Borrowing to Invest. Mutual Funds may be purchased using available cash or a combination of cash and borrowed money. If you use cash to pay for your purchase in full your percentage gain or loss will equal the percentage increase or decrease in the value of your shares or units. The purchase of mutual funds using borrowed money, called leveraging, magnifies the gain or loss on your cash invested.
For example, if $100,000 of funds are purchased and paid for with $25,000 from available cash (your money) and $75,000 from borrowings and the value of your fund shares declines by 10% to $90,000 your equity interest (the difference between the value of your fund shares and the amount borrowed) has declined by 40% i.e. from $25,000 to $15,000.
It is important that an investor proposing to borrow for the purchase of securities be aware that a purchase with borrowed monies involves greater risk than a purchase using cash resources only.
To what extent a leveraged purchase involves undue risk is a determination to be made by each purchaser and will vary depending on the circumstance of the purchaser and the securities purchased.
It is also important that the investor be aware of the terms of a loan secured by securities. The lender may require that the amount outstanding on the loan not rise above an agreed percentage of the market value of the securities. Should this occur, the borrower must pay down the loan or sell the securities so as to return the loan to the agreed percentage relationship. In our example above, the lender may require that the loan not exceed 75% of the market value of the mutual fund units. On a decline of value of the units to $90,000, the borrower must reduce the loan to $67,500 (75% of the $90,000). If the borrower does not have cash available they must sell units at a loss to provide money to reduce the loan.
Money is, of course, also required to pay interest on the loan. Under these circumstances, investors who use borrowed funds to purchase their investments are advised to have adequate financial resources available both to pay the interest and also to reduce the loan if borrowing arrangements require such a payment.