Although past performance is no guarantee for the future, it is a useful way of assessing how well or badly a fund has performed in comparison to its stated objectives and peer group. A good way to do this would be to identify the five best performing funds (within your selected investment objectives) over various periods, say 3 months, 6 months, one year, two years and three years. Shortlist funds that appear in the top 5 in each of these time horizons as they would have thus demonstrated their ability to be not only good but also, consistent performers. To get help through this process, you can use our Find-A-Fund query module

What's strategy got to do with selecting a mutual fund? Shouldn't you just go and invest in the best performing fund? The answer is no. Mutual fund investing requires as much strategic input as any other investment option. But the advantage is that the strategy here is a natural extension of your asset allocation plan (use our Asset Allocator to understand what your optimum asset allocation plan should be, based on your personal risk profile). Moneycontrol recommends the following process:

Identify funds whose investment objectives match your asset allocation needs
Just as you would buy a computer that fits your needs and budget, you should choose a mutual fund that meets your risk tolerance (need) and your risk capacity (budget) levels (i.e. has similar investment objectives as your own). Typical investment objectives of mutual funds include fixed income or equity, general equity or sector-focused, high risk or low risk, blue-chips or turnarounds, long-term or short-term liquidity focus. You can use Moneycontrol?s Find-A-Fund query module to find funds whose investment objectives match yours.
Evaluate past performance, look for consistency
Although past performance is no guarantee of future performance, it is a useful way of assessing how well or badly a fund has performed in comparison to its stated objectives and peer group. A good way to do this would be to identify the five best performing funds (within your selected investment objectives) over various periods, say 3 months, 6 months, one year, two years and three years. Shortlist funds that appear in the top 5 in each of these time horizons as they would have thus demonstrated their ability to be not only good but also, consistent performers. You can engage in such research through Moneycontrol?s Find-A-Fund query module. Or, to get such a list, use our Best Picks reports which use this methodology as its predominant basis.

A 2.25% entry load sounds small. But it still bites a chunk off your returns over a long period of time. For instance, Rs 1 lakh invested directly in the no-load option of an equity fund that grows at a rate of 15% over a period of 20 years yields around Rs 16.36 lakh against Rs 15.99 lakh that a load fund would returna difference of Rs 36,820. This is because even a small sum of 2.25% gets compounded over the years.

The pinch remains the same even in a systematic investment plan (SIP). As SIPs entail investments on a regular basis, say every month, you end up paying entry loads on all your investment instalments. Assume you had invested Rs 5,000 in Reliance Vision Fund (RVF) on January 1, 2003 through a monthly SIP. If you had withdrawn your entire investment after five years, on December 31, 2007, you would have got back Rs 11.52 lakh in the no-load option and Rs 11.25 lakh in a load option, a difference of a cool Rs 25,914.

Book building is a process of price discovery. Hence, the Red Herring prospectus does not contain a price. Instead, the red herring prospectus contains either the floor price of the securities offered through it or a price band along with the range within which the bids can move. The applicants bid for the shares quoting the price and the quantity that they would like to bid at. Only the retail investors have the option of bidding at ‘cut-off’. After the bidding process is complete, the ‘cut-off’ price is arrived at on the lines of Dutch auction. The basis of Allotment (Refer Q. 15.j) is then finalized and letters allotment/refund is undertaken. The final prospectus with all the details including the final issue price and the issue size is filed with ROC, thus completing the issue process.

SEBI issues press releases every week regarding the draft offer documents received and observations issued during the period. The draft offer documents are put up on the website under Reports/Documents section. The final offer documents that are filed with SEBI/ROC are also put up for information under the same section. Copies of the draft offer documents in hard copy form may be obtained from the office of SEBI, Mittal Court, ‘A’ wing, Ground Floor, 224, Nariman Point, Mumbai – 400021 on a payment of Rs.100 or from SES, LMs etc. The soft copies can be downloaded from the SEBI website under Reports/Documents section. Some LMs also make it available on their web sites for download. The final offer documents that are filed with SEBI/ROC can also be downloaded from the same section of the website.

The Merchant Banker are the specialized intermediaries who are required to do due diligence and ensure that all the requirements of DIP are complied with while submitting the draft offer document to SEBI. Any non compliance on their part, attract penal action from SEBI, in terms of SEBI (Merchant Bankers) Regulations. The draft offer document filed by Merchant Banker is also placed on the website for public comments. Officials of SEBI at various levels examine the compliance with DIP guidelines and ensure that all necessary material information is disclosed in the draft offer documents.

The floating exchange rate system is a confluence of various demand and supply factors prevalent in an economy such as:

• Current account balance- The trade balance is the difference between the value of exports and imports. If India is exporting more than it is importing, it would have a positive trade balance with USA, leading to a higher demand for the home currency. As a result, the demand will translate into appreciation of the currency and vice versa.

• Inflation rate- Theoretically, the rate of change in exchange rate is equal to the difference in inflation rates prevailing in the 2 countries. So, whenever, inflation in one country increases relative to the other country, its currency falls.

• Interest rates- The funds will flow to that economy where the interest rates are higher resulting in more demand for that currency.

• Speculation- Another important factor is the speculative and arbitrage activities of big players in the market which determines the direction of a currency. In the event of global turmoil, investors flock towards perceived safe haven currencies like the US dollar resulting in a demand for that currency.

A mutual fund is set up in the form of a trust, which has sponsor, trustees, asset management company (AMC) and custodian. The trust is established by a sponsor or more than one sponsor who is like promoter of a company. The trustees of the mutual fund hold its property for the benefit of the unitholders. Asset Management Company (AMC) approved by SEBI manages the funds by making investments in various types of securities. Custodian, who is registered with SEBI, holds the securities of various schemes of the fund in its custody. The trustees are vested with the general power of superintendence and direction over AMC. They monitor the performance and compliance of SEBI Regulations by the mutual fund.

SEBI Regulations require that at least two thirds of the directors of trustee company or board of trustees must be independent i.e. they should not be associated with the sponsors. Also, 50% of the directors of AMC must be independent. All mutual funds are required to be registered with SEBI before they launch any scheme.

The value of all the securities in mutual funds portfolio is calculated daily. From this, all expenses are deducted and the resultant value divided by the number of units in the fund is the funds NAV or its Net Asset Value.

NIM = (Interest Income - Interest Expense) / Interest earning assets

Spread, on the other hand, is the difference between yield and cost of borrowing, where yield is the interest income earned on interest earning assets and cost of borrowing is interest expense charged on interest bearing liabilities.

Spread = (Interest Income/ Interest earning assets) – (Interest Expense/ Interest bearing Liabilities)

E.g. If Interest income = Rs. 150 crore

Interest expense = Rs. 80 crore

Interest earning assets = Rs. 2,250 crore

Interest bearing liabilities = Rs. 3,000 crore

NIM = (150 – 80) / 2250

= 3.11%

Spread = (150 / 2,250) – (80 / 3,000)

= 4%

Source: sptulsian.com

Gold Pure Mumbai 1-Kg future contract expiring on 20th Mar, 2006 is defined as "NCD-FUT-GLDPURMUMK-20-MAR-2006". Wherein "NCD" stands for NCDEX, "FUT" stands for Futures as derivatives product, "GLDPURMUMK" for underlying commodity and "20-MAR-2006" for expiry date.

‘Retail individual investor’ means an investor who applies or bids for securities of or for a value of not more than Rs.2,00,000.

It is not necessary that the unit of quantity and price is the same. For eg. Price for Gold is expressed in Rs per 10 gms but the quantity is submitted in gms. Therefore the quantity can not be multiplied directly. The value of an order/trade can be computed by multiplying the quantity with the price and then the result by the 'multiplier'. For eg. Multiplier incase of Gold is 10.

Brokers were required to make payment or give delivery within two working days of the pay - out day. However, as settlement cycle has been reduced fromT+3 rolling settlement to T+2 w.e.f. April 01, 2003, the pay out of funds and securities to the clients by the broker will be within 24 hours of the payout.

The listing on the stock exchanges is done within 7 days from the finalization of the issue. Ideally, it would be around 3 weeks after the closure of the book built issue. In case of fixed price issue, it would be around 37 days after closure of the issue.

The Insurance Repository will open an e Insurance Account within 7 business days from the date of receiving the eIA application form. On opening the e IA, the Insurance Repository will inform the applicant the particulars of the e Insurance Account and usage instructions through email and by post.

According to SEBI Regulations, transfer of units is required to be done within thirty days from the date of lodgment of certificates with the mutual fund.

It takes at least 1 to 3 working days to complete all formalities of opening a beneficiary account

As per Clause 8.8.1, Subscription list for public issues shall be kept open for at least 3 working days and not more than 10 working days. In case of Book built issues, the minimum and maximum period for which bidding will be open is 3–7 working days extendable by 3 days in case of a revision in the price band. The public issue made by an infrastructure company, satisfying the requirements in Clause 2.4.1 (iii) of Chapter II may be kept open for a maximum period of 21 working days. As per clause 8.8.2., Rights issues shall be kept open for at least 30 days and not more than 60 days.

To get the maximum benefit of reducing your risk through diversification spread your portfolio across different assets whose returns are not 100% correlated. Different assets should ideally span across different asset classes such as fixed income, equity, real estate, gold as well as different investment options within these asset classes e.g. within equity shares, your exposure should be to companies in different sectors; or within fixed income investments, partly government risk and partly corporate risk.

As a thumb rule, diversify your investments across 15-20 different portfolio holdings if you are directly investing in stocks or bonds. If you are investing through mutual funds, then three MF schemes for stocks and three schemes for bonds should provide you adequate diversification.

The cost of buying an insurance policy depends on:
• Your age, health and the nature of work you do
• Policy type selected.
• Sum assured.
• Policy term.
• Premium paying term.
• Premium payment frequency.
• Riders (if any) attached to the policy.

Source: SBI Life Insurance

Looking to the present medical cost we should take min sum assured of 3 lacks. We should also keep in mind that once we will be suffered from and disease then sum assured will not increase so, we should consider higher sum assured to cover inflationary medical cost for future.

The amount you insure for is called the sum assured. Normally a policy should cover the value of the asset – either the market value while insuring, or the cost of replacing the asset should it be lost or destroyed. The premium will depend on the sum assured.

There are two methods of deciding the sum assured which is human life value and need based analysis. One should use need based analysis method for deciding sum assured. In need based analysis method we should add survivors living expenses, future value of outstanding life goals, outstanding debt, cost of dying (funeral, estate lawyer's fees, etc.) and subtracts saleable investments, and insurance already available. The difference is the sum assured required.

The cost of investing through a mutual fund is not insignificant and deserves due consideration, especially when it comes to fixed income funds. Management fees, annual expenses of the fund and sales loads can take away a significant portion of your returns. As a general rule, 1% towards management fees and 0.6% towards other annual expenses should be acceptable. Carefully examine the fee a fund charges for getting in and out of the fund. Again, you can query on entry and exit loads under our Find-A-Fund query module or get a pre-defined shortlist of funds on the load specification structure through the Mutual Fund Directory section.