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We offer a large range of funds across many fund providers. You can use the search capability to find a fund that meets your needs and view information across a number of key areas. You are able to add funds to a list for further review or to buy the funds you’ve selected by clicking "process funds" when you are viewing your list.

What does all the terminology mean?

What does all the terminology mean? Hide the detail

Glossary of Terms

Asset Class

An asset class is a group of securities that exhibit similar characteristics and behave similarly in the marketplace. For the purposes of explore, they are categorised as either: Alternative, Commodities, Convertibles, Equity, Fixed Income, Money Market and Property

Average Credit Quality

This is used for funds that invests in bonds. Average credit quality gives a snapshot of the portfolio's overall credit quality. It is an average of each bond's credit rating, adjusted for its relative weighting in the portfolio.

U.S. government bonds carry the highest credit rating, while bonds issued by speculative or bankrupt companies usually carry the lowest credit ratings. Anything at or below BB is considered a high-yield or "junk" bond.

IA Sector

The IA sectors provide a way to divide a large universe of funds into broad groups. It can be useful way of comparing funds in one sector before looking in detail at individual funds. The IA sectors are overseen by IA's Sectors Committee and they monitor the funds monthly to ensure they still fit within the sector definition.

Manager Tenure

This represents the number of years that the current manager has been the portfolio manager of the fund.

For funds with more than one manager, the average tenure is shown. If there is only one manager and he/she has been at the fund for less than six months (and there is biographical information available), a dash will appear.

If the fund designates the manager as a Management Team and does not disclose the names of the portfolio manager or co-portfolio managers to Morningstar, Manager Tenure will appear as a dash for the fund.

Morningstar Analyst Rating

The Morningstar Analyst Rating provides an analyst's forward-looking assessment of a fund's ability to outperform its peer group or a relevant benchmark on a risk-adjusted basis over a full market cycle.

Morningstar Category

The Morningstar Category classifications were introduced in 1996 to help investors make comparisons between mutual funds. It assigns a cateogory based on the underlying securities in each portfolio.

The categories make it easier to build well-diversified portfolios, assess potential risk, and identify top-performing funds. The funds are placed in a given category based on their portfolio statistics and compositions over the past three years.

Morningstar Rating

Morningstar rates funds from one to five stars based on how well they've performed in comparison to its peers within the same Morningstar Category, after adjusting for risk and accounting for all relevant sales charges. Ratings are objective, based entirely on a mathematical evaluation of past performance.

Morningstar Risk

An annualised measure of a fund's downside volatility over a three-, five-, or ten-year period. This is a component of the Morningstar Risk-Adjusted Return.

Morningstar Risk Rating is derived directly from Morningstar Risk. In each Morningstar Category, the top 10% of investments earn a high rating, the next 22.5% above average, the middle 35% average, the next 22.5% below average, and the bottom 10% low. Investments with less than three years of performance history are not rated.

Morningstar Sustainability Rating

The Morningstar Sustainability Rating is a measure of environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks in a fund's underlying holdings compared to its peers. The ESG research is from a leading ESG research provider called Sustainalytics. The Sustainability Rating is depicted by globe icons where High equals 5 globes and low equals 1 globe.

Socially Responsible Funds

This group includes any fund that invests according to noneconomic guidelines. Funds may make investments based on such issues as environmental responsibility, human rights, or religious views

For example, Socially Responsible funds may take a proactive stance by selectively investing in environmentally-friendly companies or firms with good employee relations. This group also includes funds that avoid investing in companies involved in promoting alcohol, tobacco, or gambling, or in the defense industry.

Sector

Morningstar divides stocks into 12 sectors according to their primary business, grouped into three larger “super-sectors”. The Software, Hardware, Telecom, and Media sectors make up the Information group; Health Care, Consumer Services, Business Services, and Financial Services make up the Service group; and Consumer Goods, Industrial Materials, Energy, and Utilities make up the Manufacturing group. Because sectors can differ greatly in their characteristics, comparing a stock with its sector rather than the market as a whole is generally a better way of putting it in the proper context.

Yield

The yield is the income return on an investment, such as the interest or dividends received from a holding. The yield is usually expressed as an annual percentage rate.

YTD

YTD stands for 'Year-to-date' which is a period, starting from the beginning of the current year, and continuing up to the present day.

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Funds

Glossary of Terms

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Willis Owen

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Willis Owen

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