Terms you'll see on fund pages

Terms that fundii fund pages use without stopping to explain, gathered here one by one · 121 terms

Fund basics · 22

AIMC category: A grouping of funds with similar investments, set by the Association of Investment Management Companies. Used to compare returns with funds in the same group.
AMC: Asset management company: the firm that launches and manages mutual funds, licensed by the SEC
Asset class: A group of assets with similar risk and return, such as deposits, bonds, shares, property and gold
Benchmark: The index or reference return the fund declares, used to see whether the fund did better or worse than the market it invests in
Closed-end fund: A fund that sells units once and does not redeem them before it ends; some list on the stock exchange instead
Diversification: Spreading money across many assets, countries or securities so a loss in any one does not hit the whole portfolio too hard
Fund manager: The person licensed by the SEC to make the fund’s investment decisions within its policy
Fund size (AUM): The total net asset value of the whole fund on a given date, unlike NAV per unit, which is the price of a single unit
Inception date: The date the fund started operating; the return since inception counts from this day
Investment policy: The declared limits on what the fund buys, in what proportions and in which markets; the manager must invest within them
Liquidity: How easily an investment turns into cash without losing value; money market funds are highly liquid, term funds are not
NAV: The fund's net asset value. NAV per unit is the price at which units are bought and sold on that day.
Open-ended fund: A fund with no fixed life that you can buy from and sell back to the AMC every business day, with units created or cancelled as orders come in
Passive / Active: Passive funds follow an index. In active funds, the fund manager picks securities to try to beat the index.
Registrar: The party that records who holds how many units, processes trades and issues statements to unitholders
Risk profile: Your result from the suitability test, from low to very high risk, compared with a fund’s risk level before you buy
SEC: The Securities and Exchange Commission of Thailand, which licenses and oversees AMCs, mutual funds and fund sellers
Selling agent: A bank, broker or licensed firm that sells and redeems units on the AMC’s behalf, at the same prices the AMC publishes
Share class: One fund split into several classes, such as accumulating, dividend, auto-redemption or tax-saving; they share one portfolio, but fees and conditions can differ
Suitability test: The questionnaire you take before investing to find how much risk you can take; buying a fund riskier than your result needs an extra acknowledgement
Trustee: The bank or financial institution that holds the fund’s assets apart from the AMC and checks the AMC manages the fund as its prospectus says
Unit: A share of ownership in a fund; the units you get are the amount you pay divided by the offer price per unit

Fund types · 22

Commodity fund: A fund investing in gold, oil or other commodities, usually through a foreign fund or ETF; an alternative asset at risk level 8
Developed markets: Economies with mature capital markets, such as the US, Europe and Japan; large and highly liquid
Emerging markets: Fast-growing economies such as China, India, Vietnam and Thailand; more growth potential but more volatility, political and currency risk
Equity fund: A fund that keeps on average at least 80% of NAV in shares; higher long-run returns but more volatile than a fixed income fund
ESG fund: A fund that picks securities on environmental, social and governance grounds as well as returns
ETF: A fund traded on the stock exchange like a stock, usually tracking an index.
Feeder fund: A Thai fund that invests mainly in a single foreign fund.
Fixed income fund: A fund investing mainly in government and corporate bonds; it earns interest, and its price moves with interest rates and issuers’ credit
Foreign investment fund (FIF): A fund that invests at least 80% of NAV abroad, directly or through a master fund, adding currency risk
Fund of funds: A fund that invests in several other funds instead of buying shares or bonds itself, unlike a feeder fund, which invests in a single master fund
Index fund: A fund that tracks an index, such as SET50 or the S&P 500, to return close to it; fees are usually lower than an active fund’s
Infrastructure fund: A fund owning infrastructure such as power plants, toll roads or telecom towers; it trades on the stock exchange and usually pays steady dividends
Large cap: Shares of companies with a large market value, often industry leaders; less volatile than mid and small caps
Master fund: The foreign fund that a feeder fund invests in, and the one that picks the actual securities.
Mixed fund: A fund holding shares, bonds and other assets together; the mix may be fixed or shifted by the manager’s view
Money market fund: A fund investing in deposits and short-term debt maturing within a year; low risk, used to park cash or hold an emergency reserve
REIT: A real estate investment trust that owns rented property, such as malls, warehouses or offices; it trades on the stock exchange and usually pays dividends from rent
Sector fund: A fund investing in shares of a single industry, such as technology or healthcare, so it rides that industry’s cycle
Small & mid cap: Shares of smaller companies; room to grow faster, but more volatile and less liquid than large caps
Target date fund: A fund set to a target year, such as retirement, that gradually moves from shares to bonds as the year approaches
Term fund: A fund with a fixed life, such as 6 months or 1 year, sold once during its IPO and usually not redeemable early, unlike an open-ended fund traded every business day
Thematic fund: A fund investing in a long-term trend across industries, such as AI, ageing or clean energy; often concentrated and volatile

Fees and trading · 23

Auto-redemption: The fund redeems units for you automatically on a set schedule or condition and pays the money into your account, without you placing a sell order
Business day: A day the AMC takes orders, excluding public holidays; foreign funds may also close on holidays of the overseas market or master fund
Cut-off time: The last time on a business day for an order to get that day’s NAV; orders after it get the next business day’s NAV
DCA: Dollar-cost averaging: investing the same amount every period, such as monthly, without timing the market; you get more units when prices are low
Dividend policy: Whether the fund pays dividends; if not, gains stay in the NAV. Dividends from a mutual fund have 10% tax withheld
Early redemption fee: A fee some funds charge if you sell before holding for a set period, such as 6 months
Front-end / back-end fee: The fee an investor pays when buying or redeeming units, as a % of the transaction value.
IPO period: The window when a new fund first sells units, usually at 10 baht per unit, before it starts investing
Lump sum: Investing the whole amount at once, unlike DCA, which invests in regular instalments
Management fee: What the AMC is paid for running the fund, as a yearly % of NAV, deducted daily before NAV is calculated; it is most of the total expense ratio (TER)
Minimum investment: The smallest amount you can buy on the first and later purchases; some funds start at 1 baht
Notice period: How many days ahead you must tell the AMC before redeeming; used by funds holding less liquid assets
Offer / bid price: The offer price is NAV plus the front-end fee, paid when you buy; the bid price is NAV minus the back-end fee, received when you sell
Redemption gate: A tool that lets an AMC cap redemptions on days of unusually heavy selling; the excess orders move to the next business day
Registrar fee: What the registrar is paid, as a yearly % of NAV; taken from the fund and included in the TER
Swing pricing: Moving NAV up or down on days of large inflows or outflows so the day’s traders bear the trading costs, not the remaining holders
Switching: Redeeming one fund to buy another from the same AMC in a single order; switching-in and switching-out fees may apply
T+1 / T+2: The number of business days after the transaction date, for example receiving redemption proceeds within 2 business days.
Total expense ratio (TER): All expenses deducted from the fund each year, as a % of NAV. They are deducted before NAV is calculated.
Trustee fee: What the trustee is paid, as a yearly % of NAV; taken from the fund and included in the TER
Unit transfer fee: A fee for transferring units to another person, such as an heir; different from moving a fund to another AMC
Unitholder number: Your fund account number at each AMC, used to trade and to reference the certificate for tax-saving fund purchases
XD date: The date from which buyers of units don't receive that round's dividend. NAV drops by the dividend amount.

Reading the portfolio · 14

Asset allocation: How the fund spreads its money across asset types, such as shares, bonds and cash, as a % of NAV
Cash and equivalents: Deposits and very short-term instruments the fund holds to meet redemptions or wait to invest
Country allocation: How the fund spreads its money across countries, as a % of NAV; shows how much it relies on any one economy
Derivatives: Contracts whose value depends on another asset, such as futures or currency forwards; funds use them to hedge or to add return potential
Dividend yield: Yearly dividends divided by the share price; the portfolio average shows how much the fund’s shares pay out
Factsheet: The monthly key-information summary of the prospectus, covering the policy, returns, fees, risks and the assets the fund invests in.
FX hedging: The share of foreign investments covered by contracts that reduce the impact of the baht's exchange rate.
Market cap: Share price times the number of shares; used to class shares as large, mid or small cap
P/E ratio: Share price divided by earnings per share; the portfolio average shows whether the fund holds expensive or cheap shares relative to earnings
Portfolio turnover ratio (PTR): The lesser of the year’s purchases or sales divided by average NAV; the higher it is, the more the fund trades and the more it pays in trading costs
Prospectus: The document an AMC must publish before selling a fund, setting out its policy, risks, fees and trading terms; the factsheet is its key-facts summary
Rebalancing: Buying and selling to bring the asset mix back to its target after price moves have shifted it
Sector allocation: How the fund’s shares are spread across industries, such as technology, financials and healthcare, as a % of NAV
Top holdings: The securities the fund holds most of, such as its top 5 or top 10, with each as a % of NAV; shows how concentrated the fund is

Return and risk · 20

Alpha: The return a fund earns above its benchmark after adjusting for beta, used to judge an active manager’s skill
Annualized return: The return over a period longer than a year, such as 3 or 5 years, converted to a compound yearly rate so funds can be compared
Beta: How the fund moves against its benchmark; a beta of 1.2 means that when the benchmark moves 1%, the fund tends to move about 1.2%
Calendar year return: The return for each January-to-December year; shows how the fund did in up and down years
Compounding: Returns being reinvested to earn returns of their own; the longer you invest, the stronger the effect
Correlation: A value from -1 to 1 showing how closely two funds or assets move together; the lower it is, the more they spread risk
Cumulative return: How much NAV changed over the whole chosen period, such as 3 years, as one figure, not converted to a yearly rate
Inflation: Prices rising so the same money buys less; investments should aim to return more than inflation
Information ratio: The return above the benchmark divided by tracking error; shows how consistently an active fund beats its benchmark
Maximum drawdown: The largest percentage by which NAV has fallen from a previous peak.
Percentile: Where a fund’s return or risk ranks among funds in the same AIMC category; on Thai factsheets the 5th percentile is the best-returning group
Real return: The return after inflation; earning 5% with 2% inflation is a real return of about 3%
Recovering period: How long NAV took to climb back to its previous peak after its maximum drawdown
Risk level (1–8): The fund’s risk level under the SEC scale, from 1, the lowest, such as a domestic money market fund, to 8, the highest, such as a fund investing in alternative assets
Risk-free rate: The return on an investment treated as almost riskless, such as short-term treasury bills; the baseline in the Sharpe ratio
Sharpe ratio: The return in excess of the risk-free return, divided by volatility. The higher it is, the more the return was worth the risk.
Sortino ratio: Like the Sharpe ratio but counting only downside volatility; the higher, the better the return for the risk of losing money
Tracking error: How far a fund's return deviates from its benchmark. Used to assess index funds.
Volatility (SD): The annualised standard deviation of returns. The higher it is, the sharper the ups and downs.
Year to date (YTD): How much NAV has changed from the last business day of the previous year to the latest date

Bonds · 11

Bill of exchange (B/E): Short-term company debt, usually maturing within a year; common in money market and short-term bond funds
Corporate bond: Debt a company issues to borrow money; it pays more interest than a government bond to make up for higher default risk
Coupon: The yearly interest a bond pays on its face value, as stated at issue; unlike YTM, it does not depend on the price paid
Credit rating: An issuer’s ability to repay debt; AAA is the highest, BBB- and above is investment grade, and anything lower carries more default risk
Default: When a bond issuer fails to pay interest or repay principal on time; holders may not get all their money back
Duration: How sensitive bond prices are to interest rates; a duration of 3 years means a 1% rise in rates cuts prices by about 3%
Government bond: Debt issued by the government or the Bank of Thailand; the lowest default risk in the country
High-yield bond: A bond rated below BBB- or unrated; it pays high interest but carries more default risk
Interest rate risk: The risk of bond prices falling when market interest rates rise, measured by duration
Maturity: The time until the issuer repays the principal; the longer it is, the more the bond’s price reacts to interest rates
YTM: Yield to maturity: the bond portfolio’s approximate annual return if every bond is held to maturity with no default, before fund expenses

Tax and tax-saving funds · 9

Breaching conditions: Selling a tax-saving fund before meeting its conditions; you repay the tax saved plus a 1.5% monthly surcharge, and the gain becomes taxable
Capital gain: The profit between the price you paid for units and the price you redeem them at; tax-exempt for individuals, unlike dividends, which have 10% withheld
LTF: Long-Term Equity Fund. Purchases up to tax year 2019 were tax-deductible; each purchase must be held at least 7 calendar years
RMF: Retirement Mutual Fund. Tax-deductible up to 30% of income and, with other retirement savings, up to 500,000 baht a year; hold at least 5 years and sell from age 55
SSF: Super Savings Fund. Purchases made in tax years 2020–2024 are tax-deductible; each purchase must be held 10 years from the date bought
Tax certificate: The statement an AMC issues showing your tax-saving fund purchases for the year, used when filing tax
Tax deduction: Subtracting qualifying fund purchases, such as RMF or Thai ESG, from income before personal income tax is calculated
Thai ESG: Thailand ESG Fund. Tax-deductible up to 30% of income and up to 300,000 baht a year; each purchase must be held for 5 years
Withholding tax: The 10% tax an AMC deducts before paying a dividend; you can treat it as final or include the dividend in your year-end tax