Vipin Khandelwal

HDFC Mutual Fund – Is this what investors expect?

September 14, 2016 by Vipin Khandelwal

HDFC Mutual Fund is one of the largest and the most respected fund houses of the country.

What would you expect from such a fund house?

That it would put its customer, the investor, at the centre of all that it does. I thought so too.

Unfortunately, the facts don’t support that notion.

While they might have started with it, I believe they are losing track.

They have indulged in greedy, big business like behaviour playing a upper hand and putting the investor at the receiving end. I am afraid the arrogance of being big is slowly creeping in.

Let me first put across 2 broad observations.

Does holding cash affect equity mutual fund performance?

September 12, 2016 by Vipin Khandelwal

A question that I was recently asked with regards to investing in equity mutual funds was whether a fund should be fully invested in equity at all times or should it be holding cash if need be?

There were two arguments against a stay in cash strategy.

One, holding cash can lead to underperformance as the markets may rally faster than the funds can search for opportunities and deploy the cash.

Two, how can a fund hold cash and charge a Fund Management fees of 1% to 2% or more? The investor pays fund management fee to make investment in equities, not for holding cash.

Let’s see if these arguments hold any water.

Stay away from investing in stock markets

September 7, 2016 by Vipin Khandelwal

“Sensex rises 500 points to touch an all time high.” reads today’s stock markets news headlines.

The Sensex and Nifty are touching new highs on weekly, monthly and yearly basis. Soon, they will probably soon be at their all time highs. It’s the bull market.

Source: Google/Yahoo Finance; Sensex Chart for 5 years. as on Sept 7, 2016

The social conversations have turned to stocks that one is buying or planning to buy, the sectors that will lead the bull run and the money made.

Seriously, it is hard to ignore. The FOMO or fear of missing out is gripping you. You too want to be part of it.

You want to ride the bull too.

The issue is that you have never invested before in stocks or mutual funds. Bank FDs, EPF, PPF, etc. have been your primary investment avenues so far.

But now you want more.

Insights from Gautam Sinha Roy of Motilal Oswal MF

September 5, 2016 by Vipin Khandelwal

Fund manager interview - Gautam Sinha Roy, Motilal Oswal MF

This fund manager interview post originally appeared on www.unovest.co. Here’s an extract from the interview.

As a part of the Insider’s view series, we bring to you insights shared by Gautam Sinha Roy, Fund Manager of the MOSt Focused Multicap 35 Fund (Equity component) at Motilal Oswal AMC.

Gautam has more than 11 years of rich experience in fund management and research. Previously, he has had stints with Motilal Oswal Securities Limited in the Investments and Market Strategy teams.

He was also with Motilal Oswal Securities Ltd. where he was managing the company’s investments book. In the past, he has worked with IIFL Capital Pvt. Ltd., Mirae Asset Global Investment Pvt. Ltd., Edelweiss Capital Ltd. and Genpact Ltd before joining the Motilal Oswal group.

VK: Welcome Gautam!

Thanks for agreeing to this interview.

Interest in equity investing, direct or through mutual funds, is rising. However, the foundation that is required to benefit from equity investing is still missing.

The purpose of our conversation today is to enable investors to understand how they can make the most of equity investing. I am sure investors will appreciate it coming from a fund manager like yourself.

Should we begin?

Gautam: Yes.

Systematic Transfer Plan, STP in a mutual fund- Is it worth it?

August 31, 2016 by Vipin Khandelwal

STP - SYSTEMATIC TRANSFER PLAN IN MUTUAL FUNDS

You have just received a big amount as your annual bonus. While the first temptation was to splurge it all, good sense prevails and you decide to invest 80% of it in equity mutual funds.

But you are not sure how to do it? Should it be one shot lump sum or in parts?

These days what you hear is “Market index touches all time high.” The popular media has this headline all over.

You are now forced to think if this is the right time to invest a lump sum amount in equity mutual funds.

So, you reach out to various forums, blogs, websites and friends who give this advice:

“Do an STP or a Systematic Transfer Plan.”

“Put your money in a liquid fund and then start an STP into the equity fund for 6 to 12 months.”

You feel almost convinced that is the way to go.

Hold on! Why STP at all? Does it really work?

Investing Math – Distance, Speed and Time

August 29, 2016 by Vipin Khandelwal

$Investing math - Distance, Speed, Time$

Consider the following problem.

Two trains are running on the same track. The only issue is they are running towards each other. It is apparent that they will collide at some point.

Now, there is a fly which is happily flying between the two trains. The problem is what is the total distance that the fly will be able to cover before its crushed.

The speed of Train 1 is 60 km/hr while the Train 2 is running at a speed of 40 km/hr. The distance between the two trains is 20 kms. The speed of the fly is 10 km/hr.

This appears to be a complicated problem. Is it?

What approach will you take to solve the problem?

…

As you now know, this problem can be solved using some basic school maths. Yes!

The formula to use is Distance = Speed * Time.

Do you remember this simple formula from school?

Go ahead and apply it to the problem.

However, to make you solve this problem is not the purpose of the post.

What if I tell you that this very formula has an important role to play in your investing decisions too?