Over the past 20 years I have dealt with the financial markets. Here I have obviously met all kinds of people – brokers, bankers, owners of brokerage houses, life insurance salesmen, relationship managers, and of course the guy who pays all the bills – the “investor”. Here is a summary of mistakes I have […]
Open-end Funds An open-end fund is one that has units available for sale and repurchase at all time – from the fund itself. An investor can buy or redeem units from the fund itself at a price based on the Net Asset Value (NAV) per unit. This is like making a fixed deposit with the […]
Continuing the mutual fund tutorial, for whom is a mutual fund suitable? Well it is suitable for people who do not have ALL THE THREE : Time Lots of money Skills of stock picking, portfolio construction and fund management skills. Then you go for mutual funds. Mutual funds give you the following advantages: Portfolio diversification […]
If you read magazines, newspapers, etc. or watch the business channels you would have been convinced that people chase performance. However when I recently ran a screen on the best mutual funds over the past 3 years, I found something interesting. The fund returns (on an annualised basis) was 33.07%, 31.30%, 30.79%, 30.42%, and 29.66%. […]
It is customary for life insurance salesmen (by whatever name called) to sell life insurance by showing what is called an “illustration”. What is wrong with this “illustration” that is shown to potential customers? Simple, it does not mean a thing! IRDA has stipulated that the illustration should be made with 2 projected returns: 6% […]
When it comes to analysing corporate performance, individual investors are surely at a disadvantage. You will find it difficult to know how many cars Tata Motors will make in 2009, how many hotel rooms Indian Hotels will be able to sell in Europe, etc. However the “international” fund manager has access to all this and […]
Many of today’s equity sales people (never mind if they are hawking mutual funds, direct equity, pms, or life insurance) may not really have a perspective on the long-term positive attributes of equity investing. Certainly, equity markets do not always deliver positive returns in a steady upward fashion. Nor are they obliged to do so. […]