How risky is your mutual fund scheme? How do you answer the above question? If you ask an investor, the answer will vary depending on, among other things, investor risk profile, investor mood, market sentiment and market outlook. If you ask a mutual fund house, an underappreciation of risk in the investment is guaranteed. As an investor, what should you do? What … [Read more...] about SEBI Mutual Fund Risk Ratings: Is Risk-o-Meter useful?
Mutual funds
Nifty Factor Indices (Value, Momentum, Quality, Low Volatility, Alpha): Performance Comparison
In some of the earlier posts, I have written about momentum and low volatility investing. In this post, I compare the performance of various factor-based indices. What is Factor Investing? This blog post from S&P gives an interesting analogy. Consider Factors as nutrients and food items as stock returns. Now, different food items (pulses, milk, bread, vegetables, … [Read more...] about Nifty Factor Indices (Value, Momentum, Quality, Low Volatility, Alpha): Performance Comparison
Tax-Free ULIPs vs. Mutual Funds with LTCG tax: Which is better?
In Budget 2018, Long term capital gains tax on equity mutual funds was introduced. Prior to the change, the LTCG on sale of equity mutual funds was exempt from tax. This change brought an interesting taxation arbitrage. Taxation of maturity proceeds from Unit Linked Insurance Plans (ULIPs), offered by insurance companies, was left untouched and the maturity amount from ULIPs … [Read more...] about Tax-Free ULIPs vs. Mutual Funds with LTCG tax: Which is better?
Nifty 200 Momentum 30 Index: Review & Performance Comparison
I have written about momentum investing before. I compared the performance of S&P BSE Momentum Index TRI with Nifty 50, Nifty Next 50 and Nifty Midcap 150 indices in an earlier post (Does momentum investing work in India?). The findings were in favour of S&P BSE Momentum Index, which outperformed all 3 indices by a wide margin at only slightly higher … [Read more...] about Nifty 200 Momentum 30 Index: Review & Performance Comparison
In investing, Nothing works all the time
There is always a flavour of the season in investments. Sometimes, it is large cap stocks. Sometimes, it is small cap stocks. It can be gold. Or Banking or Pharma stocks. Bitcoins. Or international mutual funds (in 2020). Recent outperformance always attracts attention and investor money. To figure out, you just need to look at how quickly the size of the best performing … [Read more...] about In investing, Nothing works all the time
Does Low Volatility Investing beat Nifty and Sensex?
Risk and Reward go hand in hand. Higher the risk, greater the reward. So, if you are looking for higher returns, you just need to load up on risk. At least, that’s what the Capital Asset Pricing model (CAPM) used to calculate expected stock returns tells us. However, the experience has been completely different in various markets. Low volatility stocks have … [Read more...] about Does Low Volatility Investing beat Nifty and Sensex?
Does Momentum Investing work in India?
If you are a value investor, your investment philosophy must be to buy beaten-down stocks that are trading below their value. However, not everyone thinks alike. There is another school of thought that does not bother about struggling stocks. Quite the reverse in fact. Welcome to the world of Momentum investing. The motto: Buy High and Sell Higher. The practitioners of … [Read more...] about Does Momentum Investing work in India?
ICICI Balanced Advantage Fund: Has the fund provided reasonable returns with low volatility?
The Balanced advantage or Dynamic Asset Allocation funds have found favour among a section of investors. These funds are hybrid funds and have been marketed as a low volatility alternative to pure equity funds. The narrative is that you earn equity-like returns at low volatility. It is no small promise. What are Balanced Advantage or Dynamic Asset Allocation … [Read more...] about ICICI Balanced Advantage Fund: Has the fund provided reasonable returns with low volatility?
SBI Life Smart Elite: How do you mis-sell the plan?
Mis-selling is not uncommon during the sale of financial products. Many of us buy investment products with a false impression of the product. While salespersons/advisors are the culprits, we, the investors must share the blame too. We rely too much on the illustrations and pamphlets shared and do not care to look beyond those fancy documents. Advisors/salespersons, on their … [Read more...] about SBI Life Smart Elite: How do you mis-sell the plan?
Adding Gold and International Equity to the Portfolio: Does it enhance Portfolio Performance?
Do you believe in working with an asset allocation approach in your portfolio? Do you rebalance your portfolio at regular intervals? Is there a merit in dividing our portfolio in assets with low correlation? In this post, let us construct a multi-asset portfolio combining domestic equity, international equity, and gold and see if delivers superior performance compared … [Read more...] about Adding Gold and International Equity to the Portfolio: Does it enhance Portfolio Performance?
