[manku]

Originally Posted by S_U_N

At the same time, I am wondering how I will be able to track the gain/ loss right from 2013 if I keep messing around like this.

Any good way to track such things?

If you have confidence in the funds you are in, why get out? You will likely replace then with similar find if your goals are still the same.

[S_U_N]

Originally Posted by manku

If you have confidence in the funds you are in, why get out? You will likely replace then with similar find if your goals are still the same.

There were a couple of perspectives that I came across.
1. Everyone invests in funds which are doing good - forgetting that the future may not be the same. In that case it may make more sense to find other funds which have not done good so far, but could perhaps do well in future, aka - the underdogs.

2. Even if we were to continue with the existing funds, the returns would not be the same. For example, based on my investments from 2013, I have gained about 25-40% across different funds. I am not investing in most of those right now.
In this scenario, if I do not book profits now, I am pretty sure that the growth rate will come down eventually.
So, does it not make sense to pull out partially or completely?

[sgiitk]

@S_U_N, maybe it is time to go unorthodox. How about Arbitrage funds - similar to FD on the face of it, but with no tax liability after one year.

[manku]

Originally Posted by S_U_N

There were a couple of perspectives that I came across.
1. Everyone invests in funds which are doing good - forgetting that the future may not be the same. In that case it may make more sense to find other funds which have not done good so far, but could perhaps do well in future, aka - the underdogs.

Sorry, I was kind of assuming you were a base level investor like me who doesn't have the skills to time the market. My philosophy is to pick a (small) number of funds in the large and midcap categories with a minimum 5 year proven track record, invest in them with a SIP or STP and don't touch them forever(hopefully) - Some years you will make a lot of money, some years you will lose, but over a long investment horizon (15-20 years), it should average out.

If you have the skills and knowledge to predict which finds will do well in the future, then moving from one fund to others is a great strategy I think.

Originally Posted by S_U_N

2. Even if we were to continue with the existing funds, the returns would not be the same. For example, based on my investments from 2013, I have gained about 25-40% across different funds. I am not investing in most of those right now.
In this scenario, if I do not book profits now, I am pretty sure that the growth rate will come down eventually.
So, does it not make sense to pull out partially or completely?

What I was trying to say here is that if you pull out now to use the money, that's fine, but if you are putting the money back into funds, then the category of funds you invest in (mid-cap, large-cap etc) will not really change, so why do a lateral move ? Also, there may be a dip in the next few years, but given the cyclical nature of the stock market, time like 2013-2014 will come again and if you are still invested, you get to reap the benefits again.

[S_U_N]

Originally Posted by sgiitk

@S_U_N, maybe it is time to go unorthodox. How about Arbitrage funds - similar to FD on the face of it, but with no tax liability after one year.

Interesting. Are you sure about the 1 year part?
Edit: You are correct that this is treated as Equity MF. The last one year has not been good (which is good). But the performance from last 10 years is pretty much around 8%, which does not seem very exciting.

Originally Posted by manku

Sorry, I was kind of assuming you were a base level investor like me who doesn't have the skills to time the market. My philosophy is to pick a (small) number of funds in the large and midcap categories with a minimum 5 year proven track record, invest in them with a SIP or STP and don't touch them forever(hopefully) - Some years you will make a lot of money, some years you will lose, but over a long investment horizon (15-20 years), it should average out.

I agree that there will be averaging over long term.

Prashant Jain from HDFC himself has said that it does not make much sense to buy funds which have already gone up. I am trying to figure out if partial profit booking and reinvesting in 'the underdogs' could be the strategy OR it will backfire.

I have started investing in Mirae and BNP (both are not in the premium category like Franklin and IDFC, et al).
Mirae has already proven itself and perhaps it is a bit late for me to get in?
BNP does not seem to be a rockstar yet. It might still be a gamble.

(
The investments I made in 2015 so far have hardly given me good returns. This is true for both the 5 star funds and also the unrated funds.
)

[sgiitk]

Originally Posted by S_U_N

Interesting. Are you sure about the 1 year part?
Edit: You are correct that this is treated as Equity MF. The last one year has not been good (which is good). But the performance from last 10 years is pretty much around 8%, which does not seem very exciting.

They are supposed to compete with Debt (benchmark liquid), and 8% tax free is not bad. So do not compare with Equity.

[nowwhat?]

Originally Posted by S_U_N

Prashant Jain from HDFC himself has said that it does not make much sense to buy funds which have already gone up. I am trying to figure out if partial profit booking and reinvesting in 'the underdogs' could be the strategy OR it will backfire.

You seem to be equating actively managed mutual funds to passive funds/stocks.

Please bear in mind that MFs themselves book profits partially whenever they feel the market is overheated. IIRC Quantum Long Term had around 30% debt just some time back.

If your definition of underdogs equate to poor performers, again you are mistaking MFs with stocks. An MF's performance is all there on paper, there is no additional value over and above its NAV.

On the other hand, what I would consider as an underdog is a fund with low corpus that is a high performer and has missed the investor frenzy. This is important because a lot of funds, notably HDFC, have performed poorly as their corpus increased manifold. A relative underdog that I like a lot is Mirae Emerging Bluechip which you have also invested in.

One last note: With MFs, what matters most is time in the market. You need to have skin in the game and invest through ups and downs over many years to make a sizable profit.

[S_U_N]

Today, the market went down by almost 1000 points.
The only fund in my portfolio which went up was Reliance Pharma. I really don't know how it is going up. Does anyone know?

[rohanak1]

Originally Posted by S_U_N

1. Everyone invests in funds which are doing good - forgetting that the future may not be the same. In that case it may make more sense to find other funds which have not done good so far, but could perhaps do well in future, aka - the underdogs.

This is nothing but value investing. I think an investor with good knowledge of value investing should rather invest in cheap stocks than picking mutual funds. I believe that a stock may be an underdog but not a mutual fund. If someone has the ability to identify what mutual fund will do better in future it would be better for him/her to pick the right stocks

[sgiitk]

With the world in a turmoil, and our markets joining I will just keep away for a month or so. I have a substantial amount coming thi week, but will not risk the MF and let alone the stock market. May thing about the short term debt marker though.

[faustus77]

Hi everybody
ELSS mutual funds(invested for my daughter) have a lock in period of 3 years.
I wonder if our members here redeem after 3 years and switch to another fund or continue to be invested in them?
That is if they do not require funds and are interested in being invested in equities.
TIA
Regards
PS:Sensex closed today at 25453. Time to nibble at equity funds?

[Pancham]

A big hello to everyone here.

I have been wanting to take the SIP route for a very long time. Considering the current market condition do you guys think this is the best time to invest in SIPs?

[ghodlur]

Originally Posted by faustus77

Time to nibble at equity funds?

Originally Posted by Pancham

Considering the current market condition do you guys think this is the best time to invest in SIPs?

Absolutely, a good time to invest either lump sum or through SIP. The NAV's of many a 5 star rated funds have slipped and are ripe to be bought depending on the risk appetite.

[Pancham]

Originally Posted by ghodlur

Absolutely, a good time to invest either lump sum or through SIP. The NAV's of many a 5 star rated funds have slipped and are ripe to be bought depending on the risk appetite.

Thanks a lot

Since I am new into SIPs can you guys suggest which ones to go for?

Sorry for all the questions. I am quite new in the equity investment front.

Just a few minutes back, I invested in Franklin India Taxshield - Direct - Growth - for claiming fresh IT exemption u/s 80C for AY 2016-17.

Originally Posted by faustus77

I wonder if our members here redeem after 3 years and switch to another fund or continue to be invested in them?

You can consider to redeem and reinvest in the same fund or elsewhere under ELSS for claiming fresh IT exemption u/s 80C for AY 2016-17.