Mutual Funds This power point can be helpful to you along with using lessons & publications from the Teacher Support Center. The lessons, activities or stock talk that I will be referring to will need to be downloaded from the Teacher Support Center. You must be registered with the Stock Market Game to have access to the Teacher Support Center

Mutual Funds Mutual Funds – table of contents Page 2: What are Mutual FundsWhat are Mutual Funds Page 3: Mutual Fund VocabularyMutual Fund Vocabulary Page 4: Finding LessonsFinding Lessons Page 5: Finding Mutual Funds on the InternetFinding Mutual Funds on the Internet Page 6: Using

What are Mutual Funds? A mutual fund is a collection of stocks, bonds, and other securities owned by a group of investors and managed by a professional investment advisory firm. The investment advisor collects money and invests that pool of money in various stocks, bonds and other securities. Some mutual funds are more risky than others depending on the types of investments they make. A mutual fund manager is aided by a team of analysts who decides, which stocks and other securities to include in the mutual fund, often investing in 100 or more securities. Different mutual funds serve different investment strategies -- from the very conservative to the more speculative. Every day the fund ' s manager and analysts evaluate the fund ' s performance in the market, how economic news might affect the fund and which securities to keep or sell. Mutual funds invest based upon a clearly stated set of objectives that can be found in the funds prospectus. For example, a “green” portfolio, is composed of stocks from companies that carry out environmentally friendly activities, companies with family - friendly policies, etc. Investing in mutual funds can be a highly successful strategy because they help individual investors diversify their portfolios. To gain full access to the “Teacher Support Center” you must register your student in the stock market www. stockmarketgame. org www. stockmarketgame. org

Mutual Fund Vocabulary Closed-end funds: Like open-end mutual funds, these are collections of securities managed by a professional investment advisor. Unlike open-end mutual funds, their shares are traded on a stock exchange like ordinary stock. Diversification: An investment strategy in which you spread your investment dollars among different markets, sectors, industries, and securities. The goal of the strategy is to protect the value of your overall portfolio in case a single security or market sector takes a serious downturn and drops in price. Exchange-Traded Funds: Funds whose shares, like closed-end funds, are traded on a stock exchange. These invest in stocks or bonds that closely follow an index Index: An index reports changes, usually expressed as a percentage, in a specific financial market, in a number of related markets, or in an economy as a whole. Each index — and there are a large number of them — measures the market or economy it tracks from a specific starting point, which might be as recent as the previous day or many years in the past. Mutual funds: An investment instrument developed and managed by a company that pools members’ money—often millions of dollars—to invest in a variety of stocks and bonds. Investment professionals who research companies and buy or sell stocks actively manage the funds based on what they think is best for the fund’s shareholders. Open-end funds: Funds that usually sell as many shares as investors want to buy. Sometimes open-end funds stop selling shares to new investors when they grow too large to be managed effectively. Investors who want to sell shares of their open-end funds, sell them back to the mutual fund.

Finding Lessons Using your username and password log onto Begin by logging on to the Stock Market Game ( Scroll down In the Classroom & click on Lesson Sequence Click on “Display a Complete Outline of All lessons” & click Display Report Scroll down and click on Mutual Funds You will also have access to Math Behind the Market, math lessons – great lessons for mutual funds.

Finding Mutual Funds on the Internet 1. Go to and find the “find a mutual fund” section on the homepage. 2. Choose a “fund family”. 3. Choose a mutual fund. 1.Go to 2.Scroll down Investing & click on Mutual Funds 3.You can now look up funds based on: a) Performance b)Fund size c)Fund family

– mutual funds