A reader asks, “I noticed that Kotak Arbitrage Fund is holding about 5% of Kotak Liquid Fund. Can you explain why they are doing this?” Kotak is not alone. Many arbitrage funds buy units of their own debt funds. This is done in a bid to bolster returns. Even a few years back, arbitrage funds…
Continue reading →The pension fund regulatory and development authority (PFRDA) the NPS regulator has released a draft proposal on implementing Systematic Lump sum Withdrawal (SLW) in the national pension scheme. The draft is open for comments/feedback until the 19th of Oct. This is an explanation of the proposed rules. Existing rules: After the age of 60, an…
Continue reading →This is an ETF screener based on tracking errors and tracking differences (ETF return minus index return). The screener will help users evaluate how efficiently an ETF has tracked its underlying benchmark. The tracking error is the ETF’s standard deviation minus index monthly return differences. The lower the tracking error, the more efficient the ETF…
Continue reading →I started an Rs. 500 SIP in Sundaram Midcap Fund (then known as Sundaram Select Midcap) for an extended family member’s higher education in Aug 2009. Here are some lessons on investment risk and reward from the investment. Kindly note that I do not count this investment as part of my net worth and have…
Continue reading →A common misconception among investors is that the National Pension Scheme (NPS) schemes are passively managed like an index fund. This is incorrect. In this article, we discuss the investment policy of NPS Equity (E) schemes as approved by the pension fund regulatory and development authority (PFRDA). The norms can be found on the public…
Continue reading →The freefincal Equity Mutual Fund Performance Screener (October 2022) is now available. Use it to screen for consistently performing equity mutual funds. You can screen based on fund category & benchmark and spot mutual funds with a higher return than a benchmark at a lower risk. Inside, you get discounted links to our two courses:…
Continue reading →Tata Nifty Midcap 150 Momentum 50 Index Fund is an open-ended scheme tracking NIFTY Midcap 150 Momentum 50 Index. The fund is currently in its NFO period (4th to 17th Oct 2022). In this article, we analyse the performance of the underlying index. The Nifty Midcap150 Momentum 50 Index tracks the performance of the top…
Continue reading →A reader asked, “If we compare the performance of actively managed mutual funds across categories, how many of them have outperformed the Nifty 50 consistently?” Readers may be aware that we publish a monthly equity mutual funds performance consistency screener where each category has its own relevant benchmark. Let us now determine how many funds…
Continue reading →Buying a term insurance policy is one of the first things to do in money management if you have dependents or if you wish to leave your networth to a person or organisation. Insurance purchase is a leap of faith resulting in a contract between the insurer and buyer based on trust. However, there is…
Continue reading →We publish a list of stocks with low volatility and momentum each month. We provide data for BSE 500 and BSE 100 stocks. There are now three different screener files available. (1) Stocks with low volatility and momentum from the BSE 100 large cap universe are available as a separate file (2) Stocks with low…
Continue reading →On 30th Sep 2022, the RBI increased the rate at which it lends money to commercial banks (the repo rate) from 5.4 % to 5.9%. See RBI repo rate history from June 2000 to the present. A reader asks, “why did the govt. not increase PPF and SSY interest rates?” The REPO rate is at…
Continue reading →This edition of the fund performance report looks at the DSP Flexi Cap Fund (erstwhile DSP Equity Fund). Launched in April 1997, the fund has an AUM of 7,739 Crores. After the SEBI categorisation rules, it was first classified as a multi-cap fund in mid-2018 and then shifted to the flexicap category to align with…
Continue reading →A reader aged 35 asks, “I have stopped all my equity MF investments due to the global recession and poor returns over the last few months. However, reading your articles, I am now in two minds. Can you please advise what I should do?” The market zoomed up after the March 2020 crash much more…
Continue reading →These are the freefincal handpicked list of mutual funds for Oct-Dec 2022. New and old investors can use it according to their specific needs. The list is called “PlumbLine” and has been published since Sep 2017 for beginners to accompany the freefincal robo advisory tool. Most important! Plumbline is a mix of my opinions +…
Continue reading →A reader writes, “We are about to sell our flat. Many of my friends advise me to buy 54EC Capital Gain Tax Exemption Bonds to save tax and then invest the money. However, I wonder if paying the tax and investing the rest in equity is better. Can you please do a comparison study? Thanks…
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