1. Open-ended schemes Open-ended or open mutual funds are much more common than closed-ended funds and meet the true definition of a mutual fund — a financial intermediary that allows a group of investors to pool their money together to meet an investment objective— to make money! An individual or team of professional money managers manage the pooled assets and choose investments, which create the fund’s portfolio. They are established by a fund sponsor, usually a mutual fund company, and valued by the fund company or an outside agent. This means that the fund’s portfolio is valued at “fair market” value, which is the closing market value for listed public securities. An open-ended fund can be freely sold and repurchased by investors. Buying and Selling: Open funds sell and redeem shares at any time directly to shareholders. To make an investment, you purchase a number of shares through a representative, Continue reading
Investment Options
Catastrophe Bonds or CAT Bonds
Catastrophe Bonds (or CAT Bonds) are high-yield, risk-linked securities used to transfer explicitly to the capital markets major catastrophe exposures such as low probability disastrous losses due to hurricanes and earthquakes. It has a special condition that states that if the issuer (Insurance or Reinsurance Company) suffers a particular predefined catastrophe loss, then payment of interest and/or repayment of principal is either deferred or completely waived. These bonds were first introduced as a solution to problems resulting from traditional insurance market capacity constraints, excessive insurance premia, and insolvency risk due to catastrophic losses. Catastrophe Bonds or CAT Bonds are complex financial tools which transfer peril specific risks to the capital markets instead of an insurance company. The peril risk is transferred through a complex system of events which include creation of a special purpose vehicle by a sponsor, modeling event scenarios by qualified risk management firms, drafting of a bond Continue reading
Dematerialization and Rematerialization in Commodity Markets
The Indian commodity futures market has grown exponentially in the recent times. With the increase in trade volume at the Commodity Exchanges; the need to have a vibrant and efficient settlement system was felt. This led to the concept of dematerialization of warehouse receipts. Demat of warehouse receipt eliminates the difficulties arising out of the use of physical warehouse receipts. Dematerialization refers to the process of conversion of the physical paper (i.e. share certificates, warehouse receipts, etc.) into the electronic balances. In this process the physical paper is destroyed and electronic balance is credited in the demat account owner of the physical document. The concept of demat has been in vogue in the securities market from the year 1996 with the setting up of the first depository i.e. National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL) to remove the difficulties arising out of the use of physical (paper) certificates for settlement of trades Continue reading
Equity Investment Analysis
Equity Valuation The security analyst when faced with the problem of a buy or sell decision must first evaluate the past performance of the security, and then coupled with his personal experience predict the future performance of the security and the relative market position. The amount of data available to him far exceeds his potential and therefore he has to base his predictions on several basic attributes and modify the results in the light of intuitive beliefs. While the process may be successful, its intuitive segments make the evaluation of errors and improvements of this technique very difficult, if not impossible. Equity valuation is difficult in comparison to valuation of bonds and preference shares. This is because benefits are generally constant and reasonably certain. Equity on the other hand involves uncertainty. It is the size of the return and the degree of fluctuations, which in togetherness determine the values of Continue reading
Industry Analysis and Investment Decision
An investor must examine the industry in which a company operates because this can have a tremendous effect on its results, and even its existence. A company’s management may be superior, its balance sheet strong and its reputation enviable. However, the company may not have diversified and the industry within which it operates may be in a depression. This can result in a tremendous decline in revenues and even threaten the viability of the company. The first step in industry analysis is to determine the cycle it is in, or the stage of maturity of the industry. All industries evolve through the following stages: The Entrepreneurial or Nascent Stage: At the first stage, the industry is new and it can take some time for it to properly establish itself. In the early days, it may actually make losses. At this time there may also not be many companies in the Continue reading
Mutual Fund NAV Calculation
The net asset value is the market value of the assets of the scheme deducting its liabilities. Simply put, the NAV is what investors are required to pay to buy or sell one share of the mutual fund. Keep in mind any additional fees are not included in this amount. In accounting terms, NAV is also known as the book value of the mutual fund. The net asset value per mutual fund unit on any business day is computed as follows: NAV = (Market value of the fund’s investments + Receivables + Accrued income -Liabilities -Accrued expenses)/Number of units outstanding Rules Governing the Mutual Fund NAV Calculation Accrued Income and Expenses: The correct accrual of all incomes and expenses is a requirement for computing NAV. In practical terms these are just estimates. For example, the investment manager’s fees has to be accrued everyday for computing NAV but the fee is Continue reading