This is a simple, non-technical description of what are mutual fund star ratings and how they are calculated with the help of an analogy – employee performance appraisal. This is meant for beginners and newbies and I have avoided all jargon. It is only when we understand how star ratings are calculated, can we understand their…
Continue reading →The fall in the markets over the last few weeks gives us a small window of opportunity to learn about risk in mutual funds. In this post, I list the funds and fund categories that fell the most and those that fell the least between Aug 28th 2018 and October 14th 2018. Although this is…
Continue reading →So all it took was just a few days of southbound market movement for questions like, “Should I Stop My Mutual Fund SIPs? Market is falling every day!” to start! Yesterday, I saw five such questions in Quora and readers have sent me similar emails. So if you are asking this question, here is why…
Continue reading →One of the common newbie questions regarding mutual fund SIPs is: What is the best date to start a mutual fund SIP? Nothing wrong with the question, but as in most cases, the answers are often wrong. In this post, I discuss the data of 4147 10-year Sensex SIP retuns computed between Jan 1991 and Sep…
Continue reading →Every time debt mutual funds face credit risk – a sharp drop in NAV due to the credit rating downgrade of a bond – investors get spooked. Credit risk is part and parcel of fixed income and debt mutual fund investing and one cannot run away from it. However, after the SEBI categorization rules, I…
Continue reading →If you are looking for someone to advise you on money management, then you should sign up with a fee-only financial planner – an investment advisor registered with SEBI – who does not get commissions from any agency and works only for you. Hundreds of readers have engaged the advisors from the freefincal List of Fee-only Financial…
Continue reading →Can we spot market highs and lows using technical indicators? The answer is yes, provided a user understands the pros and cons of each method. I discuss the current state of a few technical indicators and discuss their benefits and limitations. This post is in-part triggered by comments from Dhinesh Kumar here: Timing the market by…
Continue reading →A question many people ask today is, How should we invest in the present market condition? I discuss simple ways to stay focused and navigate the present market condition. I would wager that five out of every 10 mutual funds or stock investor is fairly new having entered around 2014 or later. The downward movement in…
Continue reading →Here are 10 things mutual fund investors should not be doing! Avoiding these will make you a better and contented investor. Naturally, the following is an opinion formed from my experience (and nature) and naturally, I do not expect many of you agree with me. The serenity prayer made popular by AA groups goes like…
Continue reading →One of the first SEBI registered investment advisors in the country, Melvin Joseph is an amazing person. He has devised an Rs. 2000 SIP (which I have signed up for) that will not only reward you in bear or bull markets but also change your life and not just your life! No better day to…
Continue reading →After much debate and hesitation, I finally took the plunge and purchased super top-up health insurance for my family. Since I have written several posts on health insurance, I thought I will share the details here. This is not a recommendation and the purchase I made is truly personal. I am sure there are better…
Continue reading →So a question on many lips is, “Should I now switch from large-cap funds to index funds?” the reason being the new rule about large-cap funds that 80% of their portfolio should be from the top 100 stocks in terms of full market capitalization (that is from the NSE 100). In this post, I discuss…
Continue reading → In this guest post, SEBI registered fee-only advisor Avinash Luthria who is part of the freefincal list of advisors and fee-only India suggests that investors should minimize costs through index funds and not waste energy fighting the law of no-free-lunch, instead use it as a tool for thinking, to avoid mistakes and also. Avinash Luthria is Founder,…
Continue reading →I discuss how to use how to time the market by spotting bullish and bearish trends with the moving average crossover. The idea is well known in technical analysis and involves two moving averages. This is the 7th post in the series on tactical asset allocation (link to all posts). We had earlier considered market Timing With…
Continue reading →If you have started investing in equity mutual funds and/or stocks in the last few years and if your financial needs are far, far away, this is the best time to invest in equity. You don’t need to be an expert or genius to recognise that the markets are going to move up and down…
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