Investors in mutual funds turn to one metric when they are confused about what to do? Difficult moments in investment decision making inevitably lead to that one- stop decision making tool. Every investment recommendation draws authority from this one metric that metric is past performance. Investors draw liberally from this…
The return of the FII’s on the buy side has turned things upside down. Until now, the FIIs were mostly sellers and DIIs were predominantly buyers. The role reversal between FII’s and DII’s is not an unusual thing. But, what remain to be seen is if DIIs can really sustain…
The markets have hit a new normal. Political capital is no more a worry for the Government. Now, the Modi government can be emboldened to hasten reforms, implement GST, come down strongly on tax evaders and clean up the system. But, this sequence will still need time to show good…
“Investing is not supposed to be easy, and anybody who finds it easy is stupid.” These words of Charlie Munger were highlighted by Howard Marks in a recent lecture to India’s value investing community. This set me wondering again about the current narratives that dominate the Indian investing space. Post-2014…
Global factors keep returning again and again to haunt our markets. Just when we believed that we are de-coupled from global markets, we had a sharp dip due to a Trump win in November, 2016. De-monetisation also added to the market’s woes. 2017 started on a low and has seen…
Most people make investments because they want to. They often ignore & overlook whether they actually need to. Investing works very well only if one questions himself on the need. When the need is not clearly identified, the investing is goal-less. Often when we invest without goals, there is a…
There is something about history. It often repeats itself. It has a pattern. Market cycles have a classic repetitive pattern too. Investors make the same mistakes cycle after cycle. Just that a new set of people come around with every cycle to make the same mistakes. Governance too follows the…
There is something about how retail investors measure performance. First, they anchor performance to their own expectations. Secondly, they want their whole portfolio to do as well as the market’s best performing fund. Finally, they believe that their portfolio performance should be independent of the market’s. You will notice that…
The rate hike in US finally happened. As an event that was long expected and widely speculated, it didn’t carry any surprise element. Now that the event is behind, markets will need to focus on how global investors reset their emerging market allocations for 2017. Usually, these allocations start showing in January’s FII…
The Math of Demonetisation is slowly emerging. Money mostly is finding its way to the bank. The banking system seems to be coming under the scanner for helping cash hoarders launder money. This is something we will hear more about. Consumption is slowing. Indirect Tax collections are likely to follow suit. Service tax will…