Wednesday, June 9, 2010

When To Sell A Mutual Fund

When To Sell A Mutual Fund

If your mutual fund is yielding a lower return than you anticipated, you may be tempted tocash in your fund units and invest your money elsewhere. The rate of return of other funds may look enticing, but be careful: there are both pros and cons to the redemption of your mutual fund shares. Let's examine the circumstances in which liquidation of your fund units would be most optimal and when it may have negative consequences.

Mutual Funds Are Not Stocks
The first thing you need to understand is thatmutual funds are not synonymous with stocks. So, a decline in the stock market does not necessarily mean that it is time to sell the fund. Stocks are single entities with rates of return associated with what the market will bear. Stocks are driven by the "buy low, sell high" rationale, which explains why, in a falling stock market, many investors panic and quickly dump all of their stock-oriented assets.

Mutual funds are not singular entities; they are portfolios of financial instruments, such as stocks and bonds, chosen by a portfolio or fund manager in accordance with the fund's strategy. An advantage of this portfolio of assets is diversification. There are many types of mutual funds, and their degrees of diversification vary. Sector funds, for instance, will have the least diversification, while balanced funds will have the most. Within all mutual funds, however, the decline of one or a few of the stocks can be offset by other assets within the portfolio that are either holding steady or increasing in value.

1 comment:

  1. I am having 100 Mutual Fund units but the share is going down, pls tell which is the right time to sell Mutual Fund units? Pls give some tips

    ReplyDelete