What is a "large-cap" or "small-cap fund"?
When we are talking about "large-cap" versus "small-cap" funds what we are really talking about is the stocks the underlying securities in the mutual fund is going out to buy. A large cap fund is purchasing large cap stocks and a small cap fund is purchasing small cap stocks. What does that really mean? Small cap stocks are riskier than large cap stocks, so long-term we have an expectation that a small cap fund is going to do better than a large cap fund. However, it is also riskier so in the short term so we are going to see much greater price volatility with a small cap fund than we are with a large cap fund.