Mutual Fund Resources

Foster Business Library research guides are aimed at University of Washington students, faculty, and staff, highlighting resources available to them; users not currently affiliated with the university may be unable to access some of these resources.

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Foster Business Library Databases:

The Foster Business Library offers an extensive collection of over fifty databases on its homepage; see under Databases. For a complete list of Foster databases, see the List of All Business Databases. Access to these databases from off campus requires that you first go to the Off-Campus Access button, in the upper right of all library webpages. These resources may not be accessed from off campus except by those with a valid UW Net ID and password. For more information on Foster business databases, click Databases, A-Z. For information on which Foster business databases to use, see the Database Index. For information on accessing Foster databases from off campus, see Database Access. For guidelines on responsible database usage, see Database Usage.

Standard & Poor's NetAdvantage: On the Foster Business Library homepage, listed under Databases. Full text for the following S&P publications: Bond Guide; Corporation Records; Dividend Record; Earnings Guide; Industry Surveys; Mutual Fund Reports; The Outlook; Register of Corporations, Directors and Executives; Security Dealers of North America; Stock Guide; and Stock Reports.

For mutual funds, go to the menu tab for Mutual Funds/ETFs, for information on U.S. and international funds, including equity, fixed income, and money funds. This section also offers fund insights, a fund screener, and lists of the top performing funds, in various categories.

CD-ROM database:

Morningstar Principia Pro: Library CD-ROM Network. Online version of Morningstar Mutual Funds, an advisory service providing profiles and performance measures for selected mutual funds. For more information on how to use this database, go to Morningstar's twenty-five Product Tutorials.
Available only in the Foster Business Library, on all public and Access Plus computers; not available from off-campus.
(Also available in a web version to cardholders via the King County Library System)

To locate individual funds, use the magnifying glass icon near the top of the display, under the word Features, to enter the fund name. Be sure to use the navigation symbol, at the lower right corner of the screen, to scroll to the right of these very long fund lines to view rankings, annual returns, load, returns after tax, cost ratios, risk, and Morningstar ratings. Click on individual funds to view four pages of Morningstar analytics on each fund, in the format used in the Morningstar print sources (itemized below).

The King County Library System offers online access to the web version of Morningstar in their libraries or remotely (for KCLS users, via their card number and password). Go to KCLS's list of Databases for Morningstar, with "investing data and reports on 16000+ mutual funds and 7000+ stocks as well as investment choice and portfolio management tools."

Special workstation:

Bloomberg: Bloomberg is an online database available only on a dedicated Bloomberg workstation, providing 24-hour current and historical financial quotes, commodity market and economic statistics, business newswires, and descriptive information, research and statistics on over 52,000 companies worldwide. In the Foster Business Library, the Bloomberg workstation is located in the Electronic Reference Area on Public PC #20; it may be identified by the red card on top of the monitor. Use of this workstation is limited to current University of Washington students, faculty and staff. A 17-page guide to using Bloomberg is available, adjacent to the workstation, in a black binder with Bloomberg on the spine. For more about Bloomberg, click here.

For mutual funds, type in the name of the fund and use the F1 key. At the next screen, key in 11 to access information about the fund. Only current mutual funds are covered.

Web Resources:

Unlike library databases, Web resources are available wherever you have web access; they do not require that you access them via the Off-Campus Access button, in the upper right of all library webpages. When using web resources, be sure to evaluate the credibility of these resources. For a subject index to web resources, see Business Resources on the Web on the Foster Business Library homepage.

Encyclopedia of Finance: This Ameritrade site, part of their Education Center, provides a good basic encyclopedia of finance, covering stocks, security analysis and research, debt securities, mutual funds, investment strategies, and retirement planning, as well as a Glossary of finance terms. See their Mutual Funds.

Forbes Fund Screener: This Forbes Magazine site allows you to search their database of more than 11,000 funds to zero in on five or ten that meet your investing goals. Searches may be by fund name, fund family, Forbes fund rating, fund performance, fund portfolio, costs and expenses, or other criteria (such as beta). See also their listings of Straight A Funds, Fund Failures, and Best Buys By Sector, all part of their annual Mutual Fund Survey.

FundAlarm: Sometimes referred to as "a mutual fund watchdog," this site describes itself as "a free, non-commercial Website. Our view of the mutual fund industry is slightly off-center. We help you decide when it's time to sell a fund, instead of when it's time to buy. The mutual fund industry is full of broken promises, arrogance, greed, hypocrisy -- the list goes on. We try to shine a light in the darker corners, and poke holes in balloons that could use some poking." See their list of funds that are recommended for selling, called 3-Alarm Funds and their mutual funds Highlights and Commentary.

Introduction to Mutual Funds: This Securities and Exchange Commission site is intended to educate investors in mutual funds, an industry regulated by this governmental agency. This site covers key points to remember about mutual funds, how mutual funds work, factors to consider, avoiding common pitfalls, what to do if problems occur, and a Mutual Funds Glossary. See also Mutual Fund Investing: Look At More Than a Fund's Past Performance. This SEC site also offers a Mutual Funds Calculator. They also offer a useful Fast Answers--Key Topics page, with some topics in mutual funds. For information on new SEC rules on mutual fund advisor ethics, see their Press Release of May 26, 2004.

Lipper: "Lipper, a Reuters company, is a global leader in supplying mutual fund information, analytical tools, and commentary. Lipper's benchmarking provides the trusted guidepost to asset managers, fund companies, financial intermediaries, traditional media, web sites, and individual investors." This firm is often quoted in the media on aspects of the mutual fund industry. See their 2004 Fund Awards and USA Pressroom.

Morningstar.Com: This site is widely considered the best free mutual fund site, with daily news about the mutual fund industry, Morningstar mutual fund ratings, a fund screener, a quickrank function, a mutual fund comparison feature, mutual fund family data, and links to articles on mutual funds. For individual funds, this site offers Morningstar ratings, net asset values, total assets, charts, minimum investments, sector breakdowns, expense ratios, total returns, top five holdings, and much more. Some information at this site is only available to premium Morningstar subscribers.

Mutual Fund Connection: "The Investment Company Institute is the national association of the U.S. investment company industry. Founded in 1940, its membership includes approximately 8,668 mutual funds, 611 closed-end funds, 111 exchange-traded funds, and six sponsors of unit investment trusts. Its mutual fund members represent 86.6 million individual shareholders and manage approximately $7.4 trillion in investor assets. " Their Mutual Funds Connection provides mutual fund statistics for over 8,000 U.S.-based funds, with trends in mutual fund investing, money market fund assets, the Mutual Fund Fact Book (print copies of which are in the Foster Business Library reference serials collection), retirement market data, mutual fund institutional statistics, and worldwide mutual fund statistics.

Mutual Fund Directors Forum: "To meet the growing needs of mutual fund independent directors, the Mutual Fund Directors Forum was formally organized in 2002. A non-profit organization, the Forum focuses on the needs of independent directors by providing educational and outreach programs as well as the opportunity for directors to exchange views and meet with regulators." This organization is a good source for information on reforming the mutual fund industry. See their Library.

Mutual Fund Investor's Center: A not-for-profit trade association of the no-load mutual fund industry, the Mutual Fund Education Alliance, since 1971, has provided an educational site on mutual funds. "The Alliance's members are America's leading no-load companies who collectively serve over 80 million shareholders and manage nearly 3.0 trillion in assets--approximately one half of all assets invested in mutual funds today." This site has a getting-started section, mutual fund calculators and tools, and a Fund Quicklist. It also offers a wealth of data about individual funds, using information from Morningstar.

Mutual Fund Probe (Special Report): This Washington Post Special Report provides cautionary information on recent problems in the mutual fund industry, including tainted mutual funds, fund performance, highlights of mutual fund reform legislation, and more.

Mutual Fund Scorecard: This online Business Week feature provides an interactive scorecard for evaluating equity and bond funds, separately or together, individually by fund or by category, using data provided by Compustat, with information about fund type, Business Week rating, fund category, Business Week category rating, assets, one year asset change, sales charge, expense ratio, pretax returns in a variety of periods, turnover, cash situation, risk, and non-investment grade assets, if any.

Mutual Funds Dictionary: This site, from Investopedia, an investment site, provides a good list of commonly used terms used in discussing mutual funds (along with several popup ads). They also offer a tutorial on Mutual Fund Basics. See also the more general InvestorWords.

New York Times Mutual Funds: This New York Times Business Section site provides mutual fund return data, from one week to 15 years to inception, with fund overviews, performance, risks and rankings, assets and holdings, fees and expenses, and a fund finder. See also their quarterly Mutual Funds Report. Information for this site is from CBS Marketwatch and Lipper; access to this site may require free registration.

Wikipedia: This free online user-created and maintained encyclopedia can be a good starting point for an orientation to a topic. See their entry for Mutual Funds.

Yahoo! Mutual Fund Center: This site is a good starting point for mutual fund research, with a Mutual Fund/Morningstar Glossary, a tutorial Mutual Funds 101, a mutual fund screener, mutual fund calculators, a company and fund index, mutual funds by family, and the latest mutual fund data, including top performers and historical fund data.

Foster Business Library Reference Collection:

The Foster Business Library Reference Collection consists of business handbooks, encyclopedias, dictionaries, and other quick reference tools. It is located behind the Reference Desk in Foster, arranged by call number. Reference materials cannot be checked out; they may only be used in the library.

Encyclopedia of American industries.
This heavy two-volume set provides essays on over 1,000 industries, with manufacturing industries largely in volume one and service and other non-manufacturing industries in volume two, arranged by Standard Industrial Code, with an index at the back of volume two.
Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HC102 .E53 2005.

For the mutual funds industry, see the broader industry survey for Management Investment Offices, Open End, in volume two, on pages 1041 to 1047.

Standard & Poor's industry surveys.
This three-volume set provides 30-page profiles on 52 industries with a focus on the current economic environment, trends, regulation and outlook for each industry. Major companies in each industry are profiled, with references to sources of additional industry information.
Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HC106.6 .S74.

See the industry survey for Investment Services in volume two, which includes mutual funds; P&G is included in the Comparative Company Analysis at the end of this survey, under Household Products.

Encyclopedia of emerging industries.
Five page descriptions of over 100 new industries, with an industry snapshot, organization and structure, background and development, pioneers in the field, current conditions, industry leaders and references to further reading.
Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HD2324 .E528 2001.

See Mutual Funds on pages 479 to 484.

Plunkett's financial services industry almanac.
This almanac offers information about major industry trends, industry statistics, industry information, major companies in the industry, with indexes by state, country, region, etc. The major part of the almanac provides one-page profiles of companies in the industry, with directory information, growth plans and special features, contacts, brief financials, brief salary and benefits data, and women officer-director and advancement information.
Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HG65 .P58 2002/2003.

See Mutual Funds in chapter five, on pages 75 to 84, with tables about mutual funds on pages 78 to 82.

Dictionary of finance and investment terms.
Published by Barrons, this small, thick paperback defines and explains over 4,000 finance and investment terms, including many related to mutual funds.
Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HG151 .D69 1998.
(Also available, to UW students, faculty and staff, online.)

Standard & Poor's guide to personal finance.
This paperback covers all aspects of personal finance and financial planning. See chapter five, entitled Mutual Fund Know-How, on pages 59 to 66.
Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HG179 .D697 2005.

Mergent dividend record.
This red loose-leaf binder stores the most recent issues of this twice-weekly record of dividends, with the weekly dividend record, the cumulative issue,
the tax status of dividends, and the mutual funds section.
Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HG4028 .D5 .M65 (Twice Weekly, Current Binder)

Business rankings annual.
This annual volume provides 5,000 rankings of companies, products, services and business activities, with data culled from thousands of sources.
Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HG4050 .B88 2004.

See rankings for Mutual Funds on pages 528 to 543.

The Irwin guide to stocks, bonds, futures, and options.
This fairly recent reference includes chapters on treasuries securities, corporate fixed-income securities, municipal securities, and asset-backed securities, with market overviews, conventions, structure, etc. See Mutual Funds on pages 239 to 258.
Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HG4521 .L637 2001.

Morningstar funds 500.
This large annual red paperback covers the top 500 mutual funds (in a universe of over 12,000 funds). A variety of categories are included in these 500 funds, selected annually by Morningstar analysts, with detailed analyst commentary for each fund, copious fund data including fund returns and portfolios, articles, ratings of funds and categories, analysts' picks, and profiles of the top portfolio managers.
Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HG4530 .M664 (Annual)

Morningstar mutual funds.
This heavy hard plastic loose-leaf black binder includes over 1,600 pages of mutual fund information, analysis, and data, issued biweekly, with a focus on individual mutual funds in each issue. Inside the front cover is a Resource Guide, with a mutual fund glossary of terms used by Morningstar, as well as guidance on how to exploit this resource.
Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HG4530 .M676 (Current Weekly Binder)

Investment company fact book.
Published by the Investment Company Institute, this paperback annual is a guide to trends and statistics in the mutual fund industry. Until 2005, this pamphlet was known as the Mutual Fund Fact Book.
Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HG4530 .M85 (Annual)
(Also available Online)

Mutual fund rules.
The subtitle of this book is "50 essential axioms to explain and examine mutual fund investing."
Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HG4530 .S49 2000.

All about bonds and bond mutual funds.
This paperback is subtitled "the easy way to get started," covering portfolio diversification, convertible bonds and inflation-indexed treasuries, as well as international bonds and international bond funds.
Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HG4651 .F29 2000.

Daily stock price record.
This Standard & Poor's publication, issued quarterly, by exchange, covers major technical indicators and daily and weekly stock action, including high, low and closing prices and volume, arranged alphabetically by company name, with shares outstanding, and earnings and dividends. See the Mutual Fund volumes.
Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HG4915 .I22 (American Stock Exchange)
Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HG4915 .I23 (New York Stock Exchange)
Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HG4915 .I24 (NASDAQ)

Mergent bank & finance manual.
Volume two of this three-volume annual set offers information about mutual funds that is unavailable in Morningstar. See the Investment Companies section, usually starting around page 2300.
Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HG4921 .M65 (Annual)

The individual investor's guide to the top mutual funds.
This annual publication, from the American Association of Individual Investors, highlights mutual funds of most interest to individuals, classified as to type of fund, with relevant information and performance statistics.
Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HG4930 .I49 2005.

Registration of mutual funds.
The subtitle of this book is "an annotated guide to the new form N-1A, related releases, and relevant provisions of the federal securities laws."
Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: KF1078 .R448 2002.

Foster Business Library Books:

The Foster Business Library maintains a collection of over 70,000 books on all business topics. To search for materials on all three campuses of the University of Washington, go to the UW Libraries Catalog, in the upper left corner of the Foster Business Library homepage. Search by keyword, title, author, series, etc.

To limit the results of your search just to materials in the Foster Business Library collection, use the Modify or Limit options at the top of the search results and change the library location to Foster Business Library. Availablity is indicated on the right of each online catalog record. First, note in which collection, within Foster, your materials are in, since the library has ten different Collections, each in a different location and often with differing arrangements. "Available" indicates that the book should be on the shelves under that call number and available for you to check out. "Due" and a date indicates that the book is already checked out to someone and is due back on the date indicated; you can have the "Request/Place Hold" feature to recall the book for your use.

If the material you want is not in the collections of the University of Washington, you can use the "Search Summit" feature to repeat your search in the combined holdings of over thirty cooperating libraries in Washington and Oregon. Use the "Request This Item" feature in Summit to have books in those library sent here to Foster for you to check out.

The Foster general stacks collection is located south of the main part of the Foster Business Library, through the two pass-throughs into the basement of Balmer. The arrangement is by call number, from A (at the east end, near the Copy Center) to Z (at the far west end).

A keyword search for Mutual Funds, limited to the Foster Business Library, retrieved a list of over 100 records. Examples include:

The winner's circle: Wall Street's best mutual fund managers (2005)

Bull!: a history of the boom and bust, 1982-2004: what 21st century investors need to know about financial cycles (2004)

All about exchange-traded funds (2003)

Mutual funds: risk and performance analysis for decision making (2003)

Common sense on mutual funds: new imperatives for the intelligent investor (1999)

How mutual funds work (1998)

The mutual fund business (1998)

A subject search for Mutual Funds, limited to the Foster Business Library, also retrieved over 100 records as well as links to seven related subjects, from Bond Funds to Real Estate Investment Trusts.

Foster Business Library Articles:

Articles in academic journals, magazines, trade periodicals, and newspapers are one of the best sources for any kind of research. While the Foster Business Library offers a large periodicals print collection, comprising over 800 titles, articles are most easily accessed online, 24/7, in such fulltext article databases as EBSCO Business Source Premier, Factiva, LexisNexis Academic, Newsbank Infoweb, and ProQuest Databases. These article databases are available in the library or from off-campus, and provide access to over 10,000 periodicals and millions of articles.

Library access to most ProQuest databases will terminate at the end of spring quarter 2008, except for ProQuest NewsStand, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, Historical New York Times, and the Historical Wall Street Journal. For more about this change, see UW Libraries Providing New Databases. After this change, comprehensive article searches should be performed in EBSCO Business Source Premier, Newsbank Infoweb, and ProQuest NewsStand. Also, after this change, links to the articles below will be broken.

ProQuest Databases:

This database--actually, a family of over two dozen databases--offers full text articles for over 10,000 publications, including scholarly journals, magazines, trade and industry periodicals, newspapers, and reports on a very wide range of topics. To find articles on specific topics, search by word or phrase by keying your search phrase into the search box--or search for your topic in the Topic Guide.

Your search terms will be highlighted in red in each article.

This database includes several regular mutual fund surveys or scorecards, including:

Forbes (Look for the Mutual Fund Survey in January and September)

Kiplinger's Personal Finance: Mutual Funds

Money (Look for the Mutual Fund Survey in February)

This database includes in its subject list Mutual Funds (with over 48,000 articles, searching in all databases) and Mutual Fund Industry (with over 2,500 articles). The subject Mutual Funds is associated with over 200 related subjects, companies, and other topics. See the Topic Guide in the top menu to access these subject and narrowing terms.

Examples of articles, from the searches above, include:

"The Best Mutual Funds You Can Buy" (Money. New York: Feb 2007. Vol. 36, Iss. 2; pg. 61)
"The BEST mutual funds" (Kiplinger's Personal Finance Retirement Planning Guide. Washington: Fall 2006. pg. 40, 11 pgs)
"Do the Stars Foretell the Future?: The Performance of Morning Star Ratings" (Journal of American Academy of Business, Cambridge. Hollywood: Sep 2006. Vol. 10, Iss. 1; pg. 85, 5 pgs)
"The Hidden Costs of Mutual Funds" (Better Investing. Madison Heights: Jul 2006. Vol. 55, Iss. 11; pg. 22, 2 pgs)
"Playing The Irrational" (Barron's. New York, N.Y.: Jun 19, 2006. Vol. 86, Iss. 25; pg. 46, 2 pgs)
"Fund Firms Win More Business From 401(k) Plans" (Wall Street Journal. (Eastern edition). New York, N.Y.: Jun 19, 2006. pg. C.7)
"S.E.C. Opens Fund Rules For Comment" (New York Times. (Late Edition (East Coast)). New York, N.Y.: Jun 14, 2006. pg. C.3)
"Try These SmallCaps On for Size" (Business Week. New York: Jun 12, 2006. , Iss. 3988; pg. 86)
"Is Your Broker Just Making You Broker?" (Money. New York: Jun 2006. Vol. 35, Iss. 6; pg. 25, 1 pgs)

Help:

The Foster Business Library Reference Desk is staffed nearly all the hours that the library is open. The staff at the desk will be happy to help you find research tools on any business subject. For e-mail questions, direct your query to balib@u.washington.edu. For assistance by telephone, dial (206) 543-8012 during library hours.

See also the Foster Business Library's Business & Economics FAQ, and, in particular, the section for Finance.

For research guides on a wide variety of industries, products, companies, issues and topics, see the Team Librarian Consultation archives.