Distributions and Mutual Funds¹

Jeffrey D. Oldham

1997 December 13

Yesterday evening, Amit Patel wrote

I've had my eye on [Fidelity Select Electronics] for almost a year now because it's been ranked at the top for three years. Today it dropped 21%.... Twenty-one percent in a single day seems way too high for a mutual fund.

How does this ``distributions'' thing work? Would that be done at this time of year?

Yes, a twenty-one percent drop in one day is quite a large drop, especially considering the technology-laden NASDAQ market dropped only 1.41%. Mr. Patel gave the right clue when he asked about ``distributions.''

Visiting the Fidelity Investments WWW page and following the appropriate links, we read that Fidelity Select Electronics declared distributions of $6.95 with a record date of 12 December.

Footnotes

...Funds¹

©1997 Jeffrey D. Oldham . All rights reserved. This document may not be redistributed in any form without the express permission of the author.