Stock Funds

Stock Funds or equity funds make up the largest category of mutual funds. These funds invest primarily in stocks. The objective of these funds is long term capital growth with little or no income investments.

In addition to size and investment strategy, you can also choose from different types of specialty funds.

Specialty Funds

These funds rely on their own specialty. For example a sector fund only invests inside a specific sector, like mining, housing, healthcare, ect. Other specialty funds are

1. International funds invest outside your country only. Help to give your portfolio some exposure to other economies.

2. Global funds invest both inside your country and outside your country. These funds allow you to diversify your holdings throughout many different countries and many different economies.

3. Regional Funds only invest in a specific region, such as Asia. Some even invest in a specific economy such as china.

4. Socially-responsible funds only invest in companies that have an ethically sound business. For example a tobacco company would not be on their things to invest in list. This allows you to invest with a clean conscious.

index Funds

These funds take into consideration that most equity funds do not beat the market as a whole. So they invest in the same stocks that make up the market indexes. The SPY is a good example of this; it is made up of the same stocks that make up the S&P.

So is an equity fund right for you? What an equity fund does is give you a diversified portfolio of stocks that you can hold for the long term. If you do not want to invest for the long term, or if you want to pick your own stocks and save off the extra expenses, this fund may not be right for you.

If however you want to give your money to someone who you hope is better at investing then you and not have to worry about your account until you retire these funds can be a good way to grow your money.