Stock Mutual Funds

There are hundreds and thousands of mutual funds available in the market. On a broad basis, we can classify them as Mutual Funds based on Stocks/Shares and Mutual Funds based upon Debt Instruments like Bonds. Though there are other types of Mutual Fund instruments, like commodity mutual Funds, in this article, we would concentrate upon the Stock Mutual Funds only and discuss which are the best available stock mutual funds and how should an investor go about investing in such stock mutual funds or Equity mutual Funds.

What are Stock Mutual Funds OR provide an Introduction to Stock Mutual Funds?
In the simplest language, the stock mutual funds or "equity funds" are those mutual funds which invest their money only in stocks or shares or equities. Since stocks are considered to be risky, hence the stock mutual funds which are constituted only by Stocks are also risky, as compared to other types of funds, like bond funds or Money Market funds.
Though they come with high risk, along with that they are expected to provide high returns. It is usually assumed that stocks give better returns over the long run as compared to other instruments. They are also supposed to beat the affects of inflation. Whether these assumptions are true or not, is a subjective task, because investors like you and me have to take a call. Most of the investors do it by leaving their money to be managed by professional money managers who are supposed to understand the stock market better than the common man. Since we tend to leave the investment decisions to the mutual fund managers, atleast we should be aware about studying the stock mutual fund investment objectives and performance of the fund manager.

Which are the best performing stock mutual funds recently?
Though there is no guarantee of the returns from past performance of the stock mutual fund, it does give the pointers towards how the fund manager has performed. As per the various information available on internet sites, here are the Best Performing Stock Mutual Funds:

Top 3 best performing stocks mutual fund over the past 1 year:

Oppenheimer Commodity Strategy Total Return Fund: Offering from the Oppenheimer fund house, this fund investment objective is to seek total return. It is designed to provide investor portfolio diversification, long term growth potential and a hedge against inflation through exposure to commodities markets. The fund primarily invests in commodity-linked derivatives and investment-grade and non-investment-grade corporate bonds and notes. The fund may also invest up to 25% of its total assets in a wholly-owned and controlled subsidiary.

Commodities Strategy (A Class) Fund: Another Commodity Fund from the Rydex investments Fund house. The fund invests in in commodity-linked structured notes, ETFs that provide exposure to the commodities markets, and in commodity-linked derivative instruments, including swap agreements, commodity options, and futures and options on futures, and equity securities. It is non-diversified stock mutual fund and the expense ratio is 1.17%.

Goldman Sachs Commodity Strategy Fund : The fund invests in a portfolio of commodity index-linked securities (including leveraged and unleveraged structured notes), other commodity-linked securities and derivative instruments that provide exposure to the performance of the commodities markets, and in other fixed income and debt instruments. Under normal circumstances, it invests at least 25% of assets in commodity-linked structured notes. The fund is a non-diversified stock mutual fund.

Top 3 best performing stocks mutual fund over the past 5 year::

U.S. Global Investors Global Resource Fund: The investment seeks long-term growth of capital plus protection against inflation and monetary instability; current income is a secondary objective. The fund normally invests at least 80% of assets in the equity securities of companies within the natural resource sector. It may invest without limitation in the various industries of the natural resource sector, such as oil, gas, and basic materials. The fund invests at least 40% of assets in securities of companies that are economically tied to at least three countries other than the U.S. It is non-diversified stocks mutual fund.

BlackRock Global Resources Fund: The fund invests at least 80% of total assets in securities of global energy and natural resources companies and companies in associated businesses, as well as utilities. It may invest without limit in companies located anywhere in the world and will generally invest in at least three countries and in companies tied economically to a number of countries. The fund invests primarily in developed markets, but may also invest in emerging markets. It invests up to 20% of total assets in other U.S. and foreign investments. It is non-diversified stocks mutual fund.

Profunds UltraSector Oil & Gas Fund: The investment seeks daily investment results that correspond to 150% of the daily performance of the Dow Jones U.S. Oil & Gas index. The fund normally commits at least 80% of assets to equity securities contained in the index and/or financial instruments that have similar economic characteristics. It employs leveraged investment techniques and may use sampling techniques in seeking its investment objective. The fund invests assets which are not invested in equity securities or financial instruments in debt instruments or money market instruments. It is non-diversified stocks mutual fund.