The date the fund determines who its shareholders are; "shareholders of record" who will receive the fund's income dividend and/or net capital gains distribution. Frequently the business day immediately prior to the Ex-Dividend Date.

 The price at which a mutual fund's shares are redeemed (bought back) by the fund. The redemption price is usually equal to the current net asset value per share. Also called the bid, call or sell price.

 The privilege some mutual funds give to their shareholders to use income or the capital gains to purchase additional shares of their fund without any sales charge.

 At redemption, some funds offer investors the option of reinvesting the amount. An investor happy with the fund's performance may opt to continue.

 R-squared ranges from 0 to 100 and reflects the percentage of a fund's movements that are explained by movements in its benchmark index. An R-squared of 100 means that all movements of a fund are completely explained by movements in the index. Thus, index funds that invest only in S&P 500 stocks will have an R-squared very close to 100. Conversely, a low R-squared indicates that very few of the fund's movements are explained by movements in its benchmark index. An R-squared measure of 35, for example, means that only 35% of the fund's movements can be explained by movements in its benchmark index. Therefore, R-squared can be used to ascertain the significance of a particular beta or alpha. Generally, a higher R-squared will indicate a more useful beta figure. If the R-squared is lower, then the beta is less relevant to the fund's performance.

 The date on which a share's dividend and/or capital gains will be reinvested (if requested) in additional fund shares.

 The measure of an investor's ability to withstand volatility in the markets. Investors with a near-term focus are likely to be more conservative than those with a long-term viewpoint who can benefit from the market's fluctuations by taking advantage of compounding and historical growth of the markets.

 A system of investing in which individual re-invests money into the same mutual fund on a regular basis, usually monthly.