In: Finance
When you buy a stock, you are owning a share of the corporation. You make money in two ways. Stocks that offer dividends will pay you something every quarter or year. That provides an annual stream of taxable income.You also make money from stocks when you sell them. Your profit is the difference between the selling price and your purchase price, minus fees. Stocks trade continuously, and the prices change throughout the day.
Mutual funds pool a lot of stocks in a stock fund or bonds in a bond fund. You own a share of the mutual fund. The price of each mutual fund share is called its net asset value. That's the total value of all the securities it owns divided by the number of the mutual fund's shares. Mutual fund shares are traded continuously, but their prices adjust at the end of each business day.
Risk reward percentage
Stocks are riskier than mutual funds. By pooling a lot of stocks in a stock fund or bonds in a bond fund, mutual funds reduce the risk of investing. That reduces risk because, if one company in the fund has a poor manager, a losing strategy, or even just bad luck, its loss is balanced by other businesses that perform well. This lowers the risk, thanks to diversification. For that reason, many investors feel that mutual funds provide the benefits of stock investing without the risks.
Charges.
Brokers charge you when you buy or sell the stock. But those fees can vary depending on the services you receive.
Mutual funds charge annual management fees. Some charge when you buy the fund, others when you sell the fund
Monitoring
Investing in the stock market requires frequent monitoring. This is because stock market investing is a personal thing. Here, no one is going to do this for you and hence you have to monitor your stocks yourself.
On the other hand, for the mutual fund -there are fund managers who take care of the investments and make the buy/sell decision on your behalf.
Control on investment
If you are investing directly in the stock market, you will have a lot of power and control. Here, you can make critical decisions like- when to buy, when to sell, what to buy, what to sell, etc.
On the other hand, while investing in the mutual fund, you do not have much control over your investments. It’s your fund manager who makes the decisions like which securities to buy, when to buy, when to sell etc