Equity Funds
Equities or shares are traded on the stock exchange and may be bought individually or through a portfolio managed by a stock broker, or managed professionally through an equity fund.
In an investment and financial planning context, funds are generally ‘collective investments'. That is to say that an individual's money is ‘pooled' with those of many other investors to invest across a wide range of shares or other investment media thus giving a spread of risk that would normally be unobtainable to one individual.
Examples of commonly used funds in the UK would be Unit Trusts; Open-Ended Investment Companies (OEICS); Investment Trusts, Life Funds and Pension Funds.