Before putting your money into any form of investment, it is advisable to carry out a market analysis so as to get a view of how they are likely to perform in future. The analysis will focus on the rate of return, the risk involved, the ability of managers to skillfully manage the investment as well as the market trends over the past years. The analysis should also be both qualitative and quantitative. Qualitative analysis looks at the managers ability to coordinate the happenings that relate to the investment.

Quantitative analysis is more concerned with figures that are involved in calculating risk, performance and returns. For proper analysis, one has to be equipped with the necessary skills and avoid mistakes that are common during calculations. The two most common mistakes are benchmarking and lack of objectivity or bias. To avoid improper benchmarking, there is need to make use or reliable bench markers analysis. For example, the Morning Star Benchmark values that have been used over the years are more reliable because they compare the performance of a number of investments over a number of years.

Bias often arises when financial reporters only reflect those mutual funds that have performed favorably over the recent past. They tend to overlook those that have not been doing so well and this reflects poorly on them. If a benchmark is created based on this criteria, bias is likely to arise. The best way to avoid bias is to look at a long time periods so that the under performing and the over performing investments are all reflected.

To be more accurate on mutual funds analysis, one can now make use of software that is readily available on the Internet. The software includes programs like Zephyr’s StyleADVISOR. Proper analysis will help you pick the most reliable manager, evaluate his performance as well as the consistency of that performance.