Understanding Mutual Funds and Unit Trusts

the purchases over a period of time. A mutual fund is a professionally managed type of collective investment scheme that pools money from many investors and invests it on their behalf. The mutual fund will have a fund manager that trades the pooled money on a regular basis. The term mutual funds is used in the United States and Canada. In the UK, Ireland, Australia and some other countries they are known as unit trusts. For our purposes mutual funds and unit trusts have been to mean virtually the same thing, but note there are some differences, which should be checked at the time of any purchase. Trusts and OEICs provide a mechanism of investing in a broad selection of shares, thus reducing the risks of investing in individual shares. There are thousands of Unit Trusts and hundreds of OEICs to choose from, so it is important to select the right fund to meet your needs. Unit trusts are open-ended; the fund is equitably divided into units which vary in price in direct proportion to the variation in value of the fund’s net asset value. Each time money is invested new units are created to match the prevailing unit buying price; each time units are redeemed the assets sold match the prevailing unit selling price.  Each Unit Trust has its own investment objective and the fund manager has to invest to achieve this objective. The fund manager will invest the money on behalf of the unit holders (or shareholders). The value of your investment will vary according to the total value of the fund. The trust manager makes a profit in the difference between the purchase price of the unit or offer price and the sale value of units or the bid price. This difference is known as the bid