7. How to Invest

c. Comparing mutual funds (continued)
 

Mutual fund data and analysis is also available on websites such as Yahoo! Finance, Smart Money, Morningstar, and the Wall Street Journal online as well as others. Below is an explanation on how to read the data provided on these websites.

Example Mutual Fund Comparison table:

Mutual Fund
International and Income are names of mutual funds within the Dodge and Cox fund family. Balanced (BalA) and Small Cap (SmCpA) are names of mutual funds within the American funds family. Fairholme is the sole mutual fund that Fairholme offers. In the chart, the “p” after the two American funds indicates that it is a load fund.

NAV
“NAV” stands for the net asset value per share of the fund at the close of the previous business day. A fund’s NAV is calculated by adding up the value of all stocks or other securities owned by the fund, subtracting the liabilities or expenses, and then dividing by the number of fund shares. 

Net change
The net change column shows the change in the NAV from the preceding day’s quote. 

Year-to-Date Percentage Return
“YTD % Ret” shows the year-to-date percentage change in the value of the fund. This includes reinvestment of all distributions and subtracting annual expenses charged to investors.
 

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