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SIF – Specialised Investment Fund, A Novel Tool to Navigate Volatile Markets

We all know markets are always volatile. Often they move backward or remain in a range for quite good period but in the long run they go up and generate decent returns. At times we do feel strongly about markets going down. But if we are caught on the wrong foot, then we loose opportunity to earn better returns because we move our investments from equity to debt for such assessments that go wrong. On the other hand, if one keep investments in equity and markets fall then they experience fall in values though temporary but for sure disturbs our peace of mind. In case an investor has strong feeling about market going down but do not want to make any change in equity portfolio, the investor can save his or her portfolio from going down through hedging by using future and options. For mutual fund investments however strong view the fund manager or the team may have about markets going down but is not allowed by SEBI to take short positions and hedge the portfolio. Cat III Alternative I...
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New Year 2026: Fuelled by Hope, Guided by Caution

It was pleasant surprise to see a clearer morning than expected on the very first day of 2026. And we are very hopeful that the Indian economy and our investments will also follow suit and do much better than expected this year. Wishing you a very Happy New Year 2026. Government has taken many steps to boost the economy and the same has started reflecting in its performance. India's economy has been the fastest growing economy for over 4 years now among all major economies of the world and is likely to continue treading the path over the next decade. The growth in economy did not replicate in stock markets. Major reason for this was policy uncertainties from USA, continued global conflicts and subdued performance of developed countries, forcing FIIs to withdraw large funds from Indian stock markets. Since October 2024 FIIs have withdrawn over 2.6 lakhs crores from equity markets. Compared to this MF alone pumped in over 4.8 lakh crore which has kept markets steady and indi...

SAWAN SHIVARATRI – Attain Your Financial Moksha

  "An investor without investment objectives is like a traveler without a destination." - Ralph Seger Legend goes that it is on this day that Lord Shiva married Goddess Parvati after she observed strict penance on moonless nights for his long life and well-being. Sawan Shivaratri, therefore, marks the union of Shakti and Lord Shiva, the two great forces in the universe. It is believed that observing Shivaratri rituals on this auspicious occasion can help one attain Moksha or Nirvana – ridding you all of your worries. One such ritual being devotees visiting Shiva shrines and carrying Ganges holy water to bath Shiva idols at their temples. It is also believed that on this day Lord Shiva drank the Halahal (poison) that came from Samundra Manthan or Churning of Ocean Milk. There are quite interesting lessons to learn from this great festival for investors. First and foremost is the concept of Moksha or Nirvana. In layman’s language it refers to freedom from all your worldly...

No Action is also an Action

Till couple of years back after the Covid correction, stock markets were moving almost in one direction with some aberrations caused by geo-political conflicts of Russia-Ukraine & Israel-Hamas, elections in India and BJP not gaining majority on its own and some other such events. Despite such temporarily disturbances the markets maintained their upward movement. Until about ten months back when it started showing concerns over possible Trump win in US elections as FIIs started withdrawing funds from Indian markets, growth in profits of listed companies also showed some pressure, concerns over high valuations, tariff war and its likely impact on world economy etc. kept stock markets on the edge across the world. And the worst that could affect Indian economy and markets was Pahalgam terror attack forcing Indian government to launch Operation Sindoor against terrorists outfits & Pakistan. Had the government heeded to popular feelings and escalated the war, we don’t know how f...

Holi - Time to Purify Your Portfolio & Splash New Colours

  "You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you don't do too many things wrong" - Warren Buffett The two most celebrated festivals of Hindu culture – Diwali & Holi, shows us the way how to lead better and healthier life. For Diwali we cleanse our home and surroundings and for Holi we purify our home & surroundings on ‘Holika Dahan’ and then splash the new colours of life on ‘Dulhandi’, the following day. The colours of bond, trust and friendship among our fraternity who stand by us at all times – good or not so good. Coincidentally Diwali comes midway the financial year and Holi comes towards the close of it. What we do to cleanse and purify our physical and spiritual life, the same need to be applied to our portfolio for a financially healthy life. While midway the financial year we should scan our portfolio for cleansing, we should purify it and splash it with new colours towards the close of the year. Purifying and splashing new...

Mayhem Continues – What markets have in store for investors?

  “Being still and doing nothing are two completely different things.” Jackie Chan Last Friday markets were in free fall zone, falling 1.9% on a single day or over 15% in last six months. Is this culmination of the market correction going on for over last few months or beginning of a new wave of further corrections? Usually price to earnings or PE, price to book value or PB and market cap to GDP are tracked to test if markets are overpriced or fairly priced or undervalued. Let’s try to decode and analyze them to see where market stands today.   Indicator Sep-24 Feb-25 Rise / Decline Nifty 26216 22124 -15.61% EPS 1063 1125 5.83% PE 24.66 19.67 -20.26% PB 4.27 3.29 -22.95% Market Cap to GDP 139.36 110 -21.07% Source: www.trendlyne.com...

May not be the Best, But Good Time to Invest in Equity?

  “You miss 100 percent of the shots you don't take." Wayne Gretzky, NHL Hall of Famer   Markets are down by over 8% from their peaks. Many reasons can be attributed to that like geo-political & economical concerns, domestic political/social events, inflation, interest rates, weather etc. Are these concerns over or are they deepening further. Honestly no one can answer this question, you can only guesstimate them based on your experience and understanding. Israel has retaliated to Iran’s attack, how is Iran going to reply this? How the US economic policies will shape up after elections that are just a couple of weeks away. Domestically too train incidents over last couple of months and bomb hoax in flights over two weeks now, rising insurgency post J&K elections, bomb explosion in Delhi this week definitely concerns us. And kind of political slugfest we are witnessing now-a-days, don’t comfort us of a good future at times. FIIs also withdrew 1.07 lakhs crores ove...

Ganapati Festival – From Sthapana to Visarjana and Your Investments

Lord Ganesha – the Vighnaharta or “destroyer of all obstacles that come our way”, is source of so much wisdom and power that we begin all our auspicious work only after worshipping him. Each year we indulge in 10 days extravaganza to commemorate his birth. On the day of Vinayaka Chaturthi, we bring Ganapati to our home and worship it daily for next 10 days and immerse it on the day of Anant Chatudashi in holy waters. This is a usual process that devotees of Ganesha follow every year. Does this have any resemblance to what we do to our investments? Let’s seek guidance from the Lord of Wisdom himself. This whole process involves three sub-processes – Sthapana – placing the Ganesha’s idol, worshipping it for ten days and then Visarjana – immersing it on completion of the period. Sthapana – It is akin to construction of your investment portfolio. We select a statue, cloths and accessories etc. having an image in our minds as how our God should look like (goal). Similarly we work on d...

Front Running in Quant Mutual Fund or Groww accused of fraud - Impact on your investments

A.     SEBI raids offices and locations of Quant Mutual Fund suspecting front running in its schemes. B.   Grow an online mutual fund transaction platform for direct investors, committing fraud with its investor. Since yesterday morning these two news are making headlines across electronic and social media channels. Investors are worried how safe are their investments and what should they do now. We have received dozens of calls seeking our views on these news and action points. Lets discuss them one by one and likely impact on your investments. A.     SEBI raids Quant Mutual Fund Offices – Quant mutual fund has grown by over 1000 times in last seven odd years from the time they took over Escorts Mutual Fund in 2018. Quant’s assets under management (AUM) stand at over 93,000 crores. Quant practices momentum strategy very aggressively and have been quite successful over last 3-4 years. Peers in most categories lagged performance by a decent margi...

Ekadashi, Eid & Your Personal Finance – Core & Satellite Investment Strategy

“Even the intelligent investor is likely to need considerable willpower to keep from following the CROWD.” – Benjamin Graham Ekadashi or the 11 th day of the fortnight of the Panchang (Hindu lunar calendar) is a very important day for many followers. They observe fast on this day and practice self control – physically as well as spiritually. This way they try to cleanse their mind and body every fortnight. Eid ul Adha is a festival of sacrifice. On this day followers are expected to sacrifice their most beloved possession as a gesture of gratitude towards God and in expectation of big reward that God will bestow upon them for the sacrifice. Similarly when it comes to managing your personal finance, one needs to exercise lot of self control to keep away from the public emotions and the noise. Saving oneself from market noise does not mean to follow “Fill it, Shut it & Forget it” strategy, the tagline Hero Honda used to introduce its bikes. It is equally important to keep review...