Funds from many individual investors that are aggregated for the purposes of investment, as in the case of a mutual or pension fund. Investors in pooled fund investments benefit from economies of scale, which allow for lower trading costs per dollar of investment, diversification and professional money management.
The enormous advantages of investing in pooled fund vehicles make them an ideal asset for many investors. There are added costs involved in the form of management fees, but these fees have been steadily declining for many years as competition has increased. The main detractor of pooled fund investments is that capital gains are spread evenly among all investors - sometimes at the expense of new shareholders.