Once you have entered the tickers for each company, click the item called info quotes that appears directly below the dialog box for quotes.

On which market or exchange do these stocks trade? Identify the high and low based on the current days trading.

Below each of the info quotes another dialog box is present. Click the item labeled fundamentals for the first stock. Some basic information on the company will appear along with an additional submenu. One of the items is labeled short interest. When you select that item a 12-month history of short interest will appear. You will need to com- plete the above process for each of the stocks.

Describe the trend, if any exists for short sales over the last year. What is meant by the term Days to Cover that appears on the history for each company? Which of the companies has the largest relative number of shares that have been sold short?

I. Introduction 4. Mutual Funds and Other

Investment Companies The McGraw−Hill Companies, 2001

C H A P T E R F O U R

MUTUAL FUNDS AND OTHER INVESTMENT COMPANIES

The previous chapter introduced you to the mechanics of trading securities and the structure of the markets in which securities trade. Increasingly, however, individual investors are choosing not to trade securities directly for their own accounts. Instead, they direct their funds to investment companies that purchase securities on their behalf. The most important of these financial intermediaries are open-end investment companies, more commonly known as mutual funds, to which we devote most of this chapter. We also touch briefly on other types of in- vestment companies such as unit investment trusts and closed-end funds. We begin the chapter by describing and comparing the various types of investment companies available to investors. We then examine the functions of mutual funds, their investment styles and policies, and the costs of investing in these funds. Next we take a first look at the investment performance of these funds. We consider the impact of expenses and turnover on net per- formance and examine the extent to which performance is consistent from one period to the next. In other words, will the mutual funds that were the best past performers be the best future performers? Finally, we discuss sources of information on mutual funds, and we consider in detail the information provided in the most comprehensive guide, Morningstars Mutual Fund Sourcebook.

103 I. Introduction 4. Mutual Funds and Other