Whenever you invest in a mutual fund, you often hear that they are 'subject to market risk’. This is primarily because mutual fund investment essentially involves an investment in stocks of companies. Therefore, before you invest in any kind of mutual fund, there is no doubt that you have to indulge in some analysis. Even if you do undertake this laborious, but necessary task, after you invest in mutual fund products, you should keep a track of your own investment from time to time, and not just leave it to your fund manager to handle. 

The Importance of Tracking

The first thing you have to do to invest in a mutual fund is to open a Demat account. Then you have to invest in an appropriate mutual fund that meets your requirement. However, this is only half your investment story. Once you have made the investment, it is equally vital, if not more, to monitor your fund frequently. The common trend is to take appropriate advice before you invest, but after investment, mutual funds are simply forgotten. 

The main thing you must realise is that the past performance of any mutual fund has no bearing on its performance at any time in the future. That means that there is no guarantee about the performance of any given mutual funds. Therefore, in order to assess a mutual fund, you have to view a picture that is above and beyond any returns gained in years gone by. This is the risk you take with most investments of this kind, and hence it becomes important to track mutual fund performance. If you check on your mutual funds now and then, you can make informed decisions for further investments or changes. 

The Ways You Can Track Your Mutual Funds

You can employ a few effective methods to track your mutual funds, and key ones are mentioned below: 

• Use a Fact Sheet - A fact sheet is available with your mutual fund investment and you can make use of this to monitor your funds. This is released by the institution that houses any given mutual funds you may invest in. This includes the information of the schemes invested in and is released on a monthly basis. It has information about a specific scheme’s performance, the way your assets are divided and the information regarding the size and the investment of every scheme that is operated by the said fund.

• View the Ratio of Alpha - The ‘alpha’ of any fund is an assessment of the policies and the abilities of the fund manager. It includes information about the past performance of the manager of your fund. The alpha is expressed as a ratio, indicating that it should work out to more than the expense ratio of the fund. 

• Compare with a Benchmark - A comparison of the efficiency of your mutual fund with a benchmark can help you to know about mutual fund performance easily. You can simply get information about the funds of peers and use that as a benchmark to track your fund’s performance, comparing average returns over time. 

Mutual Fund Investment

A mutual fund investment is a good way to diversify a portfolio, and it is a popular way to invest in the current age. There are many ways that you can keep a close eye on your investments and as most functions can be performed online, this does not take too much time and effort. Therefore, you should open a Demat account today and invest in mutual funds with a proficient broker like Motilal Oswal. 

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