It highlights the exposure to different asset classes - equity, debt and cash - in a portfolio. Different asset classes expose the investor to different levels of risk. It becomes highly important for the investor to check where his money is being invested. Investors with high risk appetite looking for higher capital gains go for equity-heavy mutual fund. Similarly, investors with lower risk appetite would choose debt funds.

It measures a fund's volatility compared to that of a benchmark. Beta < 1 indicates fund is less volatile than market. For eg- a beta of 1.5 would mean that for every 10% upside or downside, the fund's NAV would move 15% in the respective direction. Similarly, for beta of 0.8 every 10% upside or downside would indicate the fund's NAV to move 8% in the respective direction.

Cash level is the percentage of a fund’s total assets which are held in cash. Cash is required by the fund in order to handle transactions and day-to-day redemptions of shares. Cash level can signal a fund manager’s sense of caution or optimism about the markets. A higher cash level would represent the fund manager’s bearish market outlook as he is holding back on making new purchases.

Ratings represent the creditworthiness of the securities which the funds invest in to. It is inversely proportional to the risk the security is exposed to. A large chunk in AAA/Sovereign paper (which is the highest rating) implies that the fund is taking lower credit risk. On the other hand, a higher allocation to AA+/AA paper underlines the fact that the fund manager is taking relatively higher credit risk.

Managing and operating a fund calls for lot of expenses which is charged to the investors. Expense ratio of a direct plan is lower than that of a regular plan as the former excludes distribution and trailing fees. Actively managed funds have higher expense ratio than passively managed ones. Expense ratio should be considered while choosing the fund but should not be the only criteria.

Fund manager is a part of the team that manages one or more mutual fund schemes. He is supported by research team and financial analysts with whom the fund is actively or passively managed. They are very important in defining the fund’s success. Every fund manager has different style of investing which makes it important for investor to know who is managing his money.

It is simply the number of different stocks the fund holds. More the number of holdings, more diversified the fund is. There is no optimal number of holdings in a fund. Some investors prefer a more concentrated portfolio with a few stocks while others like to diversify their portfolio and mitigate the risk they are exposed to by investing in large number of companies.

It tells you the extent to which your fund manager churned the portfolio in the past one year. It is the percentage of a fund's holdings that have changed in a given year. It is calculated by taking the lower of the sales or purchase (in terms of value) and dividing it by the total net assets of the scheme. Higher turnover ratio would reflect higher transaction costs. Aggressively managed funds generally have higher portfolio turnover rates than conservative funds. A lower the turnover ratio shows fund manager’s conviction and would indicate a buy-and-hold strategy.

It measures the relationship between a portfolio and its benchmark. It is reported as a number between 0 and 100. A fund with R-squared of 100 would mean that the fund’s performance matches with that of its benchmark very closely. Lower the R square, lower is the correlation of the fund with its benchmark.

It informs investors about a fund's concentration level in sectors and stocks. There are different sectors where the fund manager can allocate the funds to. While there are sector specific funds which invests the funds to particular sectors, other funds exposes the customer to different sectors. An aggressive fund manager may have high concentration among fewer companies and sectors, which may not be appropriate for investors seeking diversification.