e these funds were largely held by conservative investors who did not encourage speculation (or leveraging) and who invested in diversified portfolios in order to encourage capital preservation.
Open-end funds got their start with the Massachusetts Investment Trust (MIT) founded as an investment fund for Harvard faculty members. In 1924, MIT opened its fund to individual investors outside the Harvard campus and pledged to redeem shares at market value, not merely at the value investors paid for them originally. State Street Investment Company soon entered the mutual fund industry as did more than 12 other competitors. Collectively, these mutual funds went into the 1929 stock market crash with more than $140 million in assets; some, including MIT, survived the crash because of their conservative investment strategy and were able to take advantage of the bargains which were available during the 1930s. Calvin Bullock began four funds during the Depression years, and other companies, recognizing that there were in
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