Comparative risk analysis of national and international mutual funds

The increase in savings constantly depends on the level of risk and the kind of investment instruments. Because of the global crisis in the world, mutual funds, which are one of the these tools, vary so much that they can meet the need of the response to every kind of risks.The first practices of mutual funds in the world emerged in the 1850?s. Since the establisment of organised market was late, the first mutual fund was released with 90 years? delay. Wars and crises at a global level affected the development of these funds negatively.Thanks to the globalization and impact of capital flow in the 1990?s, the development and growth of mutual funds have gone up. However, this capital flow has increased the reception to the risks which are possible to come from outside the country. The Asian crisis in 1998 has changed the outlook on investments. While the investment instruments which brought high returns were preferred before the crisis, after the crisis those investment instruments which took both risks and returns into account started to be preferred. Mutual funds are one of these investment instruments.With the help of the growth in science and technology, risk measurements which have not been possible before have been possible. The methods that can measure risks numerically and accuracy tests have made the use of such measurements widespread. The measures against crises have been made compulsory with Basel practices even if these are against countries? preferences. The last crisis experienced in 2008 has proved how necessary this practice is. In the present dissertation, the comparative risk analysis of national and international mutual funds has been studied both theoretically and empirically.Key Words: Mutual Fund, Volatility, Skewness, Kurtosis, Financial Risk Analysis, Value at Risk (VaR).