I hate mutual funds!

O M G!! You are saying good things about mutual funds?! This was the reaction of about 40 people I met last fortnight at a ‘pre-wedding’ food party at a Gujarati friends ‘so called’ party. The food was amazing and for a non 5* setting Rs. 1900 per plate was what I thought well, too [...]

Falling Markets: What to do?

Markets fell by 240 points yesterday and has fallen 230 points already today. For people like us markets means sensex! Markets are driven by 3 factors – Earnings of the companies, the future expectations (price-earning ratio) and the liquidity in the market. In the current market earnings are at their peak – the next couple [...]

Buy shares of….

This is an old idea – many people have said it. Particularly Peter Lynch has said this many times – buy things you are familiar with, what you cannot describe in a picture is not worth buying, etc. There is of course a lot of justification to own shares like Gillette, Colgate, Hindustan Unilever, ITC, [...]

Dull boring companies…

  After saying so many things about my blunders, let me tell you the companies where I made some money too! Lest you think of me as a bumbling idiot…and let us see if there is a pattern. The companies which earned my family nice money are Coromandel fertilizers, Hindalco, EID Parry, Tata Motors, Cummins, [...]

Agents sell garbage…

This is perhaps the most amusing comment i have read in recent times. I also like N Vittal’s statement – ‘you only hear bali ka bakra, do you hear bali ka haathi or bali ka Sher?’. Similarly for many of today’s writers (including yours truly) the easiest thing to do is to attack the bakra. [...]

Fmcg funds: Invest or no?

This article appeared in the inaugural issue of Money Mantra a new Personal Finance Magazine from New Delhi…1st Nov. 2009. Have not reproduced the table in excel. FMCG is suddenly the favorite amongst everybody! Why is this so? Well any fund which clocks 67% return in one year is bound to suddenly attract interest, is [...]