What Is Fund Size?

Fund size (AUM) is an investment fund's net asset value: it is found by subtracting the fund's liabilities from the current total value of all the assets in the portfolio. In other words, the current value of everything the fund owns is summed up, the amounts it owes are subtracted, and the remaining figure is the fund's size. In English sources it appears as "assets under management" (AUM) or "net assets"; in Turkish it is also called "fon toplam değeri", "net varlık değeri" and "portföy büyüklüğü".

How is it calculated?

The calculation rests on a single subtraction:

Fund size = Current total value of portfolio assets − The fund's liabilities

On the valuation day, the equities, bonds, repo, deposits, gold and other assets in the portfolio are valued at that day's market prices; the fund's receivables are added and its liabilities and expense provisions are subtracted. What remains is the net asset value, that is, the fund size.

This figure is directly linked to the NAV per unit. NAV per unit is found by dividing the fund size by the number of units in circulation that day:

NAV per unit = Fund size ÷ Units in circulation

So fund size shows the total value of the portfolio, while NAV per unit shows the value of a single unit. The two are the same quantity at two different scales.

What moves fund size?

Fund size changes for two distinct reasons, and it is important to separate them:

• Net unit flows (money in and out): When investors put new money into the fund, new units are created and the size grows; when they sell units (redemption), units are cancelled and the size shrinks. This is purely money traffic, independent of the portfolio's performance.
• Change in the portfolio's value (return): When the prices of the assets in the portfolio rise, the size grows; when they fall, it shrinks. This is about the fund's return.

This distinction is critical: a rise in size does not by itself mean the fund "produced a good return" — the whole increase could come from new investor inflows. Likewise, a fall in size is not always a loss in value; it can come from investor outflows. What shows whether a fund gained or lost is not its size but the change in its NAV per unit, i.e. its return.

What size does and does not tell you

Fund size gives a sense of the fund's scale; it is not a performance indicator.

What size relates to:

• Liquidity and ease of trading: A larger fund usually has more investors and heavier trading; this can make it easier to meet inflows and outflows without disturbing the portfolio.
• Spreading costs: When some of the fund's fixed expenses are spread across a wide asset base, the cost per unit can be relatively lower. Even so, what really binds is the management fee charged as a percentage and the total expense ratio.

What size does not tell you:

• It is not a return signal. There is no rule that a large fund will earn more, or less, than a small one. You cannot infer that "a bigger fund is better".
• Very large scale can constrain some strategies. When a fund that invests in narrow, thinly traded assets grows very large, entering and exiting positions can move the price against itself; in that case size becomes a limitation rather than an advantage.

In short, size does not describe risk or future return; it only describes the fund's current dimension.

How is it reported on TEFAS and KAP?

Fund size is public data. On TEFAS, where units are bought and sold, each fund's current total value and investor count can be seen, and historical size series can be followed. Detailed and official disclosures are on the Public Disclosure Platform (KAP): the fund's internal regulation, information documents and periodic reports show the composition and size of the portfolio. Under the Capital Markets Board's Communiqué III-52.1 on the Principles of Investment Funds, the fund's total value and NAV per unit must, as a rule, be calculated and announced regularly.

On TEFAS the investor count often appears alongside size; the two are different things. Size shows the fund's total asset value, while the investor count shows how many people hold units in that fund. A small group of investors can manage a large amount, and a broad group a relatively small one; reading the two together gives a better sense of the fund's base.

To compare the sizes and other data of different funds side by side, the fund list page can be used.

In short

Fund size is the net asset value found by subtracting liabilities from the current value of all a fund's assets. Money flowing in and out, and the change in the portfolio's value, both move this figure; separating the two matters so that a rise in size is not mistaken for a return. Size gives a sense of the fund's scale, liquidity and cost base, but on its own it is not an indicator of performance or quality.