A mutual fund I have (Vanguard Health Care Inv - VGHCX) dropped around 8% in one day...which is kind of unusual for a fund. All the while the general stock market rose slightly.
Which brings me to my question... How do I research why it went down? What specifically caused it to do so.
I don't have any specialized tools other than Google/Yahoo/MSN finance sites...
Usually there are annual or semi-annual reports for a mutual fund that may give an idea for when a fund will have "distributions" which can cause the NAV to fall as this is when the fund passes the taxable liabilities to shareholders in the form of a dividend. Alternatively, the prospectus of the fund may also have the data on the recent distribution history that is likely what you want. If you don't understand why a fund would have a distribution, I highly suggest researching the legal structure of an open-end mutual fund where there more than a few rules about how taxes are handled for this case.
