Mutual funds are nothing but pooled money which is invested for financial assets. In a share market a mutual fund might be a company also which redeems and sells its stocks and shares on the basis of a pool of assets. There is a host of mutual funds that prevails in financial market. To collect proper knowledge on them or to be acquainted with them is very necessary.
There are close-ended mutual funds or schemes which are provided with a specified maturity period that might be for 3 to 5 years. In this type of mutual fund a trader or a shareholder can not subscribe to take advantage before launching of the scheme or before a stipulated time period. When close ended mutual fund is opened up publicly an investor can invest his or her capital at the time of beginning. After that a stock holder can buy or can sell when the mutual fund units are listed in stock or share market.
Apart from close-ended mutual funds there are open-ended mutual funds which are well known because of there flexibility to invest capital at anytime. There is nothing fixed here like close-ended mutual funds. There are no fixed shares, no fixed fund and no fixed number of traders or investors. The fund manager in an open-ended mutual fund reserves the right to close the fund to open up again it for new investors. The price and value of an open-ended mutual fund is calculated in NAV- Net Asset Value which is determined everyday at closing of share market.
Both close-ended and open-ended mutual funds are combined to form another types of mutual funds called interval schemes. Interval schemes bear qualities from both the above-mentioned mutual funds (for example, Fixed Maturity Plan- FMP). The shares or stocks of Interval schemes can be traded on pre-determined value that is at NAV related prices. A shareholder or a trader can redeem or sell stock units under Interval schemes listed in a stock exchange market. 
The above-mentioned types of mutual funds are based on structure of a financial market. For a shareholder or a trader it is extremely useful to check out a mutual fund that whether it is suitable to invest for or not. Interestingly, it is found that in North America there are more than 10,000 types of mutual funds. There are other mutual funds which are divided on the basis of nature of a share market. Let us check them also.
Equity mutual funds are those mutual funds which are meant for long-term capital growth on a principal. The structure of an equity mutual fund might be different at various schemes. There are equity mutual funds like Tax Savings Funds (ELSS), Sector Specific Funds, Small Cap Funds, Mid-Cap Funds and Diversified Equity Funds.
Debt mutual funds are on the other hand, meant to invest only on debt papers. Debt papers are issued by banks, financial organizations, private companies and government authorities also. When an investor invests his or her capital with debt mutual funds then his or her investment is ensured with low risk and stable income.
Balanced mutual funds are prepared by balancing or by mixing both equity mutual funds and debt mutual funds. A pre-defined scheme is determined for investing in both equities and debts to procure income securities under balanced mutual funds. An investor will get the best possible profit from both funds.
In Indian financial market different types of mutual funds are actively running. Proper knowledge is necessary at least on those basic mutual funds which are popular in financial markets. There are types of mutual funds that are again further divided on the basis of investment objectives. Let us get acquainted with them also.
Growth schemes or equity schemes are made for investment where an investor must be willing to bear short-term decline in price or value to achieve future benefits. Another mutual fund comes under this category which is known as income schemes or debt schemes. An investor invests fixed income securities through corporate debentures and bonds to procure steady and regular income from such types of mutual funds.
Lastly, index schemes mutual funds are there which provide performance based profit margin from NSE and BSE stock or share index. Index schemes mutual funds returns are made from those stocks only that forms or constitute the index for a share market. Returns are made by calculating stock index weight age and percentage of stocks.