Mutual fund expense ratio variety
My question primarily concerns actively-managed funds:
Why is it that certain funds, in particular certain sector funds, tend to cost more than others? For instance, I've noticed that a typical "technology" fund tends to be really pricey (~ 1.5%), whereas, say, and energy fund will often go for about half that. Often, these funds are buying about the same market-cap size stocks, so this isn't necessarily explained by one being from smaller (harder to pick?) market caps.
It seems like the trend I've seen is that the more "aggressive/volatile" the stocks are that composed the fund, the higher the expense ratios tend to be. I'm suspicious that they're doing that because its harder to notice a crazy-high expense ratio when the fund is going up-and-down all over the place. Is that pretty much it, or is there a more rational reason for them to charge more?
I can understand why foreign funds cost more though. Obviously, there's going to be more expenses associated with researching, purchasing, and handling foreign investments and monies.
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