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 disadvantages of such funds are that the "load" (sales commission) involved in buying or selling such funds can be considerable, and all funds incur some sort of service fees; that's how the investment house earns its money. Also, no "equity" or stock-based investment is guaranteed.
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"My broker wants me to buy shares in something called an "open-end fund" but I don't know what that means."

"That's just a way to describe the majority of mutual funds, which remain open to all new investors who have the money to invest in them."

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by al-in-chgo March 25, 2010
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When you have no idea where you're gonna get the money.
Elon Musk, 8/7/2018: "Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured." SEC opens investigation next day.

Me to my new girl: "Taking you to Hawaii this winter. Funding secured." Let's hope for a windfall...
by P Singer August 10, 2018
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(FINANCE) a limited liability partnership (LLP), originally limited to 99 partners, and organized to trade securities under specialized guidelines. The first hedge funds were organized to be a counterparty to the riskiest forms of derivative transactions: writing exotic options or swaps in which the buyer transferred most risks (and potential gains) to the hedge fund, but then offsetting the risk with different derivatives.

The first hedge funds benefited (or thought they benefited) from the Black-Scholes formula used to calculate the value of options; supposedly a hedge fund manager could design an immensely complex portfolio consisting mainly of explosively volatile instruments , whose pieces were supposed to absorb each other's risk.

Hedge funds mainly avoided the consequences of the financial meltdown they helped create, racking up gains through the '00's that far exceeded the rest of the stock market.
The hedge fund used to play a major role in absorbing and structuring the risks associated with hedging risks associated with large portfolios, but they now are sophisticated gambling enterprises.

Hedge funds supply market liquidity for the most exotic of instruments.
by Abu Yahya September 1, 2010
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A Fund which consists of the pooled assets of several bros. A Brommingled Fund invests most of its assets in developing markets (i.e. Bromania, The Chick Republic, and Buttswana).
Tanner: Dude, our Brommingled Fund is down circa 10% this month!
Chad: Bro, you can't panic every time there is a correction in the Gangbangladesh market!
by Do the Stammy Leg September 27, 2016
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Money set aside by women to get a bikini wax.
Candy used her hedge fund to get a bikini wax for the Summer.
by Dave K. August 4, 2009
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The amount of edges accumulated before orgasm.
Bro, my edge fund got up to 7 last night. It was wild.
by Edger Allan Poe November 25, 2020
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An amount of money clubbed together between friends to pay for drinks / food when out together, similar to a "whip" or "kitty", but termed as such based on it being started on Ben's birthday....
by Sllimr February 3, 2021
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