Where to invest for growth can be a daunting decision for even an experienced investor. For a beginner, it can seem downright impossible. The author covers in this investment guide all kinds of investments including the stocks, treasury securities, municipal and corporate bonds, mutual funds and exchange traded funds and introduces even the master limited partnerships and real estate investment trusts. Some of the highlights of coverage are the concept of compounding and dollar cost averaging selection and analysis of stocks using the fundamental approach to stock evaluation supplemented with technical analysis selection and analysis of mutual funds and ETFs asset allocation, diversification and rebalancing guidelines for buying and selling the securities evaluating market levels and the discussion of market volatility and crash economic and tax considerations in investing

"The Mutual Fund Industry Handbook is a remarkably important work . . . I am profoundly impressed by the broad and comprehensive sweep of information and knowledge that this book makes available to industry participants, college and business school students, and anyone else with a serious interest in this industry." -- From the Foreword by John C. Bogle President, Bogle Financial Markets Research Center Founder and former chief executive, The Vanguard Group A Foreword by John C. Bogle, founder of The Vanguard Group and one of the most respected leaders in the mutual fund industry, sets the stage for this authoritative book that explains the complexities of the phenomenal industry in simple terms. Investors like the fact that mutual funds offer professional management, easy diversification, liquidity, convenience, a wide range of investment choices, and regulatory protection. Mutual Fund Industry Handbook touches on all of those features and focuses on the diverse functions performed in the day-to-day operations of the mutual fund industry. You'll learn about: Front-office functions-analysis, buying, and selling. Back-office functions, including settlement, custody, accounting, and reporting. Commission structures-front-end loads, back-end loads, or level loads. The various fund categories used by the Investment Company Institute, Morningstar, and Lipper. The roles played by fund managers, investment advisors, custodial banks, distributors, transfer agents, and other third-party service providers. If you want a definitive reference on the mutual fund industry, this is the book for you.

Investment professional Larry E. Swedroe describes the crucial difference between "active" and "passive" mutual funds, and tells you how you can win the investment game through long-term investments in such indexes as the S&P 500 instead of through the active buying and selling of stocks. A revised and updated edition of an investment classic, The Only Guide to a Winning Investment Strategy You'll Ever Need remains clear, understandable, and effective. This edition contains a new chapter comparing index funds, ETFs, and passive asset class funds, an expanded section on portfolio care and maintenance, the addition of Swedroe's 15 Rules of Prudent Investing, and much more. In clear language, Swedroe shows how the newer index mutual funds out-earn, out-perform, and out-compound the older funds, and how to select a balance "passive" portfolio for the long hail that will repay you many times over. This indispensable book also provides you with valuable information about: - The efficiency of markets today - The five factors that determine expected returns of a balanced equity and fixed income portfolio - Important facts about volatility, return, and risk - Six steps to building a diversified portfolio using Modern Portfolio Theory - Implementing the winning strategy - and more.

Today there are more and more mutual funds, as more and more people understand that mutual funds are the best place to put money. These funds include the good and the bad, the expensive and the bargain-priced, the short-term and the long-term, the highly secure and the very risky. So how do you find the funds that are right for you without spending a lifetime trying to become a market maven and finding yourself buried in graphs and charts? What you can do very easily is spend a little time with the swiftest, surest, smartest book ever to lead you through the mutual fund maze with wit and wisdom. No other guide tells you so clearly, so concisely, and so captivatingly what different kinds of mutual funds there are, how to choose your own goals and decide your own risk level, how to split your mutual fund investments to reflect your wants and needs, how to quickly learn which funds are the best of their kind, how and where to buy funds at the lowest price, how to spot hidden charges, how to track performance, how to know when to sell, how to make funds work for you in retirement, and much more.

Written by a veteran financial planner, this guide uniquely covers the statistical and non-statistical issues involved in selecting and managing a balanced portfolio of mutual funds. It explains investment policy development techniques, explores all asset classes of mutual funds, and covers the critical issues of style analyses, data interpretation, and style management.