SPARKLINES

Picture speaks a thousand words .

In Stock investing ,especially in technical analysis of stocks, plotting how a stock or an Index has moved over the last year , may be Month or may be all though the day is a good indicator of the investor sentiment about a stock.

You would not have to look far for such data , there could be lot of different websites that may provide you this information , but none as elegantly as the NSE website

NSE ( National Stock Exchange ) has a feature called "SPARKLINES", where not only are Indexes plotted but , every constituent stocks are plotted over a Intraday, 30 days , 365 days period . the different indices covered are ( click on the Index to see the chart )

• Nifty
• Junior Nifty
• CNX IT
• Bank Nifty
• Nifty Midcap 50
• CNX Realty
• CNX Infra
• ETF

You even find the ETFs listed on NSE plotted here. You can even click on the small "Post-Its" on the charts to see any corporate actions like dividend/split/bonus information.

Image: winnond / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

My learnings from Ramit

I follow a blog that is run by Ramit Sethi "Iwillteachyoutoberich.com" and two of his teaching that have profoundly influenced me are

• Automate your Finance
• Ask your Seniors

Automate Your Finance:
This aims at removing all the "Human Element" from the act of investing and tries to make it as mechanical a process as you can possibly think of . In my limited investment experience i have see that Human Elements like fear,greed,procrastination,laziness are the biggest stumbling blocks to disciplined investing and Automating your Finances focuses on removing these stumbling blocks.

Are you desirous of Automating your Finances , you can automate in these ways click here

Ask your Seniors:
This is about , learning from mistakes , more importantly, from mistakes of others .
Ramit suggests that you approach a person about 5 years your senior , may be a colleague or a friend or may be somebody in your family and ask them , if they had the chance to re-live last five years of their financial life again, what would they have done differently . how would their priorities be different , what investment they would have avoided , what investments would they have maximised .

Think about these two points , see how simple and yet how drastically can these alter your investment style.


Thank you Ramit for these insights.

Do they practice what they preach

This is a interesting discussion with some of the most respected Mutual Fund managers and we find that not all the Fund Managers practice what they preach .

Many of the Fund Managers , have not invested their own money in the funds that they them self manager . If such is the mindset , how would you expect the general public to invest their hard earned money in the Equity Markets

Interesting conversation , please do watch

Warren Buffett in India

Warren Buffett the legendary Investor, one of the richest individuals on earth , philanthropist, the "Demi God" of value investing will be in India .

Having picked up a stake in Bajaj Insurance and the shrewd businessman that he is and knowing fully well that Indians buy a Insurance policy for all the wrong reasons , he has made an irresistible offer

"Buy a policy on BerkshireInsurance.com and get invited to meet Warren Buffett"

Want to meet this legend , go right ahead and buy a insurance policy at BerkshireInsurance.com

Did You Know

It has been quite sometime now that Mutual Funds have enabled their own website for Online Transactions , Initially the Mutual Funds wanted

• You to be a existing investor with a Valid Folio Number
• You to have a online transaction PIN ( which the investor would have received from the MF after filling in a Online Transaction Form and mailing it to them )

Now all this is changing , MF now allow you to Invest and even start a SIP ( Systematic Investment Plan ) , even if you do not have a PIN . All that you would need now would be

• Your Valid Folio Number ( which means you would still need to be a existing investor )
• Your PAN number
• Your Bank Account Number ,that is registered with the Folio

KYC is mandatory , this goes without saying .

Which means , if you have a online transaction enabled bank account , you are all set to start investing .One less excuse for you not to invest

Currently i find these fund houses allowing investor to invest without a PIN
HDFC Mutual Fund
DSP Blackrock Mutual Fund

But remember , without a PIN you can only Invest/Buy , but you can never sell , this is a safety feature , So do remember to apply for a PIN , you would need that , the day you want to redeem your MF investments online.

So, go ahead and start investing from the comfort of your couch .

Image: Idea go / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Global Index based ETFs

Motilal Oswal is launching an ETF based on the Index, NASDAQ 100 .

Those of you, who do not know what an ETF is, ETF is exactly like a Mutual Funds , but the units of a ETF ( Exchange Traded Funds ) can be bought on the stock market during the trading hours.

Want to know more about ETF , please check here

About a year back Benchmark Mutual Fund had launched an ETF based of the Hang Seng Index.As far as i know, these are the only two ETFs , that an Indian investor can use to invest in stocks that are listed outside India

The current offering from Motilal Oswal , would invest in the NASDAQ 100 companies in the same proportion as in the Index

NASDAQ 100
NASDAQ stands for "National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations". Details here

NASDAQ-100 Index includes 100 of the largest domestic and international non-financial securities listed on The Nasdaq Stock Market based on market capitalization. More details here .

There are arguments both in favour and against , Indian investors investing in foreign companies .

Arguments in favour :

• The Investor would be able to diversify his investment in non Indian companies and markets
• The Investor gets a chance to invest in some true blue multinational giants

Arguments NOT in favour

• The Indian investor has better growth opportunity in India itself
• The Investor may suffer from currency fluctuations

I would wait and see how this ETF would perform ,before i even think of investing
Image: scottchan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

MF Statement

When you start investing in Mutual Funds ( MFs) you are suppose to receive a Mutual Fund statement every quarter , especially , if you are investing through SIP.

Watch out for these details on your MF statement

Scheme Name and Option :
Make sure your money is being invested in the correct Mutual Fund scheme of your choice and also make sure the Option of the scheme which could be Growth, Dividend - Payout , Dividend - Reinvest , is as per your choice

Name and Address :
Make sure your Name is spelt right and also check your contact address ( Postal Address in case you received the statement by Email and Email address, in case you are getting your statement by Post ).

Email  Address and Mobile Number:
Make sure your email address is proper as, then you can get a statement from CamsOnline.com ,anytime you like using your registered email Id. Check you mobile number too , so that you can be sent SMS alerts by the MF when your SIP is due and when a purchase has been made

KYC Status :
Make sure your KYC status is OK/Validated on your statement .if your are not KYC compliant , you will not be allowed to make any new investments nor will you be allowed to sell your current holdings

Bank Details :
Make sure proper Bank Account details are mentioned , along with the IFSC code ,
If IFSC code is mentioned then MF can directly credit the dividends as well as redemption money into your bank account saving you time and effort of depositing cheques into your bank account and also avoid getting into the agony of losing/misplacing cheques.

SIP Amount/Lumpsum Amount:
Make sure the amount that has been invested is correct .

Broker Details:
If you were helped by a broker to invest , you would then see the Broker's name here, else you are suppose to see "Direct". This must not affect your investment directly , but brokers are usually paid a trail commission by the Mutual Funds , which is paid from charges deducted from you . So, in case you have invested directly/Online without any broker's help make sure it is "Direct"

Image: renjith krishnan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net