January 1993 marked the beginning of Portfolio Management Services in India when the SEBI (Portfolio Managers) Regulations, 1993 was first issued. Currently, the PMS AUM has crossed over ₹40 lakh crores with 500+ PMS houses in operation, as per the latest data from APMI. PMS is an aggressive investment avenue beyond traditional mutual funds and is more suited to wealthy investors which we shall discuss below. What is driving the growth of PMS? What use cases is PMS most compe

It is natural to doubt the very foundation of the stock market during times of higher volatility and flat or negative returns. Some may even think that stock market or equity mutual fund investing is just gambling and does not have any sound basis. In fact, when NSE started operations in the year 1994, a prominent newspaper announced it with the headline saying: the country's "biggest casino is born". And there are people from the older generation who still believe this! Are

Distributors are legally bound to determine suitability and accordingly provide incidental advice pertaining to the products they recommend. What does this mean? Ensuring suitability is a part of SEBI (Prohibition of Fraudulent and Unfair Trade Practices relating to securities market) 2003. This amendment to the regulation included mis-selling in units of a mutual fund scheme within the ambit of the mis-selling regulation. The regulation defines mis-selling in units of mutual

SIF schemes are allowed by SEBI to invest in the underlying securities from asset classes of Equity, Forex, Commodity and Fixed-income as well as their derivatives (Futures & Options) in order to deliver better volatility-adjusted returns. In SIFs, unhedged short positions are allowed by SEBI up to a limit of 25% of the portfolio value to help generate returns and reduce downside during bearish markets. Various Options derivative strategies along with the timing expertise of

A scheme like this sounds very attractive, where a certain amount is to be invested for a few years and then you get double the amount every year for perpetuity. First point to note is that if these are market-linked schemes, then no such guarantee of returns can be given in accordance with market regulations. In this article, we delve into whether such schemes are viable at all, from a purely theoretical perspective, for educational purposes only. From finance theory, we hav

Some investors may rush into investing in an NFO of a Mutual Fund that is to be launched because they think that it gives them a bargain opportunity to invest at an NAV of just ₹ 10 per unit. Let's pause for a moment and examine whether it really is a bargain opportunity or not. Assume there is an NFO offering in fund X available at an NAV of ₹ 10 and there is another existing fund Y available at an NAV of ₹ 1,000. You invest ₹ 100,000 in each of the funds at the same time.

A common question asked by many investors: Is it a good time to invest now in the stock market? Well, if you are investing through SIP, then purchase cost averaging works in your favor and you do not have to bother much about market timing, especially for long-term goals. However, even if you are an SIP investor, if the timing is determined as favorable, you may want to top-up your SIP aggressively based on the opportunity. Determining whether the timing is favorable or not i

Are you in a rush to buy a ULIP (Investment + Insurance plan) just to save on some tax? Let's first check whether or not the cost-to-benefit analysis works out for you. Before we proceed, here is the formula to calculate the ULIP plan fund value on any given day: Fund Value = Current Unit Balance x Current NAV per Unit Next, look at the brochure and benefit illustration of the plan you are interested in and review the details of applicable charges. Charges of the ULIP plan wo