Most financial planners and personal portfolio managers are questioning their basic assumption of asset allocation. In the year 2008 asset allocation failed. This of course is their conclusion based on a set of data. Data is accurate but the conclusion seems to be a little flawed.
In the years from 2002 to 2007 (when Mr. Risk [...]
I recently received the annual report of a financial services company. Like all financial services company this company also has an insurance business, a financial distribution company, a mutual fund, …the works.
A quick glance clearly shows that this company will NEVER make money in ANY of the abovementioned businesses during my life time. Surely over [...]
Shariah Investments in my portfolio, no thanks!
Benchmark Mutual fund announced a Shariah compliant fund recently. Of course many mutual funds (Reliance, UTI, to name 2) are all in the process of launching and managing a Shariah compliant fund.
What is a Shariah compliant fund? And what does it do?
Shariah, the religious law of the followers of [...]
Recently one Advisor (and his associated fund house) have been pushing me to invest in a fund of funds. I am a little scared about a super supervisor over looking my funds. However Quantum Long Term equity fund was being pushed to me – really hard to invest in that fund.
I decided to compare 3 [...]
This is perhaps the most often asked question. I have seen people mess up quite dramatically. One HR consultant once called me and said “I have Rs. 52,000 where can I invest?’. So I got of on the pedal saying “Equity is good for the long term….etc”. Then when there was a blank from the [...]
One very important fallacy is called the ‘Sunk cost fallacy’ – which makes us throw more good money after money already gone bad. Typically a lender keeps lending money to one customer hoping that this will enable the borrower to do well and repay ALL the money. Another manifestation of this is called ‘Averaging’ – [...]
Are you a little surprised at the title when the government is proudly talking of inflation at -1.56%? Well you should be! But look at the ground reality. Monsoon is not great – this is bound to put a lot of pressure on dal and vegetables. Luckily for us oil is not rearing its ugly [...]
Darren Gough and IPL – yes you can see some connection, but can you see the connection between Darren Gough and Financial planning? Well neither could I…but here is the connection. Telegraph , UK did an interview regarding Darren’s financial habits – and it was interesting. Nothing flamboyant. His best investment he says – is [...]
Goldman Sachs came out with stunning results. Is there something to see what the eyes cannot see?
Well the profits have come (nothing unusual) from trading and merchant banking. GS of course quickly converted itself into a Bank – when it saw the fall of its friend and competitors – like Bear Sterns and Lehman Brothers. [...]
There are many ways of getting rich. The quickest way is to sell something that you can buy for Re. 1 and sell it for Rs. 500. Then create a sales force which sells it for a 10% commission. The better the quality of sales force the greater will be your profits. The more such [...]