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

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 margin when compared to schemes of Quan

“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

" The influence on stock markets are so numerous and so complex that no person has ever been able to predict the trend of stock prices with consistent success. – Sir John Templeton" India is all set to participate in fourth phase of parliament elections. While all political alliances are claiming success, capital markets seem to be thinking otherwise. This is the general perception now-a-days. Elections will be over in next three weeks and in just 23 days from now on 4 th of June we will have absolute clarity as to who is forming the government. Till then let’s analyse the probable scenarios that can emerge from the elctions and their likely impact on the economy and the stock markets: A.     BJP wins with thumping majority – It will continue the ongoing economic policies with increased pace and vigour which should bode well for the economy and the markets. Additionally it can take some debatable decisions that may cause unrest in certain sections of the society, like

"The market does not trade upon what everybody knows, but upon what those with the best information can foresee" – William Hamilton Over last few days we saw friends observing Lent, Ramadan & Navratri. Today we are celebrating Ram Navami & couple of days later we will be celebrating Mahavir Jayanti. If something common can be drawn from all these is the most essential virtue of surviving and thriving in this world which is – Patience & Preservance. Be it observing fast during Navratri, Lent or Ramadan or life of Lord Ram or Lord Mahavir Jain – they all teaches us how patience & preservance penultimate in Nirvana. We all are working to survive, thrive and ultimately achieve the financial freedom or Financial Nirvana. And to achieve this nirvana we are investing in market related investment products. While in the long run most market linked investments achieve their true value but in short term it’s market prices are determined by many forces, some of which

"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 History offers references and provides basis for creating theories to help decision making in future when facing similar conditions. So does the stock market history. Analysis of stock market movements considering various parameters – fundamental or technical, provides basis to create investment theories to help analysts & investors reasonably estimate the future and take investment decisions. The mistake we generally make, we dive deep into history for seeking references and tend to ignore recent past, it’s events and movements. The most asked question with respect to investing into stock market is about its valuation and if this is the right time to invest now or I should wait for some time. To check if the markets are fairly valued or otherwise, analysts use various parameters like market cap to GDP ratio or price to earnings ratio (P/E) o

  "The doorstep to the temple of wisdom is a knowledge of our own ignorance" – Benjamin Franklin Trust you had a very good festival season and did some cleaning and new decoration on Diwali. Today we are living in very highly dynamic age. Situations as well as sentiments change very fast. We start on a highly positive note and suddenly one news arouses grand fear in us or vice versa. While we have no doubt about Indian economy’s strengths knowing it is the fastest growing major economy in the world and is poised to achieve much greater heights and become the third largest economy of the world in less than five years. But off and on some news or events affect our emotions and thus the investment decisions. About three years back economy seemed started to be picking up after demonetization and initial glitches of GST implementation when government announced mega infra spending plan in its budget for 2020. Suddenly covid invaded us and it looked like there will be no tomor

  “You miss 100 percent of the shots you don't take." Wayne Gretzky, NHL Hall of Famer   For over a week G20 had been trending the most on social media. Apart from bringing consensus on many contentious geo-political, economical issues, one significant achievement of G20 under the leadership Bharat that is India was expansion of its family by including African Union. G20 has now become G21. Today Indian stock markets celebrated the success of G20 summit and following it Nifty also crossed the notable 20,000 mark, another 20+. Sensex also crossed 67,000 mark.   Market behaviour over last three and a half year years have forced most investor to be cautious of its last bull run starting April this year. After drastic fall in March 2020 because of covid, market showed unprecedented recovery in very short span of time and following it with a phenomenal bull run before slipping into a range.   Markets remained range bound between October 2021 & March 2023 before spee

India is a land of Festivals. Traditionally India had been an agrarian society and had prospered immensely on agriculture. Prosperity brought celebration in our lives along with responsibility. Sense of responsibility towards our fellow beings in the society including non-humans reflects in our festivals and in our rituals.   One such festival that evokes responsibility among Indians and especially Hindus is “Raksha Bandhan”. In its most popular interpretation – on this day brothers reassure and promise to protect all interests of their sisters and against all evils in their sister’s lives. On this Raksha Bandhan, let this promise be not restricted to some gifts and a promise to protect them physically but expand its scope, both in terms of relation and scope of protection. This year include all those people who are dependent on you and provide them your umbrella of protection. They could be your parents, your siblings, children, life partner, employees and any other. Scope of prot