund (also referred to as a mutual fund). In the U.S., most investment companies are registered with and regulated by the Securities & Exchange Commission under the Investment Company Act of 1940. Also known as "fund company" or "fund sponsor". Investment companies are business entities, both privately and publicly owned, that manage, sell, and market funds to the public. They typically offer investors a variety of funds and investment services, which include portfolio management, recordkeeping, custodial, legal, accounting and tax management services.
In the context of stock mutual fund investing, refers to using one of three possible approaches -- investing in value stocks, growth stocks, or a blend of value and growth stocks - to create a fund portfolio. Value stocks are perceived to be less risky than growth stocks, which makes the blend investing style a compromise of the two. Investment style, along with company size, is the basic determinant of a fund portfolio's asset allocation and risk-return parameters.Fund investors should look for a high degree of consistency in a fund's investment style. Frequent changes could be an indication of the fund's investment manager chasing performance, which surely involves increasing risk.
An exchange-traded fund (ETF) that is constructed by using various derivatives for the purpose of profiting from a decline in the value of an underlying benchmark. Investing in these ETFs is similar to holding various short positions, or using a combination of advanced investment strategies to profit from falling prices. Also known as a "Short ETF," or "Bear ETF". Watch: Understanding ETF One advantage is that these ETFs do not require the investor to hold a margin account as would be the case for investors looking to enter into short positions. There are several inverse ETFs that can be used to profit from declines in broad market indexes, such as the Russell 2000 or the Nasdaq 100. In addition, it is possible to buy inverse ETFs that focus on a specific sector, such as financials, energy or consumer staples. Most investors look to purchase inverse ETFs so that they can hedge their portfolios against falling prices.
A series of indexes that tracks the financial performance of different types of mutual funds. Lipper, which is owned by Reuters, allows investors to benchmark the performance of a mutual fund investment against an index of 30 funds that also belong in that investment category. Lipper creates indexes for each major investment style, such as small- or large-cap funds, value funds and growth funds. Much like the S&P 500 allows stock investors to compare their returns to a market benchmark, a Lipper index aggregates the 30 biggest funds of a given investment style. For example, an investor could compare the performance of a small-cap mutual fund against the Lipper Small-Cap Index, which would combine the 30 biggest small-cap funds, based on asset size.
An investment fund featuring an asset mix determined by the level of risk and return that is appropriate for an individual investor. Factors that determine this mix include an investor's age, level of risk aversion, the investment's purpose and the length of time until the principal will be withdrawn. Lifestyle funds can feature conservative, moderate or aggressive growth strategies. Aggressive growth lifestyle funds are targeted to investors in their late 20s, while conservative growth lifestyle funds are targeted to investors in their late 50s. Lifestyle funds are designed to be the main investment in a person's portfolio. The purpose of a lifestyle fund may be defeated if other funds are chosen at the same time because the asset allocation ratio will become distorted.
A special category of balanced, or asset-allocation, mutual fund in which the proportional representation of an asset class in a fund's portfolio is automatically adjusted during the course of the fund's time horizon. The automatic portfolio adjustment run from a position of higher risk to one of lower risk as the investor ages and/or nears retirement. Also referred to as "age-based funds". Proponents of life-cycle funds cite the convenience to investors of putting their investing activities on autopilot through the use of just one fund, which is managed for them. On the other hand, critics of these funds say that their "one size fits all" approach is suspect. For investors who don't want to take responsibility for their retirement investing, a life-cycle fund may be appropriate. However, for those who want to take the time and make the effort to direct the management of their investments, life-cycle funds should be avoided.