Typically a Mutual Fund is an investment fund aimed at individual investors sponsored by an investment (or "mutual fund") house like Fidelity, Vanguard or T. Rowe Price. Each fund holds a "market basket" of stocks or bonds and individual investors buy into the fund by buying a share at "Net Asset Value," which is the total worth of the fund's holdings, calculated every day, divided by the number of shares outstanding. In other words, a mutual fund whose portfolio (value of all holdings) is worth a million dollars that has a hundred thousand shares outstanding will value those shares at ten dollars apiece. A typical stock-based mutual fund can earn its investors money in three ways: the dividends and capital gains that stocks pay out, and possible appreciation of the fund value per share.

For an individual investor, the advantage of owning a mutual fund is that s/he achieves diversity -- mutual funds own more than fifty stocks, on average -- that could not be achieved by buying a typical hundred shares of stock in only a few corporations. The disadva...

A type of investment fund with very high fees for investors and a focus on complex financial derivatives. Hedge funds charge around 20% of returns (sometimes a lot more) plus a flat fee of typically 2%.

Originally hedge funds were based on the concept of risk hedging; high-yield investments are always riskier than low-yield ones, so a fund manager could presumably put all the money in one instrument with enormous risk and hope for the best. That is, to put it bluntly, insane. So the manager uses a strategy of hedging risk as cheaply as possible, such as a very elaborate combination of derivatives that rise in value if the main asset declines in value.

Hedge funds are organized to be very exclusive, requiring a very long commitment and limited membership. The managers are much more daring and will take much more aggressive risks than mutual funds.

A fledgling hedge fund

(n.); endow (v.)

An investment fund comprised of donated money. These investments are capital and earmarked for development. Sometimes the funds are in the form of smaller donations. Other funds are granted from large philanthropic (planned giving) organizations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The latter and many other philanthropic organizations are large endowments that in turn disburse funds to other endowments. Endowments are often tax-free or lower-tax investments.

Endowments are often associated with universities. Other endowed organizations include public television and radio, museums, theaters, hospitals, and non governmental organizations (NGOs).

Financial institution pretending to engage in high risk / high reward quantitative investment strategies but in fact trading on insider information to get ahead of the market.

Sovereign Wealth Funds, governmental or quasi-governmental investment funds such as Singapore's TEMASEK or Abu Dhabi's ADIA.

First few times I saw the acronym, I was definitely confused: who were all these single white females giving billions to brain-damaged US banks? And, more importantly, what were their phone numbers? Damn was I disappointed when I figured it out . . .

Acronym for "I'll Be Gone, You'll Be Gone."

It's what douchebag hedge fund managers say to each other when they create an investment mechanism that makes both of them rich while fucking the American public.

Why should they care? They'll both be gone (rich and retired) by the time the whole thing falls apart.