marko
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2011
- Messages
- 8,427
This has been question I've had for a while and thought I'd run it past the investment gurus here. This is just an idle question on how things work with MFs.
Apologies in advance if this question is the result of a gross misunderstanding on my part of how all of this operates!!
When I buy a straight out equity, I get a piece of paper (that resides somewhere) that says I own X number shares of that stock. I'm a legal owner of .0000X% of that company.
If I buy a mutual fund made up of that stock (among dozens of other companies), there is a piece of paper that says I own that fund, but AFAIK not the .0000X shares of each company. This is further complicated when I buy a 'fund of funds' type of fund.
I'm getting further removed from proof of ownership of that company.
So, if I owned an outright share of X company through Fido I'd have a piece of paper showing that I legally own a piece of the company and would have recourse in the unlikely event that Fido went south as did Lehman Brothers.
But if I own a fund of funds through Fido and they went south what proof do I have that I even owned those shares? I have a statement that says I own(ed) X shares of the MF but no real ownership of the stock itself.
Or do I?
Again, this is just an idle question in the 'just wondering' category.
Thanks in advance for any insights.
Apologies in advance if this question is the result of a gross misunderstanding on my part of how all of this operates!!
When I buy a straight out equity, I get a piece of paper (that resides somewhere) that says I own X number shares of that stock. I'm a legal owner of .0000X% of that company.
If I buy a mutual fund made up of that stock (among dozens of other companies), there is a piece of paper that says I own that fund, but AFAIK not the .0000X shares of each company. This is further complicated when I buy a 'fund of funds' type of fund.
I'm getting further removed from proof of ownership of that company.
So, if I owned an outright share of X company through Fido I'd have a piece of paper showing that I legally own a piece of the company and would have recourse in the unlikely event that Fido went south as did Lehman Brothers.
But if I own a fund of funds through Fido and they went south what proof do I have that I even owned those shares? I have a statement that says I own(ed) X shares of the MF but no real ownership of the stock itself.
Or do I?
Again, this is just an idle question in the 'just wondering' category.
Thanks in advance for any insights.