GoldenGate Fund

For a better mutual fund and ETF investment strategy, focus on very low cost, broad market, passive index mutual funds and ETFs. They cost less and get the broad market return -- whatever that will be -- before costs. They narrow the range of investment portfolio outcomes, and therefore they reduce the risk to your long-term personal financial plan. They take far less time to manage personally. Furthermore, extensive financial research has shown clearly and overwhelmingly that a passive, low cost index strategy for individual investors tends to be superior from a risk-adjusted, after-tax, and net returns standpoint. Unfortunately, lately, the index fund investment space has become a minefield for...

As a new investor you're looking for your best investment options. Popular investment options include stocks, bonds, and real estate. The problem is that these are only your best investment options IF you have the time and expertise to devote to them. Does that mean that as a new investor the above investment options are closed to you? No, it does not. Tens of millions of Americans invest money without ever picking a stock, analyzing a bond, or inspecting a property. As the stock market goes up they make money. When interest rates fall they earn more interest in bonds. When real estate ownership is profitable, and it usually is, they watch the value of their investment go up and earn dividends as...

You read and hear a lot about hedge funds. Unfortunately, most of what you hear is negative because it comes from the major media that has an interest in reporting negatives about them because the major media is supported by so-called standard mutual funds and brokerage companies that spend big bucks foradvertising. Hedge funds are NOT allowed to advertise. First of all a hedge fund is almost identical to a mutual fund. There have actually been fewer fraud complaints about hedge funds than about mutual funds. That doesn't mean they don't lose money just as regular mutual funds do. The underperformance of mutual funds is not highlighted in the press; you don't bite the hand that feeds you. I'm...

Mutual funds offer investors a conventional approach for adding commodities to their portfolios. With the funds, investors do not have to worry about picking individual stocks or becoming knowledgeable about futures and options on futures, two of the more difficult investing instruments in the financial marketplace today. Funds offer diversification and instant exposure to the commodities market an investor is targeting. Investing in mutual funds that target the commodities market makes sense for many investors, particularly those who want to entrust the management of their accounts to others because of lack of expertise, minimal time to do research and place trades, or little desire to manage their...

One of the best things that came out of the latest market downturn is clearly that people have re-evaluated the importance of risk management. Whether these people manage multi-billion dollar credit portfolios like those folks who are employed by lenders who underwrite mortgages or these people are individual investors looking to save for retirement, risk management probably will not be something people of this generation will ignore ever again. For the individual investor, risk management means a couple of things. One, how much risk can I tolerate in my portfolio or, more accurately, how will I feel if I see my portfolio drop 30% again? Two, what are my investment goals? Do I need $4 million or do...

Balanced investment strategy is perhaps the most followed and successful investment strategy for portfolio management. Its primary aim is to keep a balance between investment risk and return. A balanced investment strategy combines the merit of aggressive and defensive investing strategies. Aggressive investment strategy involves investing in high return high risk investments with the sole purpose of maximizing return from investments. It involves allocating major portion of portfolio capital to invest in equities, equity based funds and highly volatile markets. Investors following aggressive investment strategy often look for comparatively short-term profiting and wish to invest more in growth...

Before we can answer the question “should you invest in individual bonds or bond mutualfunds”, we have to first understand the purpose of owning bonds in your portfolio. Noviceinvestors use bonds as an income generator, relying on yields to supplement living expensesduring retirement. Institutional investors and competent advisors, on the other hand, viewbonds as a tool to reduce portfolio volatility. Total return, not just bond yield, is what counts. If the purpose of holding bonds is to control portfolio risk, then owning bond funds, not individual bonds, is the appropriate choice. Individual bond shares are not cheap. A single corporate bond can cost you $10,000 or more. So, if a retiree...

Mutual funds are one category of investment securities that offer a very wide range of options from which an investor can choose from. This means that, one will be able to spread risk and also increase chances of making more money from the various investment options. The securities that one can buy under these kind of investment category include stocks and bonds. This is what is known as mutual funds diversification. This means that, with the diversification, there is a great chance for growth and as such, mutual funds are able to balance themselves out, even when the economic times are hard or when the stock market is not doing so well. However, they have their disadvantages as well. Depending on...

Q: I am a public school teacher with the Princeton Regional High School District and my husband is a professor at Rutgers University. We can either chose annuities or mutual funds in our 403(b) retirement plan. What are the pros and cons of each? The Problem - Annuities in Retirement Plans. Over 80% of 403(b) retirement assets are invested in tax sheltered annuities, while only 20% are invested in mutual funds. In New Jersey, the percentage invested in tax sheltered annuities is ever higher. At face value this sounds harmless, but hiding just underneath the surface is a very profitable, little talked about secret that is unnecessarily costing investors billions of dollars. Insurance companies...

Arguably one of the most important considerations when putting together an investment plan is the asset mix. This simply means determining how much of your money gets invested in growth investments, how much gets invested in income-producing investments and how much will sit on the side lines in cash. The general theory is that the longer time one has to invest, the more risk or growth assets one can and should hold in their investment portfolio. As time passes, however, the investor will have less and less time, meaning that the riskier assets should be scaled back and more conservative, income-producing assets should be purchased to replace those higher risk assets. This results in greater...

One of the most exciting things about investing is the sheer number of options you have to invest in. If you are new to investing, it can be a bit overwhelming at first, but once you understand all of the doors that are open to you, it can lead to a "kid in a candy store" type of feeling. Probably the two most traditional investments that most people have heard of are stocks and bonds. If you were to check the average portfolio of an average investor, you would likely find half a dozen stock investments, some mutual funds and some bonds. The great thing about stocks and bonds is that they work together to help balance out the amount of risk in a portfolio: stocks tend to be higher risk while bonds...

WealthCapfund also accepts the hedge funds which is one of the fastest growing areas of investment management. Hedge funds are any unregistered, privately offered, managed pool of capital for wealthy, sophisticated and financially sound investors. They are usually structured as partnerships with the general partner being the portfolio manager, making the investment decisions and the limited partners as the investors. These funds are subject to the same market rules and regulations as any trader. They use advanced investment strategies such as leverage, long, short and derivative positions in both international and domestic markets with the aim to generate high returns. Hedge funds are expected to...

The primary goal of hedge funds is to obtain positive growth for the investors. Hedge funds can accomplish this in a number of ways. Usually, different strategies are employed to take advantage of the broad range of financial instruments available for hedge fund investment. By using these strategies in conjunction with various aspects both within and outside of the financial sector, successful hedge fund managers bring in a steady, positive return rate, despite how the market is performing at any given time. In order to understand how hedge funds work, you need to understand the main types of strategies, the types of investments possible, and the numerous ways this type of fund may be managed. Basic...

Stock investing and bond investing have much in common. If you want quality you pay for it. If you take more risk you can make more money. You can invest in the individual securities or in funds: stock funds and bond funds. Let's look at bond investing basics first. High quality bonds and high quality bond funds have less credit risk. This is comforting because you are lending money to make money when investing in bonds. Your goal is to earn higher interest with relative price stability. High quality bonds and bond funds pay less interest than lower rated securities, all else being equal. In other words, in bond investing you pay for high quality. In simplest terms, you take more risk and earn more...

Stock investment strategies come in many forms. For most investors both the form of stock investment and the investment strategy should be kept simple to be effective. Here's how to keep your stock portfolio on track for long term profits while avoiding investment strategies that often don't work. Often long term stock investment strategies concentrate on being in the best stock (equity) sectors or categories over time. Two broad classifications are commonly used to describe general equity characteristics: growth vs. value and small-cap vs. large cap. Over a period of time, either the growth sector outperforms value or vice versa. The same holds true for small company stocks (equities) vs. large...

Pick up a copy of Money magazine or other similar publications and read a few articles and you'll find the conventional wisdom -- the retail investor will not beat the return of the indexes over time, so don't even try. Just stick your money in a cheap mutual fund, such as an index fund, and let it ride. The research will show that the large majority of professionally managed mutual funds trail the performance of their non-managed index brethren, so there is no reason to try to pick stocks. This advice is absolutely true for managed mutual funds. But there are investors out there -- many of them in fact -- who have been able to beat the markets through managing their own accounts. This was discussed...

Bonds offer a stable-return for long-term investors. They are often referred to as "fixed-income" investments because they provide a stable rate of return (called yield) for investors. Bonds are also the most common hedge against stock volatility, because stock market volatility will not affect bond prices. But it is a challenge for individual investors to benefit from bonds. Most bonds are offered in denominations of $1000 or higher, so an investor will need upwards of $50,000 to put together a well-diversified bond portfolio. Enter fixed-income funds. Fixed-income funds offer small investors a way to invest smaller amounts into this essential asset class. Risk Investing in bonds carries two main...

The best stock investment strategy for 2010 and beyond will focus on a stock investment that is actually an investment fund. This investment strategy is easy to put into action and is the best way to simplify things for the average stock investor. You can do it the hard way in 2010 and beyond, or you can learn about stock investment funds and do it the easy way. Many people try to pick the best stock investment by pouring over the list of equities (stocks) traded on the major exchanges. That gives you about 5000 choices. Others try to pick the best investment fund from the equity category offered by a specific mutual fund family. This limits your choices, but also your opportunities; since few...

Getting into bond markets is easier than ever with the emergence of ETF bond funds. In the past, the only way to invest in bonds was to purchase them either directly from the issuer or on secondary markets. At a minimum, this generally meant putting up at least the face value of the bond which could mean you'd need at least $1,000 just to enter the door. And you'd be investing in a single bond from a single corporation or government, so diversity was not an option. Later mutual funds made bond investing easier. Now investors could put up a few thousand dollars and get exposure to hundreds of bonds. If you had $5-$10,000 to get started with, you'd be able to build a diversified bond portfolio. In...

Municipal bonds (munis) have been around for years and offer investors interest income that is tax-exempt, free from federal income taxes. This is important to many bond investors, because they buy bonds for the higher income they pay vs. CDs and savings accounts. Municipal bond funds invest in munis. Hence, if you buy the fund, you are invested in municipal bonds and receive dividends that are free of federal income taxes. Municipal bonds are issued by states and local government entities to raise capital (money) for major projects. The U.S. government gives them a break by not levying income taxes on the interest they pay to investors. This makes it easier for the state of Ohio, for example...

Mutual funds help you raise money and earn very good returns on your investment by investing it across different securities and companies depending on the investment opportunity. Mutual funds are invested in diversified sectors of the economy depending upon the risk appetite of the investor. For instance, a pure growth equity fund invests in equity sectors like infrastructure, telecom, consumer durables etc. A debt fund invests in government bonds, short term instruments like commercial papers, debentures of companies etc. There are several types of mutual funds. Here are they: Equity/Growth Fund: In this form of mutual fund, the investment is done only in equities also known as stocks. The longer a...

A mutual fund is a professionally managed type of collective investment scheme that pools money from many investors and invests it in stocks, bonds, short-term money market instruments, and/or other securities. Investing in mutual funds tends to lower the risk factor because they are the result of diverse investments. In order to get the most out of your returns, without paying a high fee, you need to be aware of the different classes of mutual fund stocks and their advantages and disadvantages. Mutual fund classes show the type of stocks covered under each mutual fund. The most common mutual fund classes are A, B, and C. Class A stocks attract lower 12b-1 fees and investing in such stocks makes you...

Wise investment is the base to a successful trail of returns. Investing in stocks has emerged in recent times as one of the most lucrative sources of minting money across nations. Whether it is stocks, shares, funds like mutual funds, index funds, and the like, returns depend on market conditions. The risk factor is an indispensable part of such investments; if the market goes up, you gain and vice versa. There are certain funds where the risk factor is less under any market conditions. These funds are categorized as funds. Investing infunds enables the investor to make a mark in the long run; such investments may be either for the long term or short term. A blend of patience and research...

it of conventional investing wisdom is that stock mutual funds have much more risk than bond funds. In this article we take a look at how stocks and bonds will have differing risks. We will also look at how much we should invest in stock funds vs bond funds. Stock represent a partial ownership in a business. But bonds are set up more like a loan to that business. Upon examining a typical bond issue, if you ignore the risk that the issuing company might go bankrupt at some point, you find that you know precisely how much money you will receive back and when you will receive it. Take this case as an example, if you bought a bond with a 6% yield on that bond, it will probably be paid as a 3% dividend...

Good planning and strategy is required to accomplish any kind of work perfectly. This is also true when it comes to stock investment. So, if you want to reach your monetary goals within a specified timeframe - you will have to follow investment strategies. In this way, you can manage your funds accordingly. There are four main factors on which your strategies will depend: - Objective: The amount of funds you are investing will determine your goal. - Time period: A particular time that you have set to achieve your financial goal. - Return: How much return you are expecting within a certain timeframe. - Subtle risks: how much risk you can take to achieve your objective. Moreover stock market...

If you are looking for new investment opportunities, uranium mutual funds may be the best place to put your money. Most of the new age energy mutual funds have a number of stocks into sectors such as oil, gas, nuclear energy, uranium and so on. The good investment potential in this sector has led to further upsurge in the demand for this sectoral funds and mutual funds industry is also bringing out new funds and investment opportunities. Today, uranium mutual funds are one of the preferred investment avenues for investors who like to participate in the growth of the nuclear energy sector. The growing demand for energy from most of the world economies including the emerging market economies has led...

When interest rates are low and stocks are falling, bonds in the form of bond funds look attractive to many investors looking for higher income. Quality bond funds can offer dividend yields of 5% or more when bank CD's are paying about 2%, and money market rates are even lower. Look twice before you leap into a bond fund in a low interest rate environment. Interest rate risk looms, and could be a future nightmare for investors. There is a huge risk differential between investing in bond funds vs. money market funds or CD's at the bank. The latter are very safe investments. When you invest in bond funds you are investing in bonds. Interest rate risk applies. It could be very risky to chase higher...

Managed funds are investment choices that have been widely reported in the news lately. Most of the news is good, but some are bad. There are news articles reporting the default of loans to lenders, but there are also magazine articles discussing currently undervalued funds. For many investors, the seemingly conflicting stories are enough of a deterrent from even entering the market. But, managed funds really do not have to be that difficult. Basically a managed fund is one where the fund itself purchases stocks, bonds, cash securities and/or other investment options based upon their rules and the fund is then managed on a full-time basis. The manager of the fund must keep up with the market...

There exists a misconception with amateur investors who consider SIP to be a kind of a Mutual Fund. Technically speaking a Systematic Investment Plan is not a Mutual Fund, rather a way to invest upon it. There are a couple of ways that you can invest in a Mutual fund; one is a one time payment and the other through periodic investments. The later is termed to be Mutual Fund SIP. It is more of an investment mode rather then an investment avenue as many point out. An average investor opting for Mutual Fund Investments via Mutual Fund SIP invests in small amounts at regular intervals instead of a lump sum payment. In this case he is benefited by escaping the volatility that exists in Stock Markets by...

Because markets are efficient it is hard to impossible pick stocks to get ahead of indexes over long term. Luckily you have better choices. Here are two strategies for higher consistent returns and less risk. These are also opportunities for index beating returns. And high absolute returns which can reach 30% and above if you use margin and have or gain experience. You can have high absolute returns with a lot of stability by buying bond and stock closed end funds with discount. Closed end fund is like mutual fund. The difference is that closed end fund have limited number of shares. And they can sell for less or more than sum of underlying securities. Buy fixed income closed end funds with discount...