How mutual funds work
The popularity of mutual funds has soared - but so have their diversity and complexity. Although there are now hundreds of mutual fund families and thousands of different funds of countless flavors, it's not always easy to find ones that best meet your needs ... keep expenses low ... and perform well. How Mutual Funds Work is brimming with useful, up-to-date information about the burgeoning mutual fund arena. It explains how funds operate and gives you the background necessary to find those that will best meet your needs. Authors Albert J. Fredman, who teaches and writes on investments, and Russ Wiles, a journalist specializing in mutual funds, separate fact from fiction. They show you what works and what doesn't. The information is all unbiased and non-promotional - neither author has anything to sell. It's unusual for a mutual fund book to cover such a broad range of topics, yet treat each thoroughly. How Mutual Funds Work looks closely at stock valuation ... the factors that affect bond prices ... risk and return ... index funds ... international investing ... analyzing stock and bond funds ... mutual fund costs ... market timing ... variable annuities ... shareholder services ... portfolio building ... and much more. And, to reinforce key points, the authors provide numerical illustrations, occasional short investor cases, a question and answer chapter, and a comprehensive glossary.
Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.
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What the reading experience may hold
A fuller profile for choosing with more confidence—not just another copy of the preview.
Nonfiction
Use these as starting points rather than limits; the most memorable books often stretch beyond their catalog labels.
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These notes are inferred from available catalog information and may not be complete. Check a publisher or reader-supplied guide if you need comprehensive warnings.
Balanced tone · Steady pace
A comfortable full-length choice for steady daily reading.
A good fit if…
Readers who want a thoughtful experience and enjoy noticing the connections beneath a book’s surface story.
This book's DNA
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This signal is descriptive, not a rating. It helps compare the kind of reading experience this edition may offer.
Spoiler-Free Emotional Arc
A broad estimate of the book’s emotional rhythm, shown without story events or outcomes.
This visualization is an interpretive estimate based on catalog description, categories, tone, pace, and content signals. It does not describe specific scenes.
A quick reading snapshot
Edition facts and catalog signals to help you decide whether this book fits what you want to read next.
- ISBN-13
- 978-0-1383-9721-0
- Language
- English
- Edition record
- OL673074M
A more thoughtful way into this book
This guide uses the edition details and category signals above to help you choose deliberately. It does not replace the author's work or a full review.
A comfortable full-length choice for steady daily reading.
Begin with its place in Nonfiction, then notice where the book resists that label.
Read for connection, not completion.
Mark one passage that sharpens the book's central concern and one that complicates it. That tension often reveals more than a quick summary.
Three questions to carry with you
- Whose perspective organizes the story, and whose perspective remains outside it?
- Which sources or lived experiences carry the author’s central argument?
- How does the book change the way you understand its larger subject?
Editorial framework by Wesley Bryan, BookenDeX Founder and Editor.
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Why it fits: shares Nonfiction, a similar reading length, a similar publication era.