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.