READING NEWSPAPER LISTINGS

Each day in the newspaper, mutual funds report their net asset values (NAV). The NAV of a fund is the value of the securities in the fund minus its liabilities, divided by the number of shares held by shareholders. To find the value of your portfolio, look at the column marked NAV and multiply the number of shares you own by the NAV number. You would have received that amount if you had redeemed your shares that day. You'll also see another column marked offer price; this is the public offering price (POP). Offer price is simply the amount you would have had to pay if you wanted to buy shares of the fund that day. Any difference between the offer price and NAV is due to a front-end sales charge to purchase shares.

Next to the "offer price" column you will see either a plus or minus sign. This shows you whether the fund's net asset value has gone up or done since the close of the previous trading day. The "change" column shows you how much of a change there was.

Other symbols you might encounter include letters after the fund name. An "r" indicates a fee for redeeming shares of this fund. An "f" after a fund name means the fund's most recent numbers are not available and the number you see represents the prior day's NAV. Usually a key is provided for the various letter codes.

To find out more about how your funds are performing, you need to understand yield and total return.