My son recently won Rs. 2500 in an olympiad contest. I asked him what he wanted to do, and he replied without hesitation, “Let’s invest it!” Many of you might think that the apple has not fallen far from the tree, but sadly that is not true. I never won any prizes in school, and…

A viewer on the freefincal YouTube channel asks, “Is tracking difference better than tracking error to evaluate passive funds?” What is a tracking difference? This is the fund return minus the benchmark total return over a period. This will typically be a small negative number as the fund return will always (well, typically!) be lower…

In this article, SEBI-registered flat fee-only investment advisor, Swapnil Kendhe, addresses common misconceptions about index investing that passive investors should ignore. About the author: Swapnil is a SEBI Registered Investment Advisor and is one of the sought-after advisors on the freefincal fee-only financial planners’ list. You can learn more about him and his service via…

In this article, Atul explains why index investing killed his passion for investing. Atul has an MBA in finance and has worked in different financial and banking establishments over the last 15 years. Over the last 12-13 years, my approach to investing has been pretty much the same. I was intensely passionate about it. I…

On April 12th 2023, The Business Standard reported the Nifty criteria may be tweaked before RIL’s financial services arm demerger as the current rule could lead to the firm’s exclusion from the index. On Feb 24th 2022, the NSE announced that the “Minimum listing history requirement in case of a new listing and companies traded subsequent…

A new reader took exception to our view of the Nasdaq 100, leading to an interesting conversation, parts of which are reproduced. “Why do you keep saying not to invest in the Nasdaq 100?” As discussed earlier, the main reason for our recommendation is “Not many investors appreciate that the NASDAQ 100 is a highly…

In this article, we evaluate the performance of 207 actively managed mutual funds across eight categories to identify consistent performers. Regular readers may be aware that we have proclaimed the benefits of low-volatility investing for a few years. See Nifty Low Volatility 50: A Benchmark Index to watch out for (July 2016). We publish a low volatility…

With only three weeks left to go in 2022, we look at the biggest winners and losers in the NSE index universe. We look at the trailing one-year return as on 9th Dec 2022, as much of the performance falls in 2022. Disclaimer: No part of this article should be considered investment advice. One year…

In this article, we see how a lower expense ratio does not necessarily mean more gains for the investor using the example of two index funds: the NAVI Nifty 50 Index fund (direct plan) and the UTI Nifty 50 Index fund (direct plan) and the last one year period. It must be understood that the…

A reader asks, “I cannot decide between Nippon India Nifty 50 Bees ETF and UTI Nifty 50 Index Fund. The ETF has a total expense ratio of 0.05%, while the index fund’s TER is 0.2%. My friends tell me that ETF is bound to outperform the index fund over the long term and that choosing…

As of Aug 31st 2022, 59.5% of the total equity AUM was in Nifty 50 stocks. Here are the details and possible implications. The total equity AUM held by 40 mutual fund AMCs is  Rs. 21,91,563.5357 Crores. The break-up is given below. The tables in this article are sourced from ACE MF. AMC Equity (Cr.)…