Between Jan 21st, 2008 and July 6th, 2009, the Sensex witnessed 11 single-day falls of 700+ points. The highest was 1,408.35 points on Jan 21st. In this post, I discuss the simple arguments put forth by Edgar E Peters to understand why such stock market crashes occur, in his book, Fractal Market Analysis. It is human nature to try…
Continue reading →In July 2016, while researching on the Nifty Smart Beta Indices, I accidentally realised that the Nifty Next 50 (formerly Nifty Jr) is one tough benchmark to beat. When I compiled the list of equity mutual fund benchmarks, I could not find any active mutual fund benchmarked to the Nifty Next 50! Now, if that…
Continue reading →Here are forty ways to make more money In India based on real-life inspirational examples of hard work, skill and determination. I asked the members of Facebook group Asan Ideas For Wealth to share details of how they are earning an extra income to supplement their main salaries. I received 100+ responses which make it…
Continue reading →Here are five unique books that will will completely change the way you think about stock market risk and reward. They have certainly shaped mine and my first ever financial calculator was based on one of them. The books will bust established myths about the market – its so-called efficiency, mean reversion, and the way we measure…
Continue reading →Anirban Ghosh had posted his analysis of a debt mutual fund at Facebook Group, Asan Ideas for Wealth (AIFW). When I requested him to write an account of how he selected his first debt mutual fund, he readily agreed. Anirban’s data crunching has unearthed an interesting mutual fund with a curious strategy and is the…
Continue reading →I am often asked this question. The catching up here refers to being able to create an adequate retirement corpus. The answer depends on the age of the person. For someone in the 30s (even late 30s), I think it is quite possible if they put their head down and invest enough for the next 15 years….
Continue reading →For a person who has been investing in equity (directly/indirectly) for several years, the question, “how much equity exposure should I have after retirement?” is not so hard to answer. However, that is not the case for most 50+ investors heading towards retirement. They would have little or no experience with equity or any market-related…
Continue reading →If we wish to build the financial well-being of our family, one of the first things to do is to protect it. With life insurance, in case the breadwinner(s) die; health insurance, in the case of a hospitalization; an emergency fund, to handle unexpected expenses; an accident insurance to cover of temporary or permanent loss of…
Continue reading →I discuss ways in which we can visualise and interpret the annualised return, also known as the compounded annualised growth rate or the CAGR and volatility of returns. Franklin India Prima Fund had a NAV of 201.75 on April 3rd, 2006 and a NAV of 878.5 on 12th April 2017. What is the annualised return?…
Continue reading →The 13th edition of the freefincal stock analyzer now auto-generates Hewitt Heiserman Jr.’s Earnings Power Box, thank to efforts of Rs. Srivatsan, who explained how to identify good business from bad one using it in yesterdays guest post: It’s Earnings That Count: Forget the next Infy; Can you identify the next Satyam? The automated stock analyzer pulls financials…
Continue reading →In this guest post, R. Srivatsan explains how to differentiate a good business from a bad one, using a stock valuation technique known as Earnings Power Box, introduced by Hewitt Heiserman, Jr, in his book, “It’s Earnings That Count: Finding Stocks with Earnings Power for Long-Term Profits”. Following his suggestion, I have added this feature in the…
Continue reading →Use this Excel sheet to track and compare the annualized return (XIRR) of your mutual fund investments with that of a benchmark. This is the updated version of the Mutual Fund SIP XIRR Tracker thanks to Krishna Chaitanya who pointed out an error in the sheet. The Nifty strategic indices have also be updated up to April 10th 2017. The sheet…
Continue reading →Last week, Pranav Surya and I had announced our new book: Gamechanger. In the second part of his guest post, Pranav explains about what to expect from the book. Pranav is a mechanical engineer with an MBA in hospitality and tourism. He has worked in 4 countries across 3 continents and is currently working in the tourism industry….
Continue reading →Concerned that the stock market is overheated? Here is why it makes sense to focus on the risk associated with the money already invested and not worry about investing more. Suppose, I have a long-term goal and I can only spare Rs. 500 towards an equity SIP. I choose a nondescript mid-cap mutual fund and start…
Continue reading →If you have attended one of the DIY investor meets, you might have heard me say, “the secret to ageing well is to surround ourselves with intelligent youngsters”. Be it investors like Krishna Kishore, Indraneal Balasubramanium or superior coders like Pranav Date, eloquent writers like Anish Mohan, I and hopefully the freefincal community has benefited immensely…
Continue reading →