Investment funds originated in Britain and prevailed in the United States. Massachusetts Investment Trust Company, 65438-0926, founded in Boston, is the first modern mutual fund in the United States. In the following years, investment funds experienced their first glorious period. By the end of 1920s, the total assets of all closed-end funds reached $2.8 billion. The stock market crash of 1929 dealt a heavy blow to the emerging American fund industry. After the crisis, the US government enacted the Securities Law (1933), the Securities Exchange Law (1934), the Investment Company Law and the Investment Consultant Law (1940) to protect the interests of investors. Among them, the Investment Company Law stipulates the legal elements of the composition and management of investment funds in detail, which lays a good foundation for the rapid development of investment funds through complete legal protection. After World War II, the American economy grew strongly and investor confidence quickly recovered. Nowadays, investment funds have been favored by many institutional investors, including bank trust departments, insurance companies and pension funds. The United States has become the most developed country in the fund industry in the world, and the scale of fund assets has exceeded that of bank assets.

In English, * * * mutual with mutualfund means union, while fund means holding, that is, pooling many people's money for professional investment operation.

* * * The same fund is actually an investment company. As a company, each fund has its own manager, employees, operation mode and objectives. The investment objectives of the fund reflect the reasons for its establishment and existence. In short, * * * collects part of the clients' funds into the fund and invests for the preset purpose on behalf of their interests. Every fund company will hire investment professionals to manage the fund's portfolio, usually called portfolio manager. These professionals can form a team to run the fund, and some investment companies even entrust other companies or free investment professionals to help the company with capital operation. * * * The same fund is to collect a large number of investors and employees' money to buy stocks of various manufacturers. A combination of stocks, bonds and other assets purchased in the name of a group of investors and managed by professional investment companies or other financial institutions.

There are two types of funds: open and closed.

Open-end mutual funds can redeem or issue shares at any time with net asset value, which is the market price of all securities divided by the number of shares issued. As investors buy new shares or redeem old ones, the number of shares issued by open-end funds changes every day.

Closed-end funds do not redeem or issue shares with net assets. Shares of closed-end funds are traded through brokers like other common stocks, so their prices are different from their net asset values.

* * * A mutual fund refers to a fund company established according to law, which raises funds by issuing shares, and investors appear as shareholders of the fund company. It is similar to a common joint-stock company in structure, but it does not engage in actual operation. Instead, it entrusts assets to fund management companies for management and operation, and entrusts other financial institutions to keep fund assets on its behalf. The legal documents for its establishment are the articles of association and prospectus of the fund company.

Trust system has a far-reaching impact on investment funds. It is not limited to the direct influence on the latter, but also reflected in: on the one hand, investment funds are divided into corporate funds and contractual funds in organizational form; On the other hand, it leads to the emergence of open-end funds. Historically, open-end investment funds were designed and formed in order to improve the liquidity of funds and learn from the institutional arrangements of modern trust system that allowed trustees to cancel trust deposits.

Contractual funds, also known as trust funds or unit trust funds, are fund managers (that is, fund management companies) and trustees (custodians) who issue benefits on behalf of beneficiaries. The manager is engaged in the management of trust assets according to trust deed, and the custodian, as the nominal holder of the fund assets, is responsible for keeping the fund assets. It securitizes the beneficiary right, and investors can share the operating results of the fund as beneficiaries by issuing beneficiary units. The legal document of its establishment is trust deed, and there is no fund charter.

Contractual funds follow the principle of trust in specific operations, and the behaviors of fund managers, custodians and investors are regulated by trust deed. Therefore, in foreign countries, the name of such investment funds generally contains the word "trust". For example, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan Province Province call it a securities investment trust, while Britain and Hong Kong call it a unit trust.

The main difference between corporate funds and contractual funds lies in the difference in organizational structure and legal relationship, so the latter is more flexible than the former. Corporate funds are the most common in the United States, while contract funds are more common in Britain.

To put it simply, the * * * mutual fund means that the fund company is established according to law, raising funds through issuing stocks, and investors appear as shareholders of the fund company. It is similar to a common joint-stock company in structure, but it does not engage in actual operation. Instead, it entrusts assets to fund management companies for management and operation, and entrusts other financial institutions to keep fund assets on its behalf. The legal documents for its establishment are the articles of association and prospectus of the fund company.

2.*** Advantages of the same fund

① Diversification of investment risks

* * * The assets of the same fund are larger than those of ordinary investors, so it is enough to spread the funds among different stocks and even different investment tools, so as to achieve real risk diversification and avoid heavy losses due to a wrong stock selection.

② Specialized operation management

* * * Professional fund managers and research teams, engaged in market research together with fund companies, have a deep understanding of the overall and individual investment environment at home and abroad and the situation of individual companies. And as long as you spend a little fund management fee, you can enjoy the services of experts, which can be said to be the best gospel for small investors.

③ The best tax saving channel

(1) Domestic funds: When the bid-ask spread of stock funds generates profits, they can be exempted from tax according to the current laws and regulations; As for the fund's interest distribution to investors, if the source of this interest distribution is the investment target, it must be included in the comprehensive income tax, and you can enjoy a tax exemption of 270,000 yuan according to the special deduction for savings and investment.

(2) Overseas funds: At present, China's tax law adopts territorialism. Individuals investing in overseas funds, whether it is the capital gains or interest distribution generated by the bid-ask spread, do not need to be included in personal income for tax declaration, and can legally save taxes.

3. Liquidity is quite flexible

When investors don't want to invest, they can choose to quit at any time. The money for redeeming domestic bond funds can arrive on the next working day, and domestic equity funds and overseas funds can arrive in about one week. Unlike other investment tools, there is a risk of not selling.

(1) A small amount of money can be invested in the world.

* * * The same fund spreads its investment to different targets, even to different financial markets (regions and countries). Investors can share the fruits of economic growth in various regions of the world with a minimum of 3,000 yuan (fixed time limit). Compared with other investment tools, the lower investment limit is much smaller.

② High safety.

* * * The same fund adopts the principle of separation of custody and operation. If the fund company or custodian bank goes bankrupt unfortunately, the creditor may not request to detain the fund assets or exercise other rights, and the rights and interests of investors will not be affected.

(index fund) Index fund refers to the fund operating according to the selected index (for example, standard &; Poole 500 index)

Japan's Nikkei 225 index, Taiwan's weighted stock price index, etc. ), choose the same asset allocation model to invest in order to obtain the income synchronized with the market.

Index fund is a kind of fund with the principle of fitting the target index and tracking the change of the target index to realize the synchronous growth with the market. The investment of index funds adopts the investment strategy of fitting the target index return rate, and invests in the constituent stocks of the target index in a diversified way, so that the stock portfolio return rate fits the average return rate of the capital market represented by the target index. Index fund is an indispensable fund in mature securities market. In western developed countries, like other index products such as stock index futures, index options, index warrants, index deposits and index bills, they are increasingly favored by various institutions including exchanges, securities companies, trust companies, insurance companies and pension funds.

Index fund is a fund that ensures that the performance of securities portfolio is similar to that of market index. Operationally, it is the same as other funds. The difference between index funds and other funds is that it tracks the performance of stock and bond markets and follows a stable strategy. Its advantages in the securities market include not only effectively avoiding unsystematic risks, low transaction costs and delaying tax payment, but also the characteristics of less monitoring investment and simple operation. Therefore, in the long run, its investment performance is better than other funds.

Index fund is a kind of fund that constructs a portfolio for securities investment according to the principle of compiling securities price index. Theoretically speaking, the operation method of index fund is very simple, as long as you buy the corresponding proportion of securities according to the proportion of each securities in the index and hold it for a long time.

For purely passively managed index funds, the capital turnover rate and transaction cost are relatively low. Management fees are often very small. Such funds will not invest too much money in certain securities or industries. Generally, full investment will be maintained, and there is no market speculation. Of course, not all index funds strictly meet these characteristics. Different index funds will also adopt different investment strategies.

In this section, edit the development of index funds.

The United States is the most developed western country in index funds. On 1976, Pioneer Group took the lead in establishing the first index fund in the United States-Pioneer 500 Index Fund. The emergence of index funds initiated a revolution in American securities investment industry, forcing many competitors to design low-cost products to meet the challenges. So far, there are more than 400 index funds in American stock market, and they are still growing at a high speed every year. The latest and most exciting index fund product is exchange traded fund (ETF). Nowadays, in the United States, the types of index funds include not only a wide variety of American stock index funds, American industry index funds, global and international index funds and bond index funds, but also growth, leverage and reverse index funds, and exchange traded funds are a newly developed index fund.

The rapid development of index funds in China stock market benefits from the unique advantages of funds. In June 2002, it was only half a year before the SSE launched the SSE 180 index, and the Shenzhen Stock Exchange also launched the SZSE 100 index. After that, the first domestic index fund-Huaan SSE 180 Index Enhanced Securities Investment Fund entered the market. At the beginning of 2003, another fund, Tiantong SSE 180 Index Fund, which closely tracks the trend of SSE 180 Index Fund, also went public. However, the development of index funds in China is not smooth sailing. In order to avoid systematic risk and individual stock investment risk, China's preferred index funds adopt different operating principles from those of foreign index funds. The main difference is that the managers of domestic optimization index funds can adjust the index positions according to the judgment of the index trend, and use the advantages of research and financial analysis to prevent some risky stocks from entering the portfolio in the process of subjective stock selection. In the part of indexed investment, funds Xinghe and Jingfu track the Shanghai A-share composite index, while fund Pufeng tracks the Shenzhen A-share composite index. Judging from the actual operation results of such funds, the performance is not ideal. The reasons are not only the defects of China stock market itself, but also the management reasons of fund companies. Nevertheless, index funds have become a favorite financial tool for many investors. With the continuous improvement of China's securities market and the vigorous development of the fund industry, I believe that index funds will have great development potential in China.

In this section, edit the history and present situation of index funds.

Index funds originated in the United States and mainly developed in the United States. The world's first index fund appeared in the United States 197 1, which is an index fund product introduced by Wells Fargo to institutional investors. At that time, there was far more opposition than support and support. There were some annuity funds in the late 1970s, including AT & amp； ; T), partly changed the view of index investment. After 1980s, the American stock market became increasingly prosperous, and index funds gradually began to attract the attention of some investors. It was not until the 1990s that index funds really developed. From 1994 to 1996, index funds have been successful for three years. During the period of 1994, the S&P 500 index rose by 1.3%, exceeding the performance of 78% equity funds in the market. From 65438 to 0995, the S&P 500 index achieved a growth rate of 37%, exceeding the performance of 85% equity funds in the market. From 65438 to 0996, the S&P 500 index rose by 23%, once again surpassing the performance of 75% equity funds in the market. In three years, the growth rate of 9 1% equity funds in the market is lower than that of the S&P 500 index. The concept of index fund has begun to establish a good image in investors' minds, and it has also been widely concerned by the fund industry, and the advantages of indexed investment strategy have begun to appear obviously.

According to statistics, the index fund assets held by American institutional investors were 100 billion US dollars in 1980, and by the end of 1996, the total assets of these index funds had reached 100 billion US dollars. The index fund assets held by individual investors also increased from $4 billion in 1990 to $58 billion.

After more than 20 years of rapid development, American index funds have developed into a large-scale and rich branch of the fund industry. At present, the most successful index fund managers in America are Vanguard and DFA(Dimensional Fund Advisors). Vanguard's index fund has exceeded $65.438+0,000 billion, and its Vanguard S&; P 500 index fund) ranks second in the global fund ranking 1997 with a scale of 69 billion. At present, various fund management companies in the United States, including Fidelity, Merrill Lynch, DUEYFUS and other famous fund management companies, basically manage one or more index funds.

Edit the characteristics of index funds in this paragraph.

At present, there are three index funds, Xinghe, Pufeng and Tianyuan, which are "optimized index funds" with the characteristics of index funds.

Index fund refers to the fund that buys all or part of the securities in the securities market included in the index according to the index standard, and its purpose is to achieve the same income level as the index.

For example, the goal of the Shanghai Composite Index Fund is to obtain the same income as the Shanghai Composite Index. The Shanghai Composite Index Fund buys the stocks in the index according to the composition and weight of the Shanghai Composite Index, and accordingly, the performance of the Shanghai Composite Index Fund will fluctuate like the Shanghai Composite Index.

The most prominent feature of index funds is low cost, and delaying tax payment will have a great impact on the fund's income. Moreover, this advantage will be more prominent for a long time. In addition, the simplified portfolio will make it unnecessary for fund managers to contact brokers frequently, or to choose stocks or determine market opportunities.

Specifically, the characteristics of index funds are mainly manifested in the following aspects:

1, low cost. This is the most prominent advantage of index funds. Expenses mainly include management expenses, transaction expenses and sales expenses. Management expenses refer to the expenses incurred by fund managers in investment management; Transaction cost refers to the transaction expenses such as brokerage commission when buying and selling securities. Because index funds adopt holding strategy and do not need to exchange shares frequently, these expenses are far lower than those of actively managed funds, and the difference sometimes reaches 1%? /FONT & gt； ; 3%, although this is a small number in absolute terms, the accumulated results will have a great impact on the fund's income for a long time because of the compound interest effect.

2. Disperse and prevent risks. On the one hand, because index funds are widely diversified, the fluctuation of any stock will not affect the overall performance of index funds, thus diversifying risks. On the other hand, because the indexes pegged by index funds generally have a long tracking history, the risks of index funds can be predicted to some extent.

3. Deferred tax payment. Because index funds adopt the strategy of buying and holding, the turnover rate of the stocks they hold is very low. Only when a stock is removed from the index, or when investors demand to redeem their investments, index funds will sell their stocks and realize part of the capital gains. In this way, the annual capital gains tax (in developed countries such as the United States, capital gains are within the scope of income tax) is very small. Coupled with the compound interest effect, delaying tax payment will bring many benefits to investors.

4. Less monitoring. Since operating index funds does not need to take the initiative to make investment decisions, fund managers basically do not need to monitor the performance of funds. The main task of index fund managers is to monitor the changes of corresponding indexes, so as to ensure that the composition of index funds is suitable for them.