such as stocks, bonds and money market instruments. Mutual funds are operated by professional money managers, who allocate the fund’s assets and attempt to produce capital gains or income for the fund’s investors. The portfolio of mutual funds is designed and maintained under the prospectus’ investment objectives.

Small or individual investors have access to professionally managed equities and bonds managed by mutual funds. Every shareholder shares in the fund’s gains and losses. Mutual funds invest in a vast number of securities, and performance is usually tracked as the change in the total market cap of the fund–derived by the aggregating performance of the underlying investments.