To say this year has been a roller-coaster ride for the markets would be an understatement. A lot of new investors saw their first serious market crash since 2008, although it didn't last as long, it was brutal nonetheless. But what was surprising was the dramatic recovery even as all the economic data was dismal. We wanted to make sense of the disconnect between the real economy and the stock market and also how investors should look at investing going forward. So Prateek caught up with...

Index funds and ETFs are steading becoming popular among Indian investors as they realize the importance of costs and the fact that fund managers generating alpha is hard.  In the past year or so, we've discussed index funds and the merits of passive investing in multiple conversations but we haven't spoken much about Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs). The folks at Mirae are betting big on ETFs and they are launching a fund of fund (FOF) that invests in Nifty 50, Nifty Next 50, and Nifty midcap...

In part 1, Vidya spoke about why mutual funds, having the right expectations, setting goals, importance of asset allocation, and how to pick an equity fund. We figured given all the issues, the topic of debt mutual funds deserves a separate episode unto itself. Debt is supposed to be the boring part of your portfolio that provides stability while equity provides growth. But we've seen that investors driven by past returns, star ratings, and poor understanding of the various categories of...

Since Feb 2020, we've seen historic and unprecedented volatility in the Indian markets. We saw the fastest fall in the markets and also one of the fastest recoveries in the history of the Indian markets. All this was within a space of a few months. Surprisingly, we are seeing a sharp uptick in the number of new investors enter the markets, but the mistakes some of them are making are the same old ones. Over the past few months, we've had conversations with some of the most experienced...

In this episode, Prateek (Founder of LearnApp) caught up with Radhika Gupta, the CEO of Edelweiss Mutual Fund. Radhika started her career with McKinsey and later joined AQR - the pioneering quantitative asset manager. She then started her own hedge fund which was acquired by Edelweiss Financial Services in 2014. She also led the acquisitions of JP Morgan Mutual Fund and Ambit's AIF business and became the CEO of Edelweiss MF. In this wide-ranging conversation Radhika talks about:  Her...

As we publish this episode the markets continue to remain volatile and the Nifty 50 and Nifty Midcap 100 are down about 25% while the Nifty Smallcap 100 index is down by 33% year to date. We understand that these can be nerve-wracking times for you. With that in mind, over the last couple of weeks, we've published conversations with some of the smartest and most experienced people in the Indian markets, people who've seen the previous bear phases. And in this episode, Prateek Singh (Founder...

Whenever there is volatility, equity markets get all the attention. Bonds typically don't move around as much as equities and hence they seem boring to most people. Moreover, the Indian bond markets are extremely shallow and are dominated by institutions. But the bond markets send far more useful and actionable signals about companies and the economy at large are far more insightful than movements of stock prices and indices.  And debt mutual funds, the most accessible products to retail...

One of the most prevalent yet ignored biases among investors is called the home country bias - the tendency of investors to invest all or most of their money in the country they live in. To give you some context, India is just 2% of the world marketcap - meaning a vast majority of the investment opportunities lie outside India. And old economy stocks dominate the Indian indices. We don't have the Indian listed equivalent of Apple, Google, Netflix, Amazon, Facebook etc, the biggest and most...

Since mid-February, there has been a sharp sell-off in the markets as the Corona Virus pandemic spreads through the globe. As we record this, Nifty 50 is down 25% while Nifty Mid-cap 100 and Nifty small-cap 100 indices are down by over 30% and 40% respectively. This is the sharpest fall in the markets since the 2008 financial crisis. And you might be worried about your investments. So, we decided to talk some really smart people who've seen various cycles in the Indian markets to bring you...

Index investing (passive investing) has become increasingly popular in the last decade across the world. Trillions of dollars have flown out of active mutual funds into low-cost index funds. But in India, these are still early days for indexing, we just have about Rs 7700 crores in index funds. Although Rs 1.6 lakh crores is invested in index exchange traded funds (ETFs), most of it from the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) and retail investors predominantly invest in index...

The Bharat Bond ETF by Edelweiss Mutual Fund opens for subscription today. This exchange traded fund (ETF) holds AAA-rated bonds issued by public sector enterprises. The Bharat Bond ETF is unique in a lot of respects. In this wide-ranging conversation, Dhawal Dalal, Chief Investment Officer - Fixed Income of Edelweiss Mutual Fund talks to Prateek Singh (Founder of LearnApp) about: Why the Indian corporate bond market is shallow Reasons for the lack of retail participation in the debt...

Debt markets have suddenly become more action-packed than the equity markets. Ever since the IL&FS default, investors have slowly grown to realize that even debt carries its own risks. make no mistake, debt plays an important role in a portfolio. But it is imperative that you as an investor understand the various debt instruments and use them the right way.    Arvind Chari is the Head of Fixed Income and Alternatives at Quantum Advisors. In this webinar, Arvind lays out the case to...

These are unnerving times for investors with the markets being volatile. Long term investors should ideally embrace volatility, but we are seeing investors stop their investments. Volatile markets tend to induce investors to most often than not, make all the wrong choices. When markets undergo a period of under-performance, investors tend to stop their SIPs or worse yet redeem their investments. This during a time when they should do the exact opposite. As an Investor, you should embrace...

Contra funds is a new and unique category that was carved out in the recent scheme reclassification by SEBI. By the very definition, these funds follow a contrarian investment approach and swim against the tide. These funds invest in stocks that are out of favor, special situations, and stocks that can turnaround. Taher Badshah is the Chief Investment Officer (Equities) at Invesco Mutual Fund. He also manages the Invesco India Contra Fund. In this webinar, he explains how a contra fund works,...

In the 4th and final part of the video, Winston talks about accrual management i.e., how to generate returns by managing the yield to maturity (YTM) in your portfolio. When you buy a bond, you earn an assured interest (coupon), which will accrue in your portfolio. In this part, you will learn how you can maximize this. Winston covers concepts such as: What drives the return of a bond How to increase the returns in your portfolio Different types of risks What is an yield curve, how to...

In part 3 of the webinar, Winston talks about Duration. It is one of the most important factors when you are choosing a bond or a bond fund.   Duration is a measure of a bond's sensitivity to changes in interest rates. In order to understand duration, you will also need to have a working knowledge of discounting future cash flows or time value of money. To learn about the time value of money, you can check out this Varsity module on this: http://bit.ly/2ECfBS1   In case you missed Here's:...

In this part 2 of Bond Basics series, Winston talks about making money in bonds. He covers the basic concepts of a bond such as: Coupon rate Bond price Yield Yield to maturity (YTM) MTM - mark to market pricing  He also talks about:  The Bond Rule: Relationship between Interest rates and Bond prices. Yield curve Credit spreads Winston also discusses the various categories of debt funds, their characteristics and how you can use them in your portfolio.  In case you missed...

The awareness about debt schemes in limited due to a variety of reasons. But having a  fixed income or debt component in your portfolio is essential to building a diversified portfolio. In part 1  of the Series, Winston Noronha, Head of content and learning and development at IDFC mutual fund explains the basics of bonds, the various types of instruments, and sets the stage before diving deep into the complexities of fixed income.  Just to set the context the bond market in India is still in...

Raamdeo Agrawal, co-founder of Motilal Oswal financial services is one of India's most prominent value investors. His annual wealth creation studies are a treasure trove of insights. In this conversations he talks about how he got started as an investor, his framework for value investing, his learnings from Warren buffet and more.  He also talks about one of the most important aspects in value investing - recognizing the difference between price and value.  This is a masterclass on all...

Mahesh Patil is the Co-Chief Investment Officer of Aditya Birla Sun Life  AMC and one of the biggest names in the fund management space. He leads  a team of twenty, comprising fund managers and analysts, managing  around INR 88,590 crores in equity assets.   In this conversation with Karthik Rangappa, Mahesh talks about:   1. Overall macros of India and the factors that will influence growth 2. Earnings growth and corporate profits 3. The divergence between Nifty and Nifty small and...

Having idle cash in your trading account is a bit of a conundrum. In this episode, Anil Ghelani Senior Vice President - DSP Mutual Fund explains how liquid ETFs work, the underlying securities, and how you can use a Liquid ETF for cash management and to plan your trades.

Most of us today invest without clear goals in mind. But the thing about setting goals for your investing is that it helps you quantify them. It also allows you to easily set expectations and choose the right instruments to achieve those goals. In this conversation Aashish P Somaiyaa, CEO of Motilal Oswal AMC explains how one should go about setting goals and invest to achieve them.  Happy investing! 

If you want equity returns, you must also stomach the associated volatility. We as investors cannot control market movement, interest rates, crude prices, and other factors. What we can however control is our behavior and how we construct our portfolios. In this conversation, Rajeev Thakkar, Chief Investment Officer (CIO) of PPFAS Mutual Fund talks about the things we can do do to manage the risk and volatility in our portfolios.  If you have any questions about investing in mutual funds,...

Multi-cap mutual funds are a unique category because they have a flexible mandate to invest across market capitalizations. Meaning a single fund can invest across large, mid, and small-cap stocks.   Given that not all stocks perform the same across market cycles, these funds are the perfect choice to build your core portfolio. In this conversation, Rajat Jain, chief investment officer of Principal Asset Management, explains how multi-cap mutual funds work and how you can use these funds to...

India today accounts for just under 4% of the global stock market capitalization. This means that over 95% of the investable opportunities lie outside India. A vast majority of the investors today invest within the borders of a country, this is called as "Home country bias". But, there is a case to made for diversifying geographically. In this conversation, Neil Parikh, Chairman and CEO of PPFAS Mutual Fund explains why you should diversify internationally. Here's the link to the original...