A stock fund, or equity fund, is a fund that invests in

stock Stocks (also capital stock, or sometimes interchangeably, shares) consist of all the Share (finance), shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided. A single share of the stock means fractional ownership of the corporatio ...

s, also called equity securities. Stock funds can be contrasted with

bond fund A bond fund or debt fund is a fund that invests in bonds, or other debt securities. Bond funds can be contrasted with stock funds and money funds. Bond funds typically pay periodic dividends that include interest payments on the fund's underlyi ...

s and

money fund A money market fund (also called a money market mutual fund) is an open-end mutual fund that invests in short-term debt securities such as US Treasury bills and commercial paper. Money market funds are managed with the goal of maintaining a hig ...

s. Fund assets are typically mainly in stock, with some amount of

cash In economics, cash is money in the physical form of currency, such as banknotes and coins. In book-keeping and financial accounting, cash is current assets comprising currency or currency equivalents that can be accessed immediately or near-i ...

, which is generally quite small, as opposed to bonds, notes, or other

securities A security is a tradable financial asset. The term commonly refers to any form of financial instrument, but its legal definition varies by jurisdiction. In some countries and languages people commonly use the term "security" to refer to any for ...

. This may be a

mutual fund A mutual fund is an investment fund that pools money from many investors to purchase Security (finance), securities. The term is typically used in the United States, Canada, and India, while similar structures across the globe include the SICAV in ...

exchange-traded fund An exchange-traded fund (ETF) is a type of investment fund that is also an exchange-traded product, i.e., it is traded on stock exchanges. ETFs own financial assets such as stocks, bonds, currencies, debts, futures contracts, and/or comm ...

. The objective of an equity fund is long-term growth through capital gains, although historically

dividend A dividend is a distribution of profits by a corporation to its shareholders, after which the stock exchange decreases the price of the stock by the dividend to remove volatility. The market has no control over the stock price on open on the ex ...

s have also been an important source of total return. Specific equity funds may focus on a certain sector of the market or may be geared toward a certain level of risk. Stock funds can be distinguished by several properties. Funds may have a specific

style Style, or styles may refer to: Film and television * ''Style'' (2001 film), a Hindi film starring Sharman Joshi, Riya Sen, Sahil Khan and Shilpi Mudgal * ''Style'' (2002 film), a Tamil drama film * ''Style'' (2004 film), a Burmese film * '' ...

, for example, value or growth. Funds may invest in solely the securities from one country, or from many countries. Funds may focus on some size of company, that is,

small-cap A small cap company is a company whose market capitalization ( shares x value of each share) is considered small. In the United States, this includes market caps from $250 million to $2 billion (as of 2022). Overview A small cap company typicall ...

, large-cap, ''et cetera''. Funds which involve some component of stock picking are said to be actively managed, whereas index funds try as well as possible to mirror specific

stock market indices In finance, a stock index, or stock market index, is an index that measures the performance of a stock market, or of a subset of a stock market. It helps investors compare current stock price levels with past prices to calculate market perfor ...

Fund types

Index fund

Index funds invest in

to mirror a market index, such as the

S&P 500 The Standard and Poor's 500, or simply the S&P 500, is a stock market index tracking the stock performance of 500 leading companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States. It is one of the most commonly followed equity indices and in ...

. An index fund buys and sells securities in a manner that mirrors the composition of the selected index. The fund's performance tracks the underlying index's performance. The turnover of securities in an index fund's portfolio is minimal. As a result, an index fund generally has lower management costs than other types of funds.

Growth fund

A growth fund invests in the stock of companies that are growing rapidly. Growth companies tend to reinvest all or most of their profits for research and development rather than pay dividends. Growth funds are focused on generating capital gains rather than income.

Value fund

This is a fund that invests in "value" stocks. Companies rated as value stocks usually are older, established businesses that pay dividends.

Sector fund

A fund that invests in one area of industry is called a sector fund. Most sector funds have a minimum of 25% of their assets invested in its specialty. These funds offer high appreciation potential, but may also pose higher risks to the investor. Examples include gold funds (gold mining stock), technology funds, and utility funds.

Income fund

An equity income fund stresses current income over growth. The funds objective may be accomplished by investing in the stocks of companies with long histories of dividend payments, such as utility stocks, blue-chip stocks, and preferred stocks. Option income funds invest in securities on which options may be written and earn premium income from writing options. They may also earn capital gains from trading options at a profit. These funds seek to increase total return by adding income generated by the options to appreciation on the securities held in the portfolio.

Balanced fund

Balanced Funds invest in stocks for appreciation and bonds for income. The goal is to provide a regular income payment to the fund holder, while increasing its principal.

Asset allocation fund

A fund that owns stocks and a substantial amount of assets other than stocks is considered an asset allocation fund. These funds split investments between growth stocks, income stocks/bonds, and money market instruments or cash for stability. A fund that switches between asset classes based on predictions of future returns is called a tactical allocation fund. Other funds may maintain a more or less constant proportion of assets, due to the belief that such prediction is not reliable.

Fund of funds

"Fund of funds" implies that the assets of a fund are other funds. They may be stock funds, in which case the original fund can be called "fund of stock funds". See

fund of funds A "fund of funds" (FOF) is an investment strategy of holding a portfolio of other investment funds rather than investing directly in stocks, bonds or other securities. This type of investing is often referred to as multi-manager investment. A f ...

Hedge funds

"Hedge fund" is a legal structure. Hedge funds often trade stocks but may trade or invest in anything else depending on the fund. This is done to reduce the risk of investments in stocks.

References

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