मुतुअल फुंद SELECTION
. Before you begin looking for the best mutual funds, you'll need a good tool to help you do the research. You can find and use all of the basic mutual fund selection criteria with Morningstar's Fund Screener. This fund screener is free if you sign up for their basic membership. Use the Appropriate Benchmark for Measuring Performance To choose the best mutual funds, you'll need to know how to judge performance. Compare each fund's historical returns to an appropriate benchmark, such as the fund's relative category average or an index. For example, performance for most stock mutual funds is compared to the S&P 500 Index. Keep in mind that mutual funds are best used for long-term investing (more than 3 years). Therefore put the heaviest weight in your selection criteria on the 5-year return. Also look at the 10-year return if the fund has been around that long. If the fund outperforms the benchmark for the 5-year returns, keep it on your radar. Otherwise remove it...