Investing: Spotting the Fund Manager

Many people invest their savings in stock funds. It´s much easier to invest in funds than to pick certain stocks, and in most cases less risky. But, the problem is, how to find the right fund? Nobody knows how a fund will perform in the future. Gains & losses depend on the development of the stock market, the skill of the fund manager and other things. But it`s very helpful, to know what the fund manager does.

The Internet is an excellent source of information when an investor tries to spot the behavior of the fund`s  manager. Take for example the Goldman Sachs Capital Growth Fund A. The fund manager invests in promising stocks and tries to beat the stock market as many of his colleagues do.

You can find the fund on Yahoo Finance, a site which has a lot of information. You have just to write the name of the fund in the column "get quotes". You then get a page with shows many facts on this fund.

Interesting is a chart on the right side of the page, which displays the performance of the fund in the past. For example, the performance for the last 3 months, but you can also see other periods. Likewise, you can also compare the performance of this fund with alternative investments, like the S&P 500, which represents the whole stock market. This comparison shows you, whether the fund manager did better or worse than the whole stock market (or another chosen investment) in a certain period.

Yahoo Finance gives you a lot more helpful information. Very important is the strategy of the fund, which you find on the "Profile" page . Also helpful is the page "Holdings", which lays out in which kind of stocks the fund manager invests. Recently, the top holding of the Fund were Apple (which is very popular with funds managers), Schlumberger (which offers infrastructure for the oil and gas industry worldwide), Qualcomm (a maker of chips for mobile devices as smart phones)  and PepsiCo.

In addition to your own research you can also build a virtual fund portfolio on Yahoo Finance just by clicking the link "Add to Portfolio". This portfolio can contain any chosen imaginary investment. It delivers comparisons within a group of chosen funds and allows you to get some experience in dealing with investments like funds.

Of course there are many other valuable sources for information on Internet, including the site of the fund company, in this case Goldman Sachs Asset Management (www.goldmansachsfund.com), which shows you even more information.