You buy shares in the fund. The idea is that you get the benefit of diversity. Hundreds of different mutual funds exist, specializing in different investment areas. Money market funds, which invest in government and other extremely safe securities, are common. They are sold by banks, brokers and most other financial institutions.
Many funds specialize in particular industries, like high tech, energy or precious metals.
The largest fund companies, like Vanguard and Fidelity, have dozens of funds each managing billions of dollars. All funds take a percentage of the money invested to pay for running the fund. Chapter Home Life in the USA Home Page . You'll be able to access all 18 topic areas of this site. Also you'll find a link to the guestbook.