Abstract

The research report is based on the study made on the comparative analysis of the Mutual fund and other alternative investment options which were the study made for 8 weeks duration from 10th April 2014 to 9th June 2014. The main purpose of doing this project was to know about mutual fund and its functioning. This helps to know in details about mutual fund industry right from its inception stage, growth and future prospects. It also helps in understanding different schemes of mutual funds. My study depends upon prominent funds in India and their schemes like equity, income, balance as well as the returns associated with those schemes. Ultimately this would help in understanding the benefits of mutual funds to investors and also alternate investment options like the mutual funds which can be Options, Futures, FOREX, Gold, Real Estate. This report is presented in terms of various chapters such as the Design of the study, Introduction, Data analysis and Interpretation Summary of findings, Recommendations and Conclusion.

In the design of the study, the areas covered are highlighted in terms of introduction, objective scope, methodology, limitations and review of literature. The main objective is to know the preference made by the investors towards the mutual fund is more or they go into the other alternate investment options like fixed deposits, savings account of bank, options, futures, FOREX, gold, real estate. The study involves the mutual fund industry profile and its history and its categories as well its investment strategies. It also covers the overview of existing schemes existed in mutual fund category. The study also tells the advantages as well as the disadvantages in mutual fund schemes when compared to other alternate investment options.

Most of the investors are aware of the mutual funds but they don’t know the benefits derived from it so it is important for them to be understood. Mutual is not so popular as in the case of the foreign countries. Mutual funds are also growing in the country but it and its advantages are not known by everyone. This project undertaken deals with customer perception with regard to mutual funds that is the investments they prefer, the reasons behind such selections and also this project dealt with different investment options, which people prefer along with and apart from mutual funds. The findings from this project is that most of the people are hesitant in going for new age investments like mutual funds and prefer to avert risks by investing in less riskier investment options like other deposits and so.

Key words: Mutual funds, Alternative Investments, Bank, Risk