Home
Bullet Tour
Mutual Fund Basics
Mutual Fund Types
Investing Basics
Compare Funds
Your Portfolio
Glossary
Site Map
Site Search
Contact Us
Terms of Use

The Various Types of Mutual Funds

There are Many Types of Mutual Funds

The many types of mutual funds offer individual investors a full selection of high-performing mutual funds from which to select the components of their investment portfolios. Little old you can construct a portfolio on a par with that of institutional investors by selecting an efficient set of these funds.

According to the Investment Company Institute, there were 7199 stock and bond mutual funds domiciled in the U.S. as of September 2007. These 7199 mutual funds cover all the major asset classes, investing styles and developed or developing regions of the world. Among these, you will find high-performers in every category.

You'll find a list of the various types of mutual funds with links to detailed descriptions at the bottom of this page.

Mutual Fund Categories

There are so many different types of mutual funds that can be described in so many different ways that there's practically no limit to the number of categories into which they can be organized. Therefore, anyone who attempts to break the funds down into some logical order has to make some decisions as to where to draw the line on the subdivision of fund categories.

The classification and categorization of the various types of mutual funds is explained in the Mutual Fund Classification Criteria and Mutual Fund Categories subsections.

Mutual Fund Investing Styles

Investing style applies mainly to actively managed stock mutual funds, and to some degree, speculative bond funds and non-index commodity funds. The four styles, value, growth, blend and aggressive growth, define in part a mutual fund's investing strategy for achieving its stated objective.

Classification of Stock Mutual Funds

There are stock mutual funds that invest in just about any type of business that has publicly traded stock. Some funds are very broad in scope and some are very narrow. You should be able to find stock mutual funds that meet all your equity investing needs and desires.

Classification of Bond Mutual Funds

As with stock mutual funds, bond mutual funds are very diverse and include just about anything you could ask for in a bond portfolio. They include everything from long-term U.S. Treasury bonds to short-term high-yield corporate bonds and emerging market debt.

Types of Mutual Funds

Please note the following:

  • This is a general listing of the various types of mutual funds available to individual investors in the U.S.
  • The stock mutual funds are managed by four different styles, which essentially quadruples the selection.
  • The stock mutual funds can be subdivided by four market capitalization brackets, large, mid, small and micro, which expands the selection by another factor of four.
  • The bond mutual funds can be broken down into short, intermediate and long duration, which triples the selection.
  • There are index funds that replicate all the major stock (including some sectors), bond and commodity indexes, both domestic and international.
Stock

Domestic - 100% U.S.

Domestic, Diversified

Domestic, Sector

Major Sectors:

International - 0% U.S.
  • International, Diversified
  • International, Various Regions
  • International, Country-Specific
  • International, Real Estate
  • International, Natural Resources (Including Energy.)
Emerging Markets - 0% U.S.
  • Emerging Markets, Diversified
  • Emerging Markets, Regional
  • Emerging Markets, Country-Specific
World or Global - All countries, including U.S.
  • World, Diversified
  • World, Real Estate
  • World, Natural Resources (Including Energy.)
Bond - Overview

Domestic - 100% U.S.

  • Corporate, Investment Grade
  • Corporate, Speculative (a.k.a. high-yield or junk)
  • Covertible
  • U.S. Treasury, Including TIPS
  • U.S. Agency
  • Diversified, Corporate & Treasury
  • Municipal, Nationwide
  • Municipal, State-Specific
  • Municipal, Speculative (a.k.a. high-yield or junk)
  • Targeted Maturity (Any combination of the above.)
International - 0% U.S.
  • International, Diversified Corporate & Government
  • International, Regional Corporate & Government
Emerging Markets, Diversified Corporate & Government

World or Global - All countries, including U.S.

  • World, Diversified Corporate & Government
Asset Allocation (Some combination of stocks and bonds.)
  • Domestic
  • World or Global
  • Balanced
  • Target Date

Commodities

  • Domestic - 100% U.S.
  • International - 0% U.S.
  • World or Global - All countries, including U.S.

Money Market

  • Commercial Paper
  • U.S. Government
  • Commercial & U.S. Government
  • Tax-Exempt

Index - Domestic, International & World/Global

  • Stock (Including some sectors.)
  • Bond
  • Commodities
You can use one of the many online mutual fund screeners to find funds in any of the various categories and links to detailed information on specific funds that meet your screening criteria. One of the most comprehensive resources is Yahoo!'s mutual fund screener. Use your favorite screener to research the type of mutual funds you're interested in adding to your portfolio.

Return to the top of The Various Types of Mutual Funds.


footer for types of mutual funds page