FIN331 Financial Markets and Institutions

Assignment #3 Obtain relevant information about Mutual Funds

Purpose of the homework:

1. Encourage students to search and read relevant financial reports

2. Allow students to gain important knowledge about mutual funds

Assignment:

Students have to find an annual report or prospectus of any existing mutual fund, and obtain the following information of that mutual fund. Students need to turn in a one-page report with all the itemized information.

1. Investment objective

2. Investment portfolio:

- asset allocation and portfolio composition: major asset categories

- top five holdings of the fund (value and percentage of fund assets)

3. Fee and charges:

- load charges: both front-end load and redemption fees

- annual expenses such as management and promotional fee: expense ratios

4. Past performance:

- year to date, last 12 months

- compound annual return for the last three and five years

- performance rating relative to peer funds

Information Sources:

1. You can contact fund companies to obtain the annual report or prospectus. Fidelity Investment (www300.fidelity.com) and Vanguard Group (www.vanguard.com) are two major mutual fund management companies.

2. You can also obtain information from Morningstar (www.morningstar.com), which is the major provider of mutual fund, stock, and variableinsurance investment information.