Investor: “I think we should increase exposure to mid and small cap funds. I am investing for the long term ..read more

It has been raining factor index funds. Recently, an AMC launched a Nifty 500 Momentum 50 index fund, the first ..read more

Equal weight indices are in vogue. You must have noticed fresh index fund launches from various AMCs. In this post ..read more

In my previous post, I had shared how Budget 2024 has changed the capital gains taxation for various investments. The ..read more

One of the few things that I remember from induction training on the first day of my professional career many years back is a quote from a presenter that Expectation reduces Joy. From the perspective of a large software company, it was important to have employees with not too high expectations. However, even as an employee, it made a lot of sense. Your expectations about salary hikes and promotions may be out of line. And that will only result in heartburn and lower productivity. You may end up harming yourself more. Needless tension will only affect your health and performance.  It may b ..read more

NPS is a retirement product. Specifically targeted to accumulate funds for retirement. Here is how NPS can help you accumulate funds for retirement. You accumulate money until you retire. You withdraw from the corpus after you retire. You can invest your money in a diversified portfolio of equity and debt. You can withdraw a portion lumpsum and use the rest the purchase an annuity plan. The annuity plan can provide you with an income stream during retirement. But you can do all the above (and more) with mutual funds too, right? You can invest in MFs while you are working. You can start with ..read more

Over the past few years, NiftyIndices and S&P have launched various factor indices (Value, Momentum, Low Volatility, Quality, Alpha, or multi-factor) for Indian stocks. And the AMCs have launched various index funds on such indices cashing in on the popularity and the latent demand from the investors. So far, so good. When any index is launched, there is a launch date and there is a base date. Launch date is the date on which the index was launched. And the live data for the index is available after the launch date. Base date is an old date from which the index provider has provided the ba ..read more

Which was your first equity mutual fund? Mine was an equity fund from Fidelity about 17-18 years ago. I picked up this fund after reading the best-selling book “One up on Wall Street” by legendary fund manager Peter Lynch. During 80s and 90s, Lynch worked as a fund manager with Fidelity. I was so impressed with his writings that I picked up a fund from Fidelity AMC in India. Yes, Fidelity had presence in India and later sold their business to L&T MF. I don’t remember when I exited this fund but am sure the fund helped me learn a few things about how markets work. Well, at least for us (exi ..read more

Recently, I read about a couple of life insurance companies highlighting the launch of small cap index funds.  Link 1 Link 2 This is a new phenomenon. You don’t often see a life insurance company launching index funds. Usually, mutual fund companies do that. Hence, this came as a surprise to me. However, there is a catch. To invest in that small cap index fund by a life insurance company, you will need to invest in a ULIP (Unit-Linked Insurance Plan).  A life insurance company can add an index fund to its suite of ULIP funds. But you can invest in these funds only if you invest in a ..read more

Worried about a poorly performing equity mutual fund in the portfolio? Before you answer the above question, I have a basic question. How do you decide that a fund has underperformed? Do you judge based on returns you have earned in the fund (your returns experience)? OR Do you measure based on 3-year, 5-year, 10-year returns or rolling returns? Do you compare with other equity funds in the portfolio? OR Do you compare performance against the respective benchmark? Do you use just focus on returns or do you use a risk-adjusted measure? Do you focus on XIRR or absolute returns? In this post, let ..read more