The mutual fund under consideration has not displayed a consistent upward or downward trend. It seems that market forces and the external environment have played a great role in influencing the returns of the mutual fund. The annual returns of the mutual fund for the past ten years are as follows:
1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005
19.99% 26.68% 16.72% 24.58% 4.27% -9.55% -17.34% 31.96% 13.91% 11.68%
The above graph displays the general trend for the annual returns of the mutual fund for the ten years starting 1996. There was a general positive return except for the years 2001 and 2002. The negative return in these two years can be attributed to the 9/11 incident. During these two years, there was a general economic crash all across the globe. Major stock markets had sunk to considerably low levels and there had been a considerable crisis in investments and stocks.
Apart from that, the mutual fund has been positive performer and it rebounded in 2003 to its highest return in the ten year period after a huge slump in 2002. Both 2004 and 2005 were lower returns than the periods of positive returns before. From 2004 to 2005, the return decreased by 2.23 points signifying a downward trend in the oncoming future. However, these data points simply cannot be used for a complete prediction for future returns form the mutual fund.
Statistical Calculations on the Returns of the Fund
Mean Annual Return
The Mean Annual Return of the mutual fund stands at 12.29%. So, on average, the expectations from