Mutual Funds

How to read a mutual fund factsheet in under 2 minutes

Every fund publishes a monthly factsheet packed with numbers. Here is which numbers actually matter and which are noise.

Creget Research 28 Mar 2026 5 min read

A mutual fund factsheet is a 2–4 page monthly snapshot covering the fund's portfolio, performance, and risk. It's the single most useful document for evaluating a fund — if you know where to look.

Start with the basics

Fund category, AUM, expense ratio, exit load, and benchmark. AUM tells you scale. Expense ratio tells you the drag. Benchmark tells you what the fund is actually trying to beat.

Check trailing returns — carefully

Factsheets show 1Y, 3Y, 5Y returns versus the benchmark. Trailing returns are tricky because they're sensitive to the start and end dates. A fund that looks great over 3 years might look terrible over 5. Always compare against the benchmark and the category average — absolute numbers in isolation are meaningless.

Look at portfolio concentration

Top 10 holdings as a percentage of portfolio tells you how concentrated the manager's conviction is. Above 50% means a high-conviction fund — great when the manager is right, painful when wrong. Below 30% means a diversified fund that will mirror the benchmark more closely.

Sector weights

A heavy overweight to one sector (say financials at 35%) is a directional bet. Check whether the fund's thesis aligns with yours. Our fund details pages surface the same data in an interactive format.

Risk ratios

Standard deviation tells you volatility. Sharpe ratio tells you risk-adjusted return — higher is better, above 1 is good. Max drawdown tells you the worst peak-to-trough loss. All three together give a far richer picture than just the return number.

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