Mutual Funds Screener

A mutual funds screener is a program the investor can use in searching out funds which meet his selection criteria. At one time, this investment tool along with other sophisticated finance tools was only available for the professional-- such as investment bankers, stockbrokers, and securities dealers. The main purpose of a mutual funds screener today is to help any investor, whether professional or not, in choosing the best stocks and mutual funds that fit his investing objectives.

The internet offers an extensive array of personal finance websites which offer a mutual funds screener. Morningstar has a free and rather user-friendly fund screener, as do several other financial investment websites. However, many will usually charge a monthly fee, or subscription fee, for the investor's use of a mutual funds screener. Among these subscription websites is smartmoney.com which is the internet's edition of the magazine "Smart Money" owned jointly by Dow Jones and Hearst. The website has the same features as the magazine with market news, tax guides, stock quotes, leading economic indicators and retirement planning aids.

The mutual funds screener is also known as the mutual fund ratings screener which is used to analyze investments and the performance of mutual funds.

It helps the investor not only in investing his money, but also in evaluating the mutual funds he already possesses. As he evaluates his current holdings, he will decide either to keep his present investment or to find a better fund in which to invest. There are thousands of mutual funds to choose from and a mutual funds screener narrows down the list for the investor, helping him in choosing the best.

The screener will have several headings in which the investor will type in his search data. The investor can use the screener in order to search funds by ticker symbol going to fund family, fund style, load status, recommendation/rating, risk rating, performance, net assets, and expense rating. The investor can do this multiple times, varying the number of matches in a result list from 1 to 100. He can change the sort order by choosing a column heading and entering other factors. He will have the freedom of studying each result as he considers the figures before him. The investor will make his decision partially based on what he has discovered.