Investors can buy funds on the sites of many no-load fund companies or through the sites of one of several brokerage firms that offer fund supermarkets. To avoid losing customers to online firms, many no-load fund groups, including the Vanguard Group, American Century Investments and T. Rowe Price Associates, have opened their own online brokerage firms, trading individual stocks and sometimes offering thousands of funds beyond their own. The most noticeable change brought by the Internet, however, has been its capacity to deliver detailed research to virtually all investors, no matter how much they have to invest. Dozens of Web sites offer performance figures as well as portfolio tracking, so investors can monitor their holdings and the shifts in their asset mix of stocks, bonds and cash. For varying fees, investors can gain access to more detailed screens and data.
Investors can register on the site to gain access to a personal portfolio tracker.
In other words, the Internet lets investors get the information they need when they want it. Vanguard recently updated an investment planning service to allow investors to prepare online for retirement, college or other investment objectives. The service considers the user's risk tolerance and time horizon, among other factors. One bonus for the fund industry is that many investors who know the Internet are willing to receive routine information, like shareholder reports, online instead of in the mail. That can help keep down a fund's expenses.