New investor

Dear Mr. Mayur,

I shall attempt ( off the cuff) to give you a brief about MF schemes  . For your query  as to which scheme is better, please consult your financial advisor.

1. Broadly MF schemes are classified  into 1. Open ended  2 Close ended schemes. (meaning can be understood by the nomenclature in the name itself).

2. Also Schemes are classified into  (a) Growth oriented schemes (b) Income schemes  (c) ELSS (equity linked saving schemes)   (d) debt oriented schemes.  (e) Balanced fund

 Generally Growth , Income , Balanced and ELSS schemes prodominantly invest in equity and equity related stocks  , but a small portion can also be invested in debt instruments.  The debt schemes will purely invest in debt instruments.

There are also options in each of these schemes like (a) growth ( b) dividend - payout  (c) Dividend -reinvest .

3. The  is not entry load applicable for Individual investors at the moment . Exit load is applicable for withdrawl before  365 days from the entry date. ( kindly check the relevant scheme document).

4.  Depending on the  risk apetite,  cash flow need  you can invest in any of the schemes.

5.  Daily NAV ( Net Asset Value) is declared by all the MF companies.

6. These MF companies are generally called as AMC ( Asset Management companies) promoted  by a trustee company ,which normally holds these AMC's.

7. MF industry is governed by SEBI.  AMFI ( Association of Mutual funds association of  India)  is the body of all the MF companies.

8. Before investing in MF , please be clear about your  time horizon, read about the MF scheme , analyse the performance of the MF scheme , analyse about the Fund manager ( who manages the funds).

9. The performance of each of these schemes  can be downloaded from their respective websites under "download" buttons. The fact scheets can also give you various informaton about each of these schemes .

10 . Expert  can also give you information about the  (a) Portfolio turnover ratio (b) Sharpe Ratio  etc which are very technical in nature.

-Hariharan