Expert: Doug Ingram - 7/2/2007

Question
comparision between mutual fund and bond

Answer
Sorry for the delay - I was on vacation!
A mutual fund is a managed pool of assets that can hold almost any kind of securities.  There are mutual funds of large cap stocks, small cap, Asia, Technology, etc.  Thousands of them!
They can also invest in moneymarket or bonds (or even a mix).
Bonds are debt of a company, government, or state/city.
Bonds differ from stocks in that they have a set maturity and a stated coupon usually payable in 2 payments a year.
While the rating of a bond is important (because some go bad and don't pay), generally speaking they are the safest investments because they are usually guaranteed in some manner.