The Government launched an LTC (Leave Travel Concession) Cash Voucher Scheme for Central Government employees on 12th October 2020 to enable employees to purchase goods and services instead of availing LTC & leave encashment. On 29th Oct, they have extended it, non-central govt employees, as well. Now the private sector, public sector and state govt…
Continue reading →From this month, we shall be publishing a tracking error report of index funds (ETFs to be added later). The data is available for free and will be presented in an intuitive, easy-to-understand format. This month, 34 index funds and one ETF (Nifty Bees) are part of the list. We have now established the difficulties…
Continue reading →Each time we point out that Sensex or Nifty returns have reduced considerably over the last decade and caution investors to lower expectations, there are always a few comments that go, “why to invest in equity or equity mutual funds if there is no guarantee of returns? The risk of investing for a long time…
Continue reading →Govt of India (GOI) has announced the sale (Re-issue) of 6.80% Government bonds maturing in 2060. Retail investors can participate in this sale via the NSEgoBid platform on Nov 3rd and 4th 2020 (10 am to 5 pm). The auction will be conducted by the RBI on Nov 6th. Details of the 6.8% GOI Bond: …
Continue reading →In this article, we show how the NAV of an index fund or the price of an ETF is affected by a market crash and discuss a simple, effective way to measure tracking error. That is how well the fund or ETF was able to track the underlying total returns index. Textbooks define tracking error…
Continue reading →This was a question posed in Facebook Group, Asan Ideas For Wealth: “Say I have 100rs and I am a highly risk-averse Individual and want 8% return YoY in the current economy. What are the options available? My investment horizon is 5 years”. This answer to this interesting question involves essentials of risk and reward…
Continue reading →Following the Supreme Court’s direction, the government came up with a scheme to waive off interest on interest during the 6 month moratorium period for eligible loans. As per the scheme, the lending institutions shall credit the difference between compound interest and simple interest to his account whether the borrower has availed the moratorium fully,…
Continue reading →Profit-booking is a colloquial trade name for selling stocks or mutual funds. Many investors are confused by what it actually refers to and how it is different from terms like redemption and rebalancing. This is a simple explanation for newbies. Let us understand profit booking with an example. Suppose you purchased 100 stocks of a…
Continue reading →After frustrating investors for the last few years, ICICI Prudential Value Discovery Fund has performed well in the last few months. Is this because of simply following the index? We investigate. After investing in an actively managed mutual fund, all investors care about is a return higher than the index. It does not matter for…
Continue reading →It is well known that stock market returns are clumped: it will rain returns in a big way followed by years of frustration. In this article, we investigate the annual and monthly returns of the Sensex from April 1979 and show the annualized return after 41 years depend on just a few good years/months. All…
Continue reading →RBI has notified the scheme for grant of ex-gratia payment of the difference between compound interest and simple interest for six months to borrowers in specified loan accounts (01.3.2020 to 31.08.2020). Why was this done? Will you benefit? About the author: Anjesh Bharatiya is a 30+ taxman by profession and a Chemical Engineer by education….
Continue reading →Ranjith writes, “Thanks to your articles I have started my investment journey with Nifty 50 and Nifty Next 50 index funds. Should I also start a SIP in a Nifty Midcap 150 index fund for wider market coverage?”. Let us find out if this has been worth the effort in the past. From the point…
Continue reading →“Which SIP is best for five years?” is a question often asked by mutual fund investors new and old. We are introducing a new category, shorts where we shall provide crisp answers to such common mutual fund questions. We would like to first point out that this is an incorrect question. You cannot invest in a…
Continue reading →Shyam Sunder asks, “I have been investing in SBI Bluechip Fund via SIP for about six years now. The fund has underperformed its benchmark for the last five years. Should I stop my SIP and invest elsewhere?” Let us discuss this dilemma faced by many large cap mutual fund investors. At this point, it is…
Continue reading →Sandeep asks, “can you please advice me on how a 22 aged guy should design his investment portfolio & invest regularly?” When the right question is asked at the right time, it can be a gamechanger. We will leave it to the judgment of the reader whether the question was posed to the right person…
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