We can always trade in ETF to pay less. There is no STT charged for Liquid BeES/Liquid ETFs, GOLD ETF and some international ETF. Yet investors don’t use it to their advantage. In fact you don’t need a lot of knowledge to invest and profit from gold ETF. Time to time we also discuss about Gold yet none take advantage of the opportunity. Maybe I should stop discussing about it from now onwards.

There are many investors in India who start investing only after their 50’s and some in their 60’s. In my opinion it’s not too late to start.

Today every financial mentor talks about early retirement. With the salaries touching the sky high

As expected by us the market experienced a sharp sell off. Most Investors were flabbergasted by the correction as they expected the market to move up. Yesterday, all sectors closed in red and it’s a good sign for the markets. Let’s enjoy the crash as it will bring back sanity into the markets.

If you adopt value or GARP investing you don’t have to worry much about any kind of market.

Fake analysts may say the market goes up when there are more buyers than sellers and it goes down when there are more sellers than buyers. What matters more is the sentiment. It’s always a sentiment driven market. For example, way back in 2000 leadership stock like Infosys went down from 18000 to 2500 without trading a single stock. Even during 2020 many stock went down from filter to filter without much selling.

As far as Indian markets are concerned, corporate results are showing mixed trends. The analysts estimates have gone wayward. No one is sure as to where commodities, interest rate and economic scenario are headed in the short-to-medium term. It’s better to buy stocks which are offering value rather than to pick momentum. One good thing is the CPI inflation rose just 4.7% in May 2023, marking the weakest reading in 18 months. The WPI fell to a near three-year low of 0.92 in April, slipping into negative territory for the first time in 33 months. These indicators are good for the economy.

Winning the market requires entirely a different set of skill set. In the world of distraction, undoubtedly emotional control is one of the key factor to create massive wealth. Distraction caused by Media, YouTube, smartphones, social media, business news, stock prices etc is too difficult to avoid in this creepy world.

Yesterday we discussed about US and Indian stocks in a zoom meeting. One of our senior member in the group asked when US is in recession how can India grow especially during the election year?. Remember most US companies (exceptions are there) are struggling to post good results, where as very many India companies are posting great results.

On Friday we witnessed a massive sell off in HDFC twins. Most brokerages have a 'buy' rating on HDFC, with CLSA having set a target price of ₹3050. On Thursday, after the market hours, HDFC reported a standalone net profit of ₹4425 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2023- an increase of 19.6% compared with the corresponding period a year ago. Its net interest income grew 15.6% to ₹5321 crore, and net interest margin improved by 20 basis points to 3.6%. Yet, the stock nosedived by a massive 5%.

A new Bloomberg survey puts the probability of a downturn in the next year at 65%, up from 60% in February. Whether it’s recession or not it’s better to buy GARP stocks. Investors always buy app based stocks or the ones that are discussed in the media. One such example is Vedanta.

What’s the buzzword now in the market? In 2020 the buzzword was crypto currency. Bitcoin witness a mad rush and it went up from $7000 in 2020 to 63000+ in 2021. All happened in a matter of 10-12 months, and when the rally fizzled out, it nosedived again to $15000. Today the buzzword is AI. The market is energised by the magical word AI and any company that uses AI as a catchphrase goes up like a rocket.

During a bear phase, the prices of stocks fall continuously and even the good news don’t have any impact on the equity prices leading to a downward trend. The opposite effect is felt during bull markets. In bull markets, there is a strong overall demand for stocks and the general tone of market commentary tends to be positive. Companies can get higher valuations for the equity, we tend to see high levels of IPO activity during bull markets.

The world is changing rapidly around us. Faster than most people can think of. Market responds to the real life situation.

The Fed hiked key rates by 25 bps in March 2023 policy in order to achieve maximum employment and contain the inflation rate of 2%. The federal funds rate is now between 4.75% to 5%

Great times may not be there but better times are ahead. Looks like worst maybe over but grinding may continue for some more days.

Bulls were mesmerised by the bear attack. Bulls need to protect the 17k mark now. Hope they fight vigorously now to protect the 17k mark.

Long term investors need not have to worry about the volatility. Forget about the channel experts about their opinion. You may forget about twitter or YouTube experts. All you have to ask is just 5 questions before making a concrete purchase for long term investments:

According to the report, the demand sentiments for a majority of the automotive segments such as passenger vehicles, commercial vehicles and tractors have remained healthy, aiding in the improved off-take for the industry participants.

The Fed will convene once more today and tomorrow. In order to reduce the rising and ongoing persistent inflation, they are anticipated to boost rates once again. The Fed Chairman Powell and other Fed Governors, on the other hand, have recently made suggestions that it could be time to reduce the rate of hikes. Because of their more dovish attitude, FIIs have been net sellers in December (to the tune of Rs. 5500 crores), which has increased market pressure.

This weekend we have organized a 2 day online session from which you can master the art & science of investing confidently in stocks. The 6M technique (that will be discussed in the program) will help you to understand how you can evaluate a stock using fundamental analysis

There may be thousands of reasons for the investor’s loss but the primary one is they rely on others opinions and not on data. It’s funny how investors are caught in stocks like Nykaa, car trade, Paytm, Delhivery, Zomato kind of stocks. Had they checked the data they would have summarily rejected each one of them. Let’s take the example of delhivery to explain it.

Most investors can hold on to the losers and would happily wait for months/years to see it back in green. Whereas the psychological fear of seeing the winners in the red will force them to sell all the winners. I know a lot of investors holding on to Yes bank from higher levels (if not from ₹400 at least from ₹200 or ₹100) as they are attracted to their money. This act is described by Peter Lynch as cutting the flowers and watering the weeds.

W. Edwards Deming once quipped “In God we trust. All others must bring data.” It stressed the importance of data measurement and analysis while doing analysis.

If you’re a contrarian you can make a great deal of money. Take for example, Zomato the stock was sold off and was trading as though there is no tomorrow. It found a panic bottom at ₹40+ and then shot up like a rocket to trade at ₹72.

It’s better not to buy a falling knife (a term used to denote rapid drop in the price or value of a security) as it could stay at lower levels for more time.

For the last 2 years this sector has been volatile and has not made any profits for the investors. I am not mentioning the lesser known banks. Let’s take the leader in the pack- HDFC bank. It’s the cynosure of all eyes- all channels track it. Every mutual fund has a slice of the stock. Yet it has given a zero return in the last two years.

Nifty50 down nearly 4% since last Diwali

The ideas given by Peter Lynch in one up on Wall Street holds good even now. In the book he wrote: "If I could avoid a single stock, it would be the hottest stock in the hottest industry."

Market may wobble owing to global issues. Swiss bank major Credit Suisse has predominantly occupied the media space now. It has been in financial problems right from 2008 and there’s nothing new in it.

One of the most significant economic sectors on the planet is agriculture, which has been greatly affected by climate change and recent geopolitical events.

It’s going to be a testing time for investors as the market may undergo corrections. During correction most investors hide their holdings in the safe haven. A safe haven is a type of investment that is expected to retain or increase in value during times of market turbulence. In India, pharma and IT sectors are generally considered as safe havens by funds managers and investors.

Investors should be more careful in any bull market than in a bear market. It may look very easy to invest in the trending market

In the next three articles, we are going to teach you some techniques to profit from stock market.

Last week, I visited Mr. Ravi Krishnan at his home after a hiatus of 3 years. I found him struggling to teach his kids..

Suresh and I visited our bank’s relationship manager who is a young adult in his late 20s.

Finyugen Workshop imparts comprehensive training sessions to take you from novice to pro-investor in no time.