We don’t care how much regulation there is, the publicly available mutual fund will always be the Wild West of finance. Why?

The reason is simple: these funds are targeted at laypeople, who may never have invested before. And they are fantastic at using buzzwords to keep you invested, even when they’re on the verge of imploding. Forget their marketing spin, and look for these signs:

1. Your mutual fund is a closet indexer

Take a peek inside your mutual fund. What are the stocks in it? If you see something like the 30 blue chip companies on the Straits Times Index and nothing else, we have news for you: you’re dealing with a closet indexer.

A closet indexer buys stocks that mimic an index as closely as possible. This is a very reasonable way to make money, except you know what? That’s called an index fund. There’s no point ...