The mutual fund industry has a simple sales mantra. Tell investors not to worry about market volatility because everything will turn out okay in the end! Even the NSE said market volatility is temporary! Thanks to a largely ignorant media, investors are fed on a constant diet of “don’t stop your SIPs if you want…
Continue reading →The other day, I was in a get-together, and the topic of personal finance came up. One of them asked where to start. There was an inevitable chorus of “security analysis”, “intelligent investor” and the likes. There was also the litany of blogs that mindlessly parrot Buffettisms and Mungerisms with “investor” in their titles with…
Continue reading →DSP Small Cap Fund (previously known as DSP Micro Cap Fund) was the darling of mutual funds after the Indian market “recovered” in later 2014. I last reviewed the fund in Aug 2017. Time for a re-look again as investors are worried about its recent performance. The fact that is among the six consistent Small…
Continue reading →Each time investors recognise that the Indian stock market will not always keep moving up, they start asking, “should I include international mutual funds in my portfolio for diversification?” This is not a “yes/no” question and like practically all questions in personal finance, is best answered with a question: If you invest in international mutual…
Continue reading →Here are six small cap mutual funds that have consistently beaten mid cap and small cap benchmarks in terms of both risk and reward. A few days ago, we discussed why your small cap mutual fund must beat a mid cap benchmark as that given more returns than a small cap index. Also, since a…
Continue reading →Social media seems to be an excellent psychological indicator of market sentiment. When the doomsday and recession forwards increase, investors with financial needs decades away should probably buy more equity! Among those who see this as an opportunity, some wish to know “is this a good time to buy mid cap and small cap mutual…
Continue reading →Small cap mutual funds are weird creatures. They would offer spectacular happiness followed by an equal amount of sorrow in quick time. This is the reason I prefer a mid cap fund with a right amount of periodic (or systematic, all-time) small cap stock exposure. Since many investors, especially those who like to invest based…
Continue reading →Axis Bluechip Fund has had an impressive track record. Can this be used as an active large cap fund to beat Nifty at lower risk? Let us find out. This question assumes importance because active large cap funds had struggled to beat large cap benchmarks well before SEBI mandated that 80% of their portfolio consist…
Continue reading →In October 2017, SEBI announced its Categorization and Rationalization of Mutual Fund Schemes. This was done to bring some uniformity in funds belonging to the same category by restricting their asset allocation. SEBI’s motive was to help investors differentiate among fund categories and make better decisions. A year after all fund houses complied with the…
Continue reading →Here are six ELSS mutual funds that have consistently beat Nifty Largemidcap 250 Index (incl dividends). These were shortlisted with the Equity Mutual Fund Performance Screener July 2019. You can use the screener to quickly create such lists from Value-oriented, Aggressive Hybrid, Dividend Yield, Large Cap, Focussed Funds, Large & Mid Cap Funds, Multi Cap Funds,…
Continue reading →The Nifty 50 Value 20 index (NV20) comprises of 20 large cap value stocks from the Nifty 50. There are currently three ETFs that track this index. So the natural question to ask is, is Nifty 50 Value 20 Index better than the Nifty 50? Let us find out! The three ETFs tracking NV20 are Kotak…
Continue reading →The idea behind Quantum Equity Fund of Funds is fantastic. This is a mutual fund that invests in diversified equity mutual funds (other than Quantum), so instead of worrying about which fund to buy and sell, you can just buy this one fund of fund and let the fund manager do the job for you….
Continue reading →This is a private taping of a talk on “momentum stock investing and low volatility stock investing in India” given to the members of the Tamil Nadu Investors Association on July 7th 2019. First, the slides are presented below with relevant links in between as necessary (do not skip past!). The video can be found…
Continue reading →Here are five videos to guide a newbie step by step on how to plan their retirement. Please share these with your colleague/friend who has not yet taken their retirement seriously They can understand the importance of retirement planning, how to compute amount necessary for investment, how much to invest and where to invest for…
Continue reading →Are Banking & PSU Debt Funds a safe alternative for investors who wish to get higher returns than liquid funds and overnight funds? With so many credit defaults events in the debt mutual fund space, this a natural question to ask. Let us find out. The first step is to ask, “what is a safe…
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