Within a fund family, you can generally exchange portions of your investment into other funds with different objectives as your financial situation changes. A stock is an equity security that represents part ownership in a corporation. Stocks are sold in shares and their prices will change. It is widely regarded by investors to be representative of the stock market in general. A bond is essentially a debt security or IOU, usually issued by a corporation, government or government agency.
Most bonds pay interest, which is distributed to the bondholder at specific intervals.
Bond prices will vary, and their price movements are strongly affected by changes in interest rates. In many ways, most money market securities are just short-term investments because the debt that they represent must be paid back within a relatively brief period of time, no more than one year. With such short maturity periods, the prices of money market instruments are generally more stable than prices of longer-term debt securities. However, money market securities usually pay less interest than longer-term bonds. A mutual fund invests in securities that fit its specific objective.