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Why is the price of my investment only updated once per day?
Mutual funds are collections of investments that other people pay to join.  It would be simpler to calculate the value of all these investments at one time each day, and then to deem that any purchases or sales happen at that price.  The fund diversifies rather than magnifies risk, looking to hold rather than enjoy a quick turnaround.  Nobody really needs hourly updated price information for an investment they intend to hold for decades. They quote their prices on a daily basis and you take the daily price.  This makes sense for a vehicle that is a balanced collection of many different assets, most of which will have varying prices over the course a day.  That makes pricing complicated.  This primer explains mutual fund pricing and the requirements of the Investment Company Act of 1940, which mandates daily price reporting.  It also illustrates the complexity: How does the fund pricing process work? Mutual fund pricing is an intensive process that takes place in a short time frame at the end of the day. Generally, a fund’s pricing process begins at the close of the New York Stock Exchange, normally 4 p.m. Eastern time. The fund’s accounting agent, which may be an affiliated entity such as the fund’s adviser, or a third-party servicer such as the fund’s administrator or custodian bank, is usually responsible for calculating the share price. The accounting agent obtains prices for the fund’s securities from pricing services and directly from brokers. Pricing services collect securities prices from exchanges, brokers, and other sources and then transmit them to the fund’s accounting agent. Fund accounting agents internally validate the prices received by subjecting them to various control procedures. For example, depending on the nature and extent of its holdings, a fund may use one or more pricing services to ensure accuracy. Note that under Rule 22c-1 forward pricing, fund shareholders receive the next daily price, not the last daily price.  Forward pricing makes sense if you want shareholders to get the most accurate sale or purchase price, but not if you want purchasers and sellers to be able to make precise calculations about gains and losses (how can you be precise if the price won't be known until after you buy or sell?).