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What are the Different Career Options in the Stock Market in India cover

What are the Different Career Options in Indian Stock Market?

The equity market has opened a lot of career opportunities in recent years. This market is getting bigger day by day and the opportunities for employment in the Stock Market are growing every day. People from all background whether science, commerce or humanities, are showing more and more interests to pursue their career in Stock Market today.

At one hand, many people are opting to become a financial market participant and work independently. On the other, a significant number of Startups are establishing innovative ideas to create disruption in the Indian Securities Market.

In this post, we are going to discuss a few excellent share market career opportunities in India. Let’s get started.

Different Career Options in Indian Stock Market-

Stock Broker

As you might already know, if you want to trade or invest in the Stock Market, you must open a trading and Demat Account. These two accounts are offered by stockbrokers. So, given the largely growing investing population of India, you can easily guess how prospective the career as a Stock Broker could be.

For example, If we take of Mr. Nithin Kamath, the founder of Zerodha (discount broker), he started off his career as an Engineer and subsequently started taking interest in the Stock Market. Later, he found the financial market so fascinating that he switched his profession as an engineer to a Stock Broker. In the year 2018, Zerodha, his stockbroking company was awarded the best discount broker entity in India by NSE.

Further, in order to become a Stock Broker or open a stockbroking entity, you don’t require a strict eligibility criterion in terms of academics. Nonetheless, you need to clear NISM exams and get your license from the SEBI. Anyways, if you plan to be a Stock Broker, it is important to gain a practical understanding of the Market. So, it is better to work with a Securities Broker for at least 5 years to gain requisite experience if you are willing to start your own venture.

Next, if you want to get employed in a Stock Broking Firm, you will need to clear 12^th standard at the minimum. Graduating in Accounting, Economics or Finance will help you start your career from a decent level. Qualifying Post Graduation is not necessary but it might help in fast promotion in the industry. In case you have qualified professional courses like CFA, CA or FRM, no doubt your career path would become really smooth.

(Note: You can read detailed information regarding making a career as a Stock Market Broker here.)

Financial or Investment Advisor

If you want to start your own consultancy business in the Financial Market, becoming a Financial Advisor or an Investment Advisor is a perspective option.

In recent years, AMFI has been trying hard to bring the income earners in our country to invest in the Mutual Fund industry through their campaign “Mutual fund Sahi hai!”. However, just AMFI is not big enough to educate and convince billions of people in our nation to invest their money in the financial market. As an Investment Advisor, you can reach a plethora of prospective clients.

Preparing customized financial plans, providing consultancy services on wealth management and educating people on financial products can assuredly help you to build a career and make good money in this industry.

To become a Registered Investment Advisor, you will require an education and certification criterion. If you have a graduate degree in Finance/commerce or at least 5 years of work experience with a financial company, you meet the educational criteria. Note that if you are an engineer with just a B.Tech degree, you do not meet the educational criteria by SEBI. Here, you need work experience in the finance field for at least 5 years or a post-graduate degree in finance.

Anyways, if you are a Post Graduate degree in finance, you won’t require any work experience to apply for your license from SEBI. Further, whether you are a Graduate or a Post Graduate, you mandatorily need to clear the NISM Investment Advisory Certification exam to apply for the SEBI registered Investment advisor. Once you meet all the educational and certification criteria, you can apply to SEBI and get your license. (Note: You can read this post to learn further on how to become an Investment advisor in India.)

Besides, completing CA, CFA or CFP will also help you get the required knowledge you need to render professional services to your clients.

Also read: What is SEBI? And What is its role in Financial Market?

Research Analyst

Apart from becoming an investment advisor, Equity Research Analyst is also a lucrative career option nowadays. Let us have a brief understanding of this.

Equity Research includes Buy-Side Research and Sell-Side Research. In the case of the former, the researcher work with a financial service organization which directly invests people’s money in the Stock Market. Here, you need to research the stocks to help the Fund Managers make decisions with respect to managing the available financial assets. In the case of Sell-Side Research, the researchers analyze equities and equity derivatives for the clients who are retail traders and investors.

If you want to start your own business as an independent Research Analyst, the eligibility criteria are similar to Investment Advisory option. Further, if you want to take a job as a Research Analyst, the top financial service entities in India look for candidates who are MBA graduates from Tier 1 institutes. Nonetheless, you can also make a career as a Research Analyst if you have completed CFA or CA. (Note: You can read further regarding Equity Research Analyst profession here.)

Portfolio Management Services (PMS)

If you are a Mutual Fund investor, you might know that your investments are managed by the experienced and skilled Portfolio Managers. The Wealth Management firms operating in India handle clients’ money via professionally qualified Fund Managers. Portfolio Management could be an extremely rewarding career if you are good with managing money and have a strong understanding of the Financial Market.

In order to enter this field, you will require professional qualifications like CA, CFA or MBA (Finance). Moreover, if you are a fresher, it is extremely hard to get into this field. Here, you may need experience of at least a decade of working in the Finance domain as you need to grasp the level of maturity of handling assets which amount in crores. Therefore, if you are considering to become a Portfolio Manager, you may first start working in the marketing and research for 5 to 10 years. (Note: Here is a blog that can answer your additional questions on the career as a Portfolio Manager)

Conclusion

In this article, we tried to cover different career options in Indian stock market. Parting advises- if you are planning to make a living from the Stock Market, you need to have an in-depth understanding of the financial world.

Although possessing academics and professional qualifications are necessary but having practical exposure to how the market exactly works is more important. Besides, whichever stock market career option you choose, having strong communication and analytical skills are always add-on advantages.

August 25, 2019 Rajarshi Bose Investment Basics, News 2 comments

Excusing ‘No time to invest’ has become a National Problem!

It’s a known fact that the majority of the Indian population do not invest their money. Apart from little allocation in a few traditional investment options like gold, savings, fixed deposits or LICs, the involvement of Indians in the higher-rewarding investment opportunities like Stocks, mutual funds, ETFs is quite minimal. If we look into the equity market, hardly 2.5% of Indians are actively involved.

Now, according to the non-investing population, the two biggest reasons that stop them from investing are ‘lack of education’ and ‘lack of time’.

For the first part i.e. the lack of education, it might be a little fault of our education system, somewhat of the parents but mostly of the individuals. Investing is not a rocket-science that only people with high-IQ can pursue. Anyone can learn and start investing. People should not always blame others if they are not ready to learn. There are a lot of free resources available online and offline, which is enough to get adequate investing knowledge.

Anyways, the other common excuse that most people make for not investing is that they don’t have enough time to invest. “No time to research where to invest!”. A few may even argue that setting up a trading account and making investments takes a lot of time which prevents them from investing.

However, all these are just excuses. In this online era, setting up demat and trading account is very fast, paperless and hassle-free. In fact, you can set up your trading account with online brokers like Zerodha, within 10 minutes. The problem is that you never researched where to open your trading account or how to get started.

It all depends on your priority…

“It takes too long to invest” — This is just another myth among beginners. However, it does not take as much time as every newbie assumes and investing habit can be easily adjusted in your day to day life.

If you can make time to go to the gym everyday, dining out every other day, partying on weekends, or going on vacations every three months, then stop saying you don’t have time. As a matter of fact, if you are ready to spend 2–4 hours every week, it is good enough to start and monitor your investments.

Further, even if you have a very hectic routine, you can steal a few minutes here and there. Like while traveling in your cab/metro, during your lunchtime, or even while having your coffee. At these time, instead of scrolling on facebook, you can do your investment research using mobile apps, which are super easy, fast and provides with all the facilities that you need.

Moreover, even if you are not ready to put a lot of efforts or time, there are still many easier routes to start investing. For example– investing in mutual funds or investing through Robo-advisors. If you believe that you won’t even be able to spend 2–4 hours per week for your investments, then pick a fund and start a monthly SIP. All these investment options do not take a lot of time.

Having no time to invest in a lame excuse for non-investors. The thing is these people never prioritize investing. They always keep procrastinating to invest for later, arguing that they do not have enough income/savings. Here, people are not investing because of the lack of priority, not the lack of time!

You are losing ‘Time’…

“Start investing early” — this is the best advice that anyone can give you.

When you begin investing early, time is in your favor and so is the power of compounding. You will be way ahead of your peers towards building your investment corpus if you start investing even just a few years prior to them.

When you are excusing not enough time to invest, you are losing time that could have been your biggest ally. Remember, time can help or hurt you.

Also read: Bunty and Babli: A financial story of how Bunty lost Rs 1,29,94,044!

Sometimes later becomes never…

Every week, I receive dozens of emails from people in their 50s or 60s who have never invested in the equity market and now planning to enter.

Now, by no means, I am saying that people in their 50s or 60s cannot invest. As a matter of fact, it’s never too late to get started. However, these people kept excusing ‘no time to invest’ during their adulthood, which later resulted in them not to invest at all.

If you are young, you have a great advantage. Instead of throwing it away by making a lame excuse, take the best out of it.

Besides, you do not need to have a high paying job or large savings to start investing. Even people with medium to low salary range can invest smartly to reach their goals. If you are not sure how much, then a monthly SIP of Rs 5,000 is good enough to begin. That doesn’t sound too much to invest, does it?

No one cares about your financial goals except you…

Your friends will encourage you to party harder. You relatives will emotionally charge you to buy a fancy car/house to impress them. Your neighbors will challenge you to live above your standards to match them. But no one will motivate you to save more or to invest more.

No one cares whether your net worth or total asset is growing overtime or not. Everyone is dealing with their own financials/hardships and they don’t have any time for you.

The only one who cares about your financial situation is yourself. If you do not take charge of your investments, no one else is going to do it for you. The only way to secure your future and have enough money in your bank account is by becoming proactive and responsible for your financials.

Closing Thoughts

Stop excusing that you do have spare time to invest, instead start acting. Everyone has the same 24 hours in a day. If you are not investing, it’s not because you don’t have time. It’s because you do not understand the importance of investing.

And five years from now, you’ll regret why didn’t you start investing early.

Finally, as a bonus, if you are ready to take your first steps in the world of investment, here’s a free guide that can help you to get started. Good luck!

Kritesh Abhishek

Hi, I am Kritesh, an NSE Certified Equity Fundamental Analyst and an electrical engineer (NIT Warangal) by qualification. I have a passion for stocks and have spent my last 4+ years learning, investing and educating people about stock market investing. And so, I am delighted to share my learnings with you. #HappyInvesting

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kriteshrules/

August 22, 2019 Kritesh Abhishek Investing Psychology, Investment Basics No comments yet

Is First Mover a competitive advantage for a firm?

Zerodha was the first mover in the discount broking industry. Unlike the traditional brokers like Sharekhan, ICICI Direct, HDFC sec, etc. who charge large brokerages for their trading services, Zerodha offers a low brokerage charge. And as of 2019, Zerodha has outranked all these big players to become the biggest broking firm in India.

While reading this incredible success of Zerodha, one obvious question among people is whether being the first mover in the discount business model, the biggest reason for the Zerodha’s success? How big is the actual competitive advantage for the first movers? In this post, we are going to discuss the same.

Who are First Movers?

First movers are those companies who are the ‘first’ in line to offer their products or services in the market. They are the ones to innovate and develop a product/service which was not available previously in the market. Further, they do not face similar competition like the ones in the established markets.

In many cases, such companies can build great brand recognition and loyal customers for their products/services during the time gap, i.e. before the competitors enter.

An important point to note is that first-mover advantage is here referred only to those companies who are able to scale and make establish a big market, not the ones who just started the idea but didn’t make it large.

I mean, Amazon might not be the first company in the online bookselling industry. A lot of small businesses might be selling books or their products online before its establishment. However, Amazon was the one who was able to capture a significant market, make an impact and hence, can be considered as an actual first mover in this industry.

A few other examples of the first movers in their respective industry can be Kindle (ebook selling), eBay (online auction), Apple (iPhone & iPads), Uber (taxi booking & ride-sharing), etc.

In India, companies like Flipkart, Oyo, Olx, Ola etc. are the ‘Regional’ first movers. Although they copied the concept from their global rivals, however, being the first mover in the Indian subcontinent region gave them an advantage.

Advantages of First Movers:

Being the first mover, a company can enjoy a lot of benefits compared to the later entrants. Here are a few of the best advantages of first movers:

Brand recognition: First movers can create a strong impression which can help them build a passionate customer fan-base and create a big brand recognition even before any competitors enter.
Price & Benchmarking: The first movers enjoy the advantage of setting up their prices for the newly offered products/services and creating their own industry standards/benchmark.
Technological advantages: Being the first mover and having no competition allows a company to give sufficient time to build a perfect product and get a head start. Further, they can also file proprietary or patent rights to continue enjoying technological advantages.
Control of resources: First movers can control the resources by doing a strategic partnership (or exclusive agreements) with vendors, supplier; renting the best locations, hiring most talented employees in their industry, etc. The later entrants may face difficulty to find similar resources.
Switching cost: If the customer has to cost a lot of money, time, efforts, or resources to switch from one product to another, it is considered as the switching cost. First movers can enjoy the benefits of switching cost by launching their products earlier. Here, even if a better product/service is available, the customer may stick with the old company, if the switching cost is high.

Also read: SWOT Analysis for Stocks: A Simple Yet Effective Study Tool.

Disadvantages of First movers:

Although being a first-mover looks a lot advantageous for a firm, however, it has its downsides too. Here are a few cons of being a first mover.

In most cases, the later entrants or competitors can reverse-engineer, copy, or even improve upon the product/services offered by the first movers.
The first movers might take a lot of time to learn and innovate. On the other hand, the following entrants generally have a lower learning curve and can build the product faster.
The first movers might find it challenging to persuade people to try new product/services. However, later entrants can reduce this education cost.
The first movers can also face a lot of competition from the free riders. As the Imitation cost < Innovation cost, a lot of copy-cats can join the expanding industry to enjoy the upwards ride and reduce the profitability of the first movers.
The second movers or the competitors can avoid the failed steps made by the first movers and hence reduce their cost/expenses.

Is First mover a competitive advantage for a firm?

In the investing world, the competitive advantages are the ones which are sustainable for the long term, not for a few years.

Admittedly, being the first mover is advantageous and have a lot of perks. However, over time, the later entrants can destroy this advantage through reverse-engineering, workforce mobility, technical advancement, or even by merely copying the products/service offered by the first mover.

Also read: Pat Dorsey’s Four Moats for Picking Quality Companies

Closing Thoughts:

There’s one thing sure in this competitive world. First movers will not always be the only player in any industry. As they grow, a lot of new companies will enter that industry and try to eat their profits.

Further, a lot of big successful global giants were not the first movers. For example, Google was not the first search engine. It followed the model of Yahoo or Infoseek. Similarly, Facebook was a later entrant in the social media world after Friendster and Orkut. Even Starbucks or Cafe Coffee Day (CCD) is a copied business model of the famous local coffee chains. Still, these companies were able to dominate the market and establish a big brand and customer network.

Anyways, in a few cases, if the first movers can dominate a big market and establish a loyal customer base, they may retain a healthy growth level and profitability, despite new entrants.

Kritesh Abhishek

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kriteshrules/

August 21, 2019 Kritesh Abhishek Economics, Investment Basics No comments yet

10 Questions to Ask Before Purchasing a Stock - Investment Checklist!

Picking a winning stock that can give consistent returns for many years requires a lot of analysis and research. However, you can simplify the research process if you have an investment checklist.

Having a reliable checklist for picking stocks can reduce the chances of missing an important detail that you should have studied before investing in the stock. As Charlie Munger, Vice-Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway has famously quoted:

“No wise pilot, no matter how great his talent and experience, fails to use a checklist.” — Charlie Munger

In this post, we are going to discuss ten key questions to ask before purchasing a stock by every stock investor. Let’s get started.

Quick Note: Although there are hundreds of points to check while picking a stock to invest, however, most of them can be categorized among the ten questions listed below. Anyways, by no means, I claim that this is the best checklist for picking stocks. My suggestion would be to study the investment checklist given below, improvise and make your own list of questions. Further, for simplicity, I’ve not included financial ratios.

10 Questions to ask before purchasing a stock.

Here are the ten key questions that every investor should ask before investing in a stock.

1. What does the company do?

What are the products/services that the company offer? Do you understand the company’s business model? How does the company actually make money? What are the top/best-selling products of the company?

2. Who runs the company?

Who are the promoters/owners of the company? It the company a family owned or professionally managed one? Who is managing the company? What are the credentials/background of CEO, MD, Board of directors and the management team? What is the shareholding pattern of the company?

3. Is the company profitable?

How much profits did the company generated in the last few years? How are the company’s gross, operating and net profit and what is the profit margin at each level? Is the profit of the company growing over time or stagnant/declining?

4. Does the company have a sustainable competitive advantage?

Does the company have a moat like intangible assets, customer switching cost, network effect, cost advantages or any other sustainable competitive advantage that can keep the competitors away from eating their profits?

5. How was the past performance of the company?

How is the company’s financials in the past few years? What’s the trend in the company’s income statement and cash flow statement? How are the sales, EBITDA, Cash from operating activities, free cash flow and other financial metrics over the past few years?

6. How strong is the company’s balance sheet?

Are the assets of the company growing over time? How much is the liability of the company? Is the company’s shareholder equity increasing? How much cash do the company have on the asset side? How much is the company’s Intangible assets, Inventories, Receivables, Payables and more? Does the company invest in its Research & Development, especially in a few sectors like Technology, Pharmaceutical etc?

7. Was the management involved in past fraud or scams?

Was the company’s promoters or management involved in any past scam? Does the company has any history of cheating the shareholders or any past penalty by SEBI?

8. Who are the key competitors?

Who are the direct and indirect competitors of the company? What is the market share of the company vs the competitors in the industry? What this company is doing differently compared to its competitors? Are there any global competitors or the possibility of global leaders entering the same market anytime soon?

9. How much debt the company has?

How much short-term and long-term debt the company has? Does the company generate enough profits or Free cash flow to cover the debt in the upcoming years? Have the promoters pledged any of their shares?

10. How is the stock valued?

What is the true intrinsic value of the company? Is the company currently over-valued, under-valued or decently valued? Is the company relatively undervalued compared to the competitors and industry? What is the calculated intrinsic value by different valuation method? How much is the margin of safety? Will you be overpaying if you buy the stock right now?

Also read: How To Select A Stock To Invest In Indian Stock Market For Consistent Returns?

Closing Thoughts:

Although getting a recommendation or investing where friend/colleague suggested may land you into a few profitable deals. But if you want to make consistent returns from the market (and not just being lucky), you need to build your own trustable investing strategy.

It’s true that picking a winning stock required a tremendous amount of research. However, having an investment checklist of questions to ask before investing in stock significantly reduce the chances of investing in fundamentally weak stocks. Moreover, you can easily eliminate over 90% of the companies who don’t meet your checklist.

I hope the questions discussed in this post is helpful to you. If I missed any additional important to ask before purchasing stock in this investment checklist, feel free to mention below in the comment box.

That’s all. Have a great day and Happy Investing!

Kritesh Abhishek

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kriteshrules/

June 24, 2019 Kritesh Abhishek Investment Basics 3 comments

What is Return on Capital Employed (ROCE)?

Hello Readers! In today’ post, we will be exploring the formula and the concept behind the Return on Capital Employed or ROCE.

The topics we shall cover in the post are as follows,

Formula and calculation
How to calculate NOPAT?
How to calculate Capital Employed?
The conceptual and interpretation of the formula and closing thought

1. Formula and calculation

Return on Capital Employed, as the name states, is the profit generated by the total capital used by the company for its operations for a period. It is widely used as a measure of profitability in the financial and the investment community. Although not commonly used around three decades ago, it has traveled a long way to even occupy center stage in the decision making of some portfolio managers and retail investors.

ROCE is computed as the percentage of Net Operating Profit after Taxes (NOPAT) upon the total long-term capital employed.

Return on Capital Employed = NOPAT / Total Capital Employed

Since the NOPAT is generated over the financial period which the Capital Employed is a balance sheet item and is normally represented at a period in time, some investors argue that the use of ROCE based on average Capital Employed during a period is a better metric.

The calculation for that is as given below

Return on Capital Employed = NOPAT / Average Capital Employed

Where, Average Capital Employed = (Opening Capital Employed + Ending Capital Employed)/2

The denominator of the above expressions implies that ROCE can also be defined as the return earned by the business as a whole or alternatively as the return generated by the capital contributed by both the creditors and the equity holders of the firm together.

In the case where the debt-financed component of capital is very low, the ROCE should give a value closer to ROE for similar earnings than a company which operates with a highly leveraged position.

2. How to calculate NOPAT?

The NOPAT or the Net Operating Profit After Taxes are calculated on the basis of two key inputs, EBIT and the TAX rate. In India, we have a corporate tax rate of approximately 30% for companies with revenues greater than ₹250Cr and around 20% for companies with revenues less than ₹250Cr.

The NOPAT calculation is pretty straightforward and can be done as per the equation below,

NOPAT = Earnings Before Interests and Taxes (1-Corporate Tax Rate)

NOPAT = (Profit before Taxes + interest payments + one time adjustments) (1-Corporate Tax Rate)

The black box here in this equation is the one-time adjustments, this includes earnings and expenses which are not regularly generated through operating activities of the company. These may include litigation expenses, loss/gains from the sale of assets, gain/loss due to asset revaluation of inventory, etc.

(However, if a company makes these kinds of expenses or gain regularly, it would require deeper inquiry on the side of the investor)

3. How to calculate Capital Employed?

The calculation of the denominator part of the equation is fairly simple and can be done from the line items reported on the balance sheet of a company.

Since the Capital Employed as mentioned before refers to the total capital raised from both the debt holders of the firm and also the equity holders, the formula should reflect contributions of both the capital provides to the assets of the company.

Capital Employed = Total assets – Total current liabilities.

This could also be shown as,

Capital Employed = Shareholders Equity + Non-current liabilities

Also read:

4. The conceptual and interpretation of the formula

Most investors in the financial world like to see that the company they are about to invest in has a ROCE value greater than the Weighted Average Cost of Capital or WACC. WACC best defined as the minimum return a company should get subject to its unique capital structure.

If the ROCE of a company is greater than the WACC then the company is said to generating value for its shareholders and it is advised that the shareholders continue to hold the company in their portfolio. If the company’s ROCE is less than WACC then it is said to be destroying shareholder value and since equity holders are the last paid in the preference order of payments it is advised that equity holders stay out of such a company.

The calculation of WACC or the minimum return to be achieved the company is slightly complicated however a non-finance retail investor who could instead compare ROCE by arriving at his own required rate of return.

Since most retail investors may not be familiar with the computation and the vagaries of WACC, we feel it would be beneficial to use the following thumb rule to come up with your own required rate of return.

Required Rate of Return (%) = (Risk free bond rate + inflation rate + market risk premium) margin of safety

Where the market risk premium refers to the additional premium an investor would expect for investing in markets for most cases it would be better to take a value between 3%-5%.

Assuming an interest rate on a 10-year Indian Government bond is 8.2 percent, inflation rate of around 8 percent, a market risk premium of 3% and a margin of safety of 20 percent,

Required Rate of Return (%) = (8.1+8 +3) 1.20= 19.1 * 1.20 = 22.9%

Now if a company generates a ROCE greater than 22.9% then the company is creating value at a rate greater than the rate of return we calculated above and could be a target for shortlisting for investments.

Although not entirely foolproof, ROCE provides a lot of insight into the working business model of a company. Furthermore, an investor could gain better insights if he/she were to compare the evolution of the ROCE value for the last 5 to 6 years of company to form an opinion.

Levin Jenson

Levin is a former investment banker and a hedge fund analyst. He is an NIT Warangal graduate with around 5 years experience in the share market.

June 15, 2019 Levin Jenson Investment Basics No comments yet

How To Evaluate The Cash Of A Business?

You might have heard the phrase ‘Cash is the king’.

A cash-rich business means that the company has enough cash left after paying all its expenses and debts. For the company with high cash, it simply means more liquidity and opportunities for the business.

However, very high cash is also not good for a company as it means that the company is leaving potential investment opportunities. Overall, low cash can affect business stability and high cash can reduce its efficiency.

And therefore, it is really crucial to understand the cash position of business before investing. In this post, we are going to discuss how to evaluate the cash-rich businesses to understand whether the company has low, sufficient or excess cash.

Cash and cash equivalents

When it comes to evaluating the cash position of a company, the investors look into the cash and cash equivalents (CCE) section of the balance sheet.

These are the company’s assets that are cash or can be converted into cash fast. Here, cash equivalents can be defined as the assets that can be converted into cash within 3 months like Money market funds, Short-term Government bonds, Treasury bills, Marketable securities etc.

All cash and cash equivalents are recorded in current assets segment of the balance sheet and are the most liquid asset of a company. Now, let’s understand the two common scenarios with respect to the cash level of a business.

Case 1: Low cash

When a business has low cash, it can be little worrisome for the company as it may have or will face some problems to pay short-term obligations.

In case of sufficient cash, companies can easily settle short-term debts (obligations), make an in-time purchase of new inventories/equipment, buy into lucrative investments/new technology, grab mergers and acquisition opportunities, increase dividends etc.

However, lack of adequate cash may push the company towards potential short-term problems. As a thumb rule, avoid investing in companies with low cash balance.

Case 2: High Cash

Although high cash helps a company in staying out of trouble of short-term obligations, supporting regular business operations in tough times, funding in its growth, superior performance etc. However, many times, excess cash be a little unfavorable.

Too much cash in company’s balance sheet simply means that the company is leaving potential investment opportunities to invest in the growth of its business operations or investments in other higher return instruments.

As Warren Buffett used to say- “Cash is the king. But it’s not much help if the king just sits there and does nothing.”

Too much cash reflects the inefficiency of the management to utilize it properly.

How to evaluate the cash of a business?

The cash position of a company can be evaluated using cash to current assets ratio. This ratio reflects the percentage of the total assets by cash and cash equivalents

Cash to current assets ratio = (Cash and cash equivalents)/(Current assets)

Although ideal cash and cash equivalents depend highly on the industry, however, as a thumb rule, cash to assets ratio of more than 40% can be considered to be excessive cash for the company.

Now, let us calculate the cash to current assets ratio of Hindustan Unilever (HUL) from its balance sheet.

(Source: Yahoo finance)

From the above statement, you can find the cash and cash equivalents (CCE) and total current assets of HUL over the years. For the year ending March 2018, the cash to current assets ratio turns out to be equal to 5.57%, which can be considered decent. (Quick note: You need to check this ratio over the past few years and compare with the competitors to better understand the cash position of HUL).

Also read:

A word of caution:

Although having high cash is good for businesses, but it is equally important to understand the source of that cash i.e. where that cash is coming from?

There are different ways for a company to pile up cash. Apart from the profitability of the business operations, a few other ways to build cash is by taking debt or selling its assets. And both of the later two ways to generate cash is not favorable for a company as a high debt means greater interest obligations. Further, selling the assets to pile up cash may affect the future profitability of the company.

Therefore, you should always check the source of cash for the cash-rich businesses. You can find out this by looking at the cash-flow statement of a company.

In the cash flow statement, check the cash from operating activities. If this is consistently increasing, it’s a positive sign and means that the company is able to generate profits from its core businesses operations. Further, also check the cash from investing activities to find out purchase or sale of assets. Finally, also look into the debt obligations of the company for the long-term and find out its trend over years.

Note: If you are new to the financial world and want to learn how to effectively read the financial statements of companies, feel free to check out this awesome online course on Introduction to Financial Statements & Ratio Analysis.

Bottom line

The cash of a business can be roughly evaluated by navigating the cash and cash equivalent section in the company’s balance sheet. Here, cash to current assets ratio is used to check the cash level of a company.

A company should have sufficient cash to effectively run its short-term operations. However, huge cash can also be little troublesome for a company as it reflects the management’s inefficiency to use the cash productively.

That’s all. I hope this post is useful to you. Happy Investing!!

Kritesh Abhishek

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kriteshrules/

June 6, 2019 Kritesh Abhishek Investment Basics 1 comment

What is Working Capital? Definition, Importance & More.

What is Working Capital? Definition, Importance & More.

Hello Readers. One of the most important factors to check while analyzing a company before making an investment decision is its working capital.

In simple words, working capital can be defined as the funds available to a firm to finance its regular operations like day to day business activities. Nonetheless, the noteworthiness of working capital is way more than what most people think.

In today’s article, we will be focusing on the importance of working capital management and how it could be studied to get a deeper insight into the companies we are researching for potential investments.

Here are the topics that we’ll cover in this post.

What is working capital?
Why is working capital important?
What factors affect the working capital of a company?
When Negative net working capital is actually positive.
Conclusions

Overall, it’s going to a very educational post. Therefore, please read this article till the very end. Let’s get started.

1. What is working capital?

To define the term in the simplest words, working capital is essentially the funds that have been allocated for day to day operations of the firm for the current financial year. These funds need not entirely be held in cash but could also include any asset or liability from which a cash transaction could be expected. This could include account tradables, cash in hand, account payables and short-term borrowing and loans.

The most commonly used formula for working capital is given by the following,

Net Working Capital = Current Assets – Current Liabilities

When an investor wants to look only at the operating level of a company he may prefer to use the following formula for working capital.

Operating Working Capital = Cash + Inventory + Accounts Receivables – Accounts Payables

Please note that the operating working capital excludes the short-term interest and loan payments a company may have to incur in a financial year.

2. Why is working capital important?

Conventionally, the working capital is used as a measure of a company’s liquidity. Since it is calculated on the basis of accounts receivable/payable, cash, borrowing and payments, the working capital of a company could tell us a ton about the management’s approach and commitment to inventory management, debt management, revenue collection, and payments to suppliers.

A positive working capital would imply that a company has got a good control over its transactions and is able to collect and make payments with a large degree of freedom.

A negative working capital, on the other hand, would normally imply the opposite.

3. What factors affect the working capital of a company?

Although working capital is studied to get an understanding of the management and the general thumb rule that positive working capital is always better than negative working capital works most of the times in investing. We, at Trade Brains, believe that investors could get access to more opportunities if they were to take a more holistic approach to study working capital.

Since a company is always involved in a particular business, it is, therefore, logical to assume that all the short/long term factors affecting the industry will determine how managers conduct their operations and hence the working capital. In some industries, managers can offset the risk in operations by choosing a favorable business model. Depending on the kind of model they choose to operate could also determine the working capital of the company.

On a broad level, the list of factors that can affect the working capital of a company are as below (note that this is not exhaustive but may be used as a guide)

Nature and type of business
Type of Industry
Factors of production and their availability
Competition
Price levels and inflation
Production Cycle Time
Credit Policy and agreements with suppliers and customers
Growth and Expansion strategies
Working capital cycle

A more quantitative approach to analyzing working capital would be through a basic ratio analysis. Below are the most useful metrics used by fundamental investors.

4. When Negative net working capital is not so negative!

Imagine a newspaper printing and distribution company with around 2,000 customers in a city. When a customer signs up for a subscription for 1 year, he/she may have to pay the amount up front for the period for which the service is provided. Assume that the subscription cost for one year is ₹1,000, this implies that the company will receive ₹20,00,000 in advance payment. This amount is recorded under accounts payables portion of the balance sheet. Assume that the company holds another ₹8,00,000 in cash and an inventory worth ₹2,00,000. The net working capital of the company can then be computed to be -₹10,00,000.

In the above example, it can be noticed that even though the working capital happens to be negative the business model of the company allows the company to receive its cash well in advance. This cash could then be ploughed back into the business as investments into new equipment or into marketing to expand its client base.

In general, companies that have high inventory turns and perform a lot of business on a cash basis, such as grocery stores or discount retailers, require very little working capital. These types of businesses raise money every time they open their doors. Because of their advantages, these company can also enter into contracts with vendors and suppliers to lend their products for free for a specified period of time. These partnerships allow the retailers/discounters to keep their cash in hand and employ them elsewhere which trying to sell the products they got through credit. If they are unable to sell them they could just return it back to the vendors before the end of their negotiated period without any cost.

The following sectors are normally observed to operate with a negative working capital.

Retail: Due to supplier agreements and high inventory turnover
FMCG: Able to leverage their wide brand appeal and customer demand to get retailers to book their products in advance
Automobiles: Companies employ “just in time” manufacturing policies to keep efficiency high and inventory at low levels. Also, they normally charge a decent sum as an advance from customers as booking charges.
Media: Services are provided only after an upfront subscription fee

5. Conclusions

Although analyzing the working capital and its various components form an essential part of investment research. An investor should always keep in mind to view the company as a business and try to understand the root causes within the business model or the industry which drive the numbers.

Sticking to an individual’s circle of competence may help greatly in this regard which investing in stock markets. Happy Investing!

Levin Jenson

Levin is a former investment banker and a hedge fund analyst. He is an NIT Warangal graduate with around 5 years experience in the share market.

May 29, 2019 Levin Jenson Investment Basics 1 comment

Why is a VALUE TRAP? The Bargain Hunter Dilemma!

Have you ever bought a cheap stock, which later got cheaper and cheaper? If yes, then you might already have met with- Value traps.

Value traps are those stocks which may seem like a value stock because of their cheap valuation. However, in actual, they are garbage stocks. Unlike value stocks, these value traps do not have true potential to give good returns to their investors and that’s why their price keeps on declining for a continued period of time.

Why do investors fall in value trap?

There are some stocks which may appear cheap because they are trading at a low valuation metrics such as PE, price to book value ratio, cash flow ratio etc.

The bargain hunters keep an eagle eye on these stocks as they appear cheaper compared to their historical valuation or relative to the market.

These investors buy these stocks at a low price considering them as a value stock. However, the problem arises when the price keeps on dropping for an extended duration of time.

Here, instead of purchasing a value stock, the investor has fallen for a value trap.

Also read: #9 Things I Wish I had Avoided During my Initial Days in Stock Market.

What actually is a ‘value trap’?

The value traps are those stocks which are ‘not’ cheap because the market has not realized their true potential or because of some temporary setbacks. These stocks are trading at a cheap valuation because the company has either lost its fire or else its fire is fading away.

A value trap is that stock which is not able to generate any significant profit growth or revenue. A few of the general reasons for the underperformance may be rising production/operational cost, declining market share, lack of new product/services, change in competitive dynamics or inefficient management.

The investors who buy such stocks just by evaluating its low valuation (without giving any regard to the reason why the valuation is low) falls in the value trap.

Also read: Why Warren Buffet Suggests- ‘Price Is What You Pay, Value Is What You Get’?

Real value stock vs value traps

The real value stocks are those stocks which are trading below their intrinsic value. The reason for their cheap valuation may be either temporary factors or because the market has not yet realized their true potential.

Few common characteristics of value stocks are consistency, strategic advantage, strong business plan, growing cash flow and high-quality financials. Further, these stocks can be considered value stocks only if they are bought at a significant margin of safety by the value investors.

On the other hand, value traps are those stocks that are trading at a low valuation because of long-term or permanent setbacks (factors).

These stocks are not actually trading below their intrinsic factor. They are just trading at a low valuation compared to their historical valuation or relative to the market (which might be even above its true intrinsic value).

Value trap stocks lack catalysts or momentum to retrace its original growth track.

Also read: SWOT Analysis for Stocks: A Simple Yet Effective Study Tool.

Common traits of value traps:

Although these value trap stocks might be trading at a low valuation compared to its past valuation or market, however, the chances of these stocks bouncing back to their historical valuation are quite low.

Most of the value trap stocks suffer from lack of innovation, degrading competitive advantages, high debt, low-interest coverage potential, poor management, declining profitability and no future growth prospects. Proper research is required while investing in these cheap stocks to understand the reason behind their low valuation.

For example- if the average PE of an industry is 18x and stock is trading at 5x, then considering the PE valuation, it might look like a value stock. However, whether its actually a value stock or a value trap can only be found after proper investigation.

Similarly, if a banking company is trading at a price to book value of 4x compared to the industry average of 9x, then again the bargain hunters first need to investigate the reason behind the low valuation of that stock before concluding it as a value stock.

Also read: Why You Should Invest Inside Your- Circle of Competence?

Here are a few common signs that the cheap stock is actually a ‘Value Trap’:

1. Declining earnings:

If the earnings and cash flow of a company are consistently declining for past few couples of years, then the stock might be a value trap. The low valuations of these stocks are because of their dull future prospects. The market works on future expectations and if investors cannot see any future growth potential in the company, then the stock might even degrade further, no matter how low is the valuation.

2. Business plan:

A company with outdated technology or a non-profitable business cannot be a value stock. Take the examples of the 2G/3G technology based telecommunication companies. Most of such companies ran out of business just because of outdated technology.

3. Poor Management:

A poor and inefficient management of a company is a sure sign of a value trap. If the management lacks the driving force and their strategic vision is cloudy, then the investors of that company might suffer from value traps.

4. High Debt:

Huge debt and leverages are never favorable for a business. A big debt is an actual trigger for the most deadly value traps.

5. No change in management compensation structures:

If the earnings have declined and still the management keeps on giving huge bonuses to their top management structures, then definitely they have not adapted to address the problem. During declined earnings or troubled times, a company needs to change their fundamental behavior in order to get back in the race.

6. Poor financials and accounting principles:

The financial accounts should be clear and transparent enough to give the true snap regarding the company. If the accounting of a company is not credible, they might be hiding some financial difficulty or even solvency.

7. No change in capital allocation method:

With the shift in the scenarios, the company needs to change its capital allocation method like how much capital they want to allocate in their growth, dividends, capital expenditure or to get rid of a big debt.

8. Strategic disadvantages:

Declining market share, declining competitive advantage, and company not being able to contain its costs are again a few big signs of a value trap.

9. No growth catalysts:

When the company starts moving in the wrong direction, it might need some kind of catalysts to move back to the growth track. These catalysts can be new innovations, products/services or even earning growth. If the company is lacking any sign of growth catalyst, then again that cheap stock might be a value trap.

Also read: 11 Must-Know Catalysts That Can Move The Share Price.

Although, there can be a number of other signs that a company is a value trap, however, these nine are the top signs.

Quick Note: New to stocks? Want to learn how to select good stocks for long-term investment? Check out this amazing online course: HOW TO PICK WINNING PICKS? Enroll now and start your investing journey today.

Summary:

The actual goal of a value investor is to avoid value traps. Therefore, my first suggestion to every value investor would be to research the stock properly before investing.

However, even seasoned investors sometimes fall into the value trap and buy garbage stocks considering them undervalued.

In such a situation, the best you can do is to understand the problem and cut off the stock as soon as possible. Do not purchase more stocks in order to average down or hold the stock long enough with an expectation to break even. The faster you can get rid of that stock, the better it is for you.

In the end, let me tell you the law of holes: “If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging”.

Kritesh Abhishek

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kriteshrules/

May 26, 2019 Kritesh Abhishek Investment Basics No comments yet

10 Best Youtube Channels to Learn Indian Stock Market

With the boom of the internet, self-education has never been easier. Now, you can learn any skill that you crave by sitting on your couch and watching youtube videos. And that too for FREE. There are tons of information and resources available on youtube to learn whatever you want. And if you want to acquire financial literacy without spending a dime, Youtube is definitely one of the best places where you should be.

Anyways, if you are a newbie to investing world, you might not know the best youtube channels to learn Indian stock market. After all, there are thousands of youtube channels which discuss stocks. But which ones give the best information? We’ll answer this question today. In this post, we are going to discuss ten Best Youtube Channels to learn Indian stock market.

Quick Note: There may be a few more good channels that we might miss in this post. This may be because we never watched their videos or the channel is launched recently. If we miss any of your favorite youtube channel feel free to mention in the comment box. We’ll be glad to add it our list of best youtube channel for Indian Stock Market.

Nonetheless, you might not synergize with all the channels as they may cover different core areas like fundamentals, technicals or future/options trading strategies. Only subscribe to the channels that suit you the best and whose ideology you would like to follow. So, let’s get started with our list of 10 Best Youtube Channels to Learn Indian Stock Market. Here it goes.

10 Best Youtube Channels to Learn Indian Stock Market

— FinnovationZ

This channel uploads animated financial education videos on stock market tutorials, mutual fund basics, book summaries, case-studies, etc. FinnovationZ has uploaded over 320 videos on their channel and had got +41 million views on their videos with +670k subscribers. The videos on this channel are mostly in Hindi language and very simple to understand. If you are a complete newbie to the stock market, this is a definite channel to subscribe.

— Pranjal Kamra

Also known as Finology, Pranjal Kamra runs this channel and teaches the philosophy of value investing. On his channel, you can find over 130 videos on investing, stock analysis, mutual funds, and behavioral finance. Along with educational videos, Finology also offers courses, workshops, Excel tools, Advisory & research services etc on their website.

— Trade Brains

This channel is hosted by Kritesh Abhishek and is focused to teach stock market investing and personal finance to the do-it-yourself (DIY) Investors. On Trade brains youtube channel, you can find simplified investing videos on stock market basics, valuations, mutual funds, investing strategies and much more. You can subscribe to the channel using this link.

— Sunil Miglani

Sunil Minglani is an expert on behavioral aspects of Stock Market and has rich experience in analyzing stock chart patterns which he has co-related with human psychological patterns at a deeper level. He has uploaded over 250 videos on his channel and got over +410k subscriber. On Sunil Miglani’s channel, you can find videos on stock market basics, human psychology, Q&A with Sunil Miglani, etc.

— Nitin Bhatia

Nitin Bhatia is a Youtuber and founder of the blog nitinbhatia.in. On his youtube channel with over +549k subscribers, Nitin Bhatia uploads videos about stock trading & investing, Real Estate and Personal Finance to provide ‘Smart Ideas for Your Money’. He’s very consistent in making videos and has uploaded over 690 videos on his channel.

— Yadnya Investment Academy

This channel uploads simple investing videos in Hindi & English on the stock market, mutual funds, taxes and other investment options in India. The videos are extremely simple to understand. They have uploaded over +720 videos on their youtube channel and received over +190k subscribers. Invest Yadnya also offers different services like financial planning on their website.

— Ghanshyam Tech

This channel is run by Ghanshyam Yadav, a trader and trainer in stock market from Mumbai. This channel focuses on stock market trading and technical analysis. Ghanshyam has uploaded over 1,400 videos on his channel and here you can find videos on Nifty Trading, Technical analysis, Candlestick patterns, charting software and more.

— ProCapital.MohdFaiz

This channel is run by Mohd Faiz and the objective of this channel is to help the subscribers create wealth. Mr. Faiz has uploaded over +4,700 videos on this channel which has received over +95 million views. This channel upload videos on current news, technical analysis, stock charts, patterns and more.

— Market Gurukul

The marketGurukul channel is managed by Mr. Edward and is one of the best technical analysis youtube channels in Hindi. He uploads videos on Indian Stocks, Commodity or Forex Trading including Trading Psychology, Money Management along with hardcore Technical Analysis. You can find over +170 videos on this channel teaching technical analysis, Strategies, and Indicators to know the markets better, demo trading platform and more.

— Varun Malhotra

The host of this channel, Varun Malhotra, Director EIFS, started investing at an age of 17. He dropped out of his Campus placements at IIM-A to continue his journey in the investment world. Since 2010, Varun Malhotra has trained over 500,000 Investors including the entire 250,000 strong force of Border Security Force. On his youtube channel, he uploads videos on stock market investments & mutual funds. Varun Malhotra has uploaded over +45 videos on youtube and earned+225k subscribers.

Also read: 7 Must know websites for Indian stock investors

Closing Thoughts:

If you are not from a finance, commerce, business background or from a family of stock market enthusiasts, the chances are that you do not know the stock market lingo or even the frequently used terms like dividends, market cap, etc. Moreover, if you are in the learning stage, it’s a little difficult to master everything by yourself. Enters Youtube.

With the help of youtube channels, you can find online mentors who can help you to make your investing journey a lot easier. Further, interacting with Youtubers is also not very difficult. You can simply leave a comment on the videos and if the Youtuber is active, most likely, you’ll get the reply.

Final advice, watch the videos but do not copy their entire investment strategy or stock picks of the Youtubers. Ideally, Copycat investing doesn’t work. Be original and create your own investment style.

That’s all for this post. I hope it was useful for you. Have a great day and comment below which is your favorite YouTube channel to learn Indian stock market.

May 22, 2019 Team Trade Brains Essential Reading, Investment Basics 3 comments

How To Make Money From Dividends -The Right Way?

Everyone who enters the stock market wants to make money from their investments. And in order to do that, first, they need to understand how people really make money from stocks. Basically, there are two ways to make money from the stock market – Capital appreciation and making money from dividends.

When it comes to capital appreciation, most of the people know this method to make money from stocks. Buy low and sell high. Purchase a good stock at a low valuation and wait until the price goes up. The difference in the purchase and selling price is the profit (capital appreciation).

This is the core principle of value investing. Find an amazing stock at a cheap valuation and hold it for a long time until the market realizes its true/real value.

However, there is also a second method to make money from the stock market which is (generally) ignored by most newbie investors. It is called dividends. In this post, we are going to discuss how to make money from dividends -the right way.

Important terms to learn regarding dividends:

Before we dig deeper, first you need to learn few important terms regarding dividends-

Dividends: Dividends are the profits that a company shares with its shareholders as decided by the board of directors.

Dividend yield: Dividend yield is the ratio of annual dividend per share divided by the price per share. The formula for dividend yield is given below:

Dividend yield = (Dividend per share/ price per share)

For example, if a company gives an annual dividend of Rs 10 and its current market price is Rs 200, the dividend yield of the company will be 10/200 = 5%.

Also read: Dividend Dates Explained – Must Know Dates for Investors

Here are the annual dividends of a few famous companies in India (2017).

Hdfc bank – Rs 11 per share
Coal India – rs 19.90 per share
Hindustan Unilever – Rs 17.00 per share
Reliance Industries- Rs 11 Per share
Ongc- Rs 6.05 per share

Now, if you calculate the dividend yield given by the above companies, you may find it very small.

If a company gives a dividend yield of 2% per year, it’s really difficult to build a livelihood using this income, right? For example, if you want an annual income of Rs 2 lakhs in dividends, then you have to invest Rs 1 Crore in that stock. This is not feasible for most of the average Indian investors.

However, there’s an important lesson that you need to learn here—

Dividends increase over time…

This means that a good fundamentally strong company will increase its dividends with time.

For example, if a healthy company gives a dividend of Rs 10 this year and makes more profit in upcoming years, then it will increase its dividends in future.

Another important lesson to learn here is that– your dividends are going to increase. But your purchase price is going to remain constant throughout your holding time frame.

Therefore, if you look at the dividend yield, the numerator (dividends) is going to increase with time. But the denominator (purchase price of the stock) is going to remain constant for you. In short, the dividend yield for that stock is going to increase in future.

Also read: How to Earn Rs 13,08,672 From Just One Stock?

Let us understand this better with the help of an example.

How To Make Money From Dividends?

Suppose you purchased 100 stocks of a company at Rs 200. The annual dividend for that year was Rs 10. So, for the first year, the dividend yield will be 5%. This yield is small here compared to the returns from most of the debt investments.

Nevertheless, let us assume that the company is fundamentally healthy and going to give a consistent (increasing) dividends in the upcoming years. Here is a table describing the annual dividends in the upcoming years.

	Dividend	Purchase Price	Dividend Yield	Total Annual Dividends
YEAR1	Rs 10	Rs 200	5%	Rs 1,000
YEAR2	Rs 12	Rs 200	6%	Rs 1,200
YEAR3	Rs 15	Rs 200	7.5%	Rs 1,500
YEAR4	Rs 18	Rs 200	9%	Rs 1,800
YEAR5	Rs 21	Rs 200	10.5%	Rs 2,100

Moreover, along with the dividends, your capital will also appreciate in value as you are holding the stock for a long time. In the next 5 years, maybe the purchase price of Rs 200 has now appreciated to Rs 400, 500 or whatever high price.

For the investors, who buy that stock directly in the fifth year (at an appreciated price- let’s say Rs 500), the dividend yield for them might be low. However, as you have purchased that stock long ago at a decent price, the dividend yield will be quite high (even higher than the fixed deposits). From the above table, you can notice the increase in the dividend yield as the dividend increases.

In short, here dividends are allowing you to receive a healthy income without selling your original assets.

Also read: New to stocks? Confused where to begin? Here’s an amazing online course for beginners: ‘HOW TO PICK WINNING STOCKS?‘ This course is currently available at a discount.

A few points of concerns regarding dividends:

The biggest point of concern regarding dividend stocks is that dividends are not obligations. This means that the company may reduce or discontinue the dividends in future.

For example, if a company suffers a heavy loss in a year or if the company is planning to invest its profit in some new project/plant, then it might reduce the dividends or do not give any dividends to its shareholders.

Therefore, if you are investing in any dividend stock, then first make sure to look at the dividend history of that company. A consistently increasing dividend for the last 10-12 years can be considered a healthy sign.

Also read: 10 Best Dividend Stocks in India That Will Make Your Portfolio Rich.

Conclusion:

Buy low and sell high is not the only way to make money from the stocks. There are many long-term investors who are generating big wealth through their annual dividends. If you want a good consistent return on your stocks without selling it, then investing in a healthy dividend stock can be a good strategy.

That’s for this post on how to make money from dividends. I hope it was helpful to you. Have a great day and happy investing.

Kritesh Abhishek

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kriteshrules/

May 21, 2019 Kritesh Abhishek Essential Reading, Investment Basics 4 comments

How to Develop a Stock Investor Mindset?

If you want to make a significant amount of money from the stock market, it is crucial to develop a healthy stock investor mindset. However, the problem is that most people never learn this skill set as neither it is taught in schools nor colleges. Even the best degrees in finance or MBA do not honestly explain how to invest in stocks and make money from it smartly.

Only a minority population is fortunate enough is born in the family of the investors or whose close ones have been investing efficiently in stocks or mutual funds. For the rest, they always have to start from the ground zero level, without any proper guidance or mentorship.

Therefore, when it comes to developing a successful stock investor mindset, it is the responsibility of the individual to learn this skill-set themselves. If you are one of those who has never invested in the stock market and struggling to build an investor mindset, this post can be useful to you.

In this article, we are going to discuss how a beginner can develop a successful stock investor mindset.

Stock market gives us all an amazing opportunity…

There are thousands of companies publicly listed in stock exchanges. And hence, the stock market allows everyday investors like us to buy the shares of those company and get a piece of ownership.

From big Indian companies like Tata, Reliance, Wipro, ITC, etc. to Global giants like Apple, Google, Facebook, Samsung, etc. You can invest in any public company that you like through a stock exchange. All these companies are professionally managed and give employment to hundreds of people. And by investing in these companies through the market, you can become a part-owner and shareholder.

The first step of building a successful stock investor mindset is by appreciating the fact that we are given a fantastic opportunity as an investor. And if you are not investing in stocks, you are missing an excellent opportunity to become one of the owners of the best of best companies and also be a part of the growing economy.

The majority of the investing population never appreciate this fact, and hence they end up just trading stocks entire day and never owning the stock of an amazing company that they believe in.

How to develop a stock investor mindset?

My first advice for you to develop a stock investor mindset would be to read books.

However, this is a bit of obvious advice, right? And you are not reading this post for getting an obvious answer. Therefore, I won’t write an article of 1,000 words on the best investing books to read today. Anyways, if you are interested in reading a few good investing books, you can check out this list of 10 must-read books for stock investors.

My second advice would start watching investing videos on Youtube. This is again a piece of obvious advice. However, a great benefit of watching videos on Youtube (which people forget) is that they’re FREE. And therefore, I thought to mention this point in this post.

A few great Youtube Channels to follow to learn stock investing in Indian are FinnovationZ, Pranjal Kamra, Nitin Bhatia, Varun Malhotra, Sunil Minglani and of course Trade Brains’ Youtube Channel.

Now that we have discussed the apparent answers, let’s move forward to a few fun and easy tips to help you build an investor mindset.

Here are a few essential tips to help you build a stock investor mindset:

1. Keep investing apps on your phone:

Now and then during your day, you get some time off your work. Maybe during lunch, coffee break or while traveling to and fro from your work through metro or cab. You can use this time to develop your investor mindset.

Keep a few good investing and news app in your phone to remain updated with the investing world. A few useful apps that I recommend to stay updated with the market for beginners will be Moneycontrol or Economic times market. A quick tip- do not fill your phone will dozens of stock market app as it will burn you out to check them all. Instead, have one or two good apps which you can get comfortable with.

Also read: 7 Best Stock Market Apps that Makes Stock Research 10x Easier.

2. Join online forums/Whatsapp/Telegram Group

Joining active online forums will keep you in the loop regarding what’s happening in the market and what other’s are saying. Needless to mention that you should never invest based on a post in these forums/groups without researching. However, there are a lot of genuine contributors to these forums who are willing to share their knowledge and findings with the group members.

Find a few good forums/groups that suits you and join them. A few active online forums for the Indian stock market is ValuePkr, TradingQ&A, Rakesh Jhunjhunwala forum, Traderji & Trade Brains’ forum.

3. Enroll in courses

A lot of people envy online courses and want to learn to invest for free. But if you can spend lakhs of rupees in college tuition fee, thousands of rupees in buying books, then why not also spend some money for enrolling in investing courses that can help you get financial literacy.

How is spending money for enrolling in courses different from spending money on buying books? Both give you the knowledge, right? One of the vital step to enhance your stock investor mindset is by enrolling in a few right courses to learn the investing skills.

4. Mastermind

Although joining forums/WhatsApp groups etc. will help you in masterminding. However, it is equally important to surround yourself with people interested in similar activities as of you. This will encourage and help you keep motivated towards your goal. Find a few people with whom you can hang out and discuss your investment queries.

5. Attend local investing workshops/Conferences

If you are living in a big city, the chances are that you can easily find a few good investing workshops/conferences happening in your locality. Just by doing a simple google search, you can find a list of such events. On the other hand, if you live in a tier-2 or 3 cities, then you might have to plan a visit to your nearest big city to attend such conferences.

Attending investing workshops and conferences is another fantastic way to learn new skills, keep yourself surrounded by like-minded people and ask your most troubling questions with the experts. And if you can regularly attend a few investing workshops/conferences in a year, it will help you build a winning investor mindset.

Closing Thoughts:

No matter how common a skill might look like cooking, driving or swimming, it takes time and practice to become an expert in that skill. Just think about how many swimming lessons you took before diving in the 8-ft deep water.

Similarly, you cannot develop an excellent investor mindset in a day or week. You need to put time and efforts. Moreover, consistency is key here. Always remember, he who wants the most wins. If you’re going to become a successful investor, be consistent and keep learning.

That’s all for this post. I hope it is useful for you. Cheers!

Kritesh Abhishek

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kriteshrules/

May 11, 2019 Kritesh Abhishek Investment Basics No comments yet

21 Do’s and Don’ts of Stock Market Investing for Beginners

Making money from stocks is simple if you strictly follow the do’s and don’ts of stock market investing. However, because of the lack of financial education, the majority of the investing population do what they are not supposed to ‘do’ in the market and vice-versa.

For example, the first and foremost rule to invest intelligently in stocks is to ‘not speculate’, but invest only after proper research. However, most people speculate in stocks and bet that the share price will go high in the upcoming days without any significant analysis.

In this post, we are going to discuss the do’s and don’t of stock market investing for beginners. Let’s get started.

21 Do’s and Don’ts of Stock Market Investing for beginners.

Do’s of Stock Market Investing

Here are a few of the do’s of stock market investing that every investor should follow:

1. Get an education

This is probably the most relevant do’s of stock market investing. If you really want to become a successful stock investor, start learning the market.

It doesn’t mean that you should enroll in a college program/degree. Self-education is the best way to learn. There are tons of free information available on the internet which you access to learn the market. Moreover, if you want to get a head-start, you can also enroll in a few good online stock market investing courses. Let the learning begin.

2. Start small

If you are just starting to learn how to swim, you won’t jump in 8 ft deep water, right? Similarly, when beginning to start investing in the stock market, start small. Invest the lowest possible amount and gradually increase your investments as you get more knowledge and confidence.

3. Get started early

I cannot emphasize enough on the importance of getting started soon with your finances. Time is in your favor when you start investing early. Moreover, here you get enough time to recover even if you make some losses during the early time of your investment journey.

Also read: Bunty and Babli: A financial story of how Bunty lost Rs 1,29,94,044!

4. Research before investing

One of the key reason why people do not make money from stocks is that they do not put the initial efforts before investing in the share. Every investor needs to research the company before investing. Here you need to learn the company’s fundamentals, financial statements, ratios, management and more. If you do not want to regret later, research the company first before investing.

Also read: How To Select A Stock To Invest In Indian Stock Market For Consistent Returns?

5. Only invest what is surplus:

Stock market gives an immense opportunity to invest in your favorite companies and make money. However, there are always a few risks involved in the market, and no returns are guaranteed. Moreover, many times a bad (or bear market) may even last for years. Therefore, you should only invest the surplus money which does not affect your lifestyle even if you can’t get it out.

6. Have an investment goal

It’s easier to plan your investments (and to monitor your progress) if you have an investment goal/plan. Your goal may be to build a corpus of Rs 10 Crores in the next ten years or to build a retirement fund. Having a goal will keep you motivated and on track.

7. Build a stock portfolio

For making good consistent money from the stock market, just having two or three stocks is not enough. You need to build a winning stock portfolio of 8–12 stocks which can give you reliable returns.

Although it’s very less likely that you can find all the fantastic stocks to invest at once. However, year-after-year you can keep adding/removing stocks to build a strong portfolio which can help you reach your goals.

8. Average out:

It’s challenging to time the market and almost impossible to buy the stock at the exact bottom and sell them at the highest point. If you’ve done it, you might be lucky. A better approach here is to Buy/Sell in ‘steps’ (unless you find an amazing opportunity which the market offer sometimes).

9. Diversify

“Do not put all your eggs in one basket!”. The risk involved while investing in just one stock is way higher compared to a portfolio of ten stocks. Even if one or two of your stock starts performing poorly in later scenario, it may not affect the entire portfolio too much. Your stock portfolio should be sufficiently diversified.

10. Invest for the long-term

It’s a common fact that all the veterans of the stock market who made an incredible fortune from stocks are long term investors. But why do long-term investing helps to build wealth? Because of the power of compounding, the eighth wonder of the world. If you want to build massive wealth from the market, invest for the long-term.

11. Hold the winners, cut the losers

Cut you losing stocks if they underperform for a long time and hold your winning stocks longer to allow them to offer even better returns. This is the golden mantra of investing that you should strictly follow. Moreover, keeping your winners and cutting losers will also help in building your dream portfolio.

Also read: The Biggest Investing Mistake that 90% Beginners Make!

12. Invest consistently

Most people get excited and enter the stock market when the market is doing well, and the indexes are touching new highs. However, if you only invest in a bull market and exit when the market is down i.e. when stocks are selling at discount, you will never find fantastic opportunities to pick cheap stocks.

Do not invest in the market just for a year. If you want to make good money from stocks, invest consistently and periodically increase your investment amount.

13. Have Patience

Most stocks take at least 1–2 years to give good returns to the investors. Moreover, the performances get better when you give more time. Have patience while investing in the share market and do not sell your stocks too soon for short term gratification.

Don’ts of Stock Market Investing:

14. Don’t take investing as gambling

Let me repeat this in simple words- “INVESTING IS NOT GAMBLING!”. Do not buy any random stock and expect it to give you two times return in a month.

Also read: 5 Signs That You are Gambling in Stocks.

15. Don’t invest blindly on free tips/recommendations

The moment you open your trading account, you’ll start getting free messages on your phone with BUY/SELL calls. But remember, there is no FREE lunch in this world. Why would anyone send a stranger free tips for multi-bagger stocks? Never invest blindly on free tips or recommendation that you receive, no matter how appealing they may sound.

16. Don’t have unrealistic expectations:

Yes, many lucky guys in the market have made 400–500% return on their single investment. However, the truth is that these kinds of news get quickly circulated (and inflated).

Have a realistic expectation while investing in stocks. A return between 12–18% in a year is considered good in the market. Moreover, when you compound this return over multiple years, you will get way higher returns compared to 3.5% interest on your saving account.

Further, do not assume that you can get the same profits as others, who might be investing in stocks from many past years and may have acquired an amazing skill set. You can also get similar returns, but only after enough knowledge and practice.

17. Don’t over trade

When you are trading frequently, you are repeatedly paying for the brokerage and other charges. Don’t buy/sell the stocks too often. Take confident decisions and make transactions only when necessary.

18. Don’t follow the herd

Your colleague purchased a stock and made 67% returns from it within a year. Now, he’s boasting about it, and many of your office-mates are buying that stock. What would you do next? Should you buy the stock? Wrong!

No investor can get significant success from the market by following the herd. Do your own research, rather than following the crowd.

19. Avoid psychological biases/traps

There are a lot of physiological biases while investing that can adversely affect your investment decisions and your ability to make effective choices. For example- Confirmation Bias, Anchoring bias, Buyer’s Remorse, Superiority trap, etc.

Most of these biases are pre-programmed in human nature, and hence it might be a little difficult to notice them by the individuals. Anyways, knowing these biases can help you to avoid them causing any serious damage. Moreover, a good thing regarding these biases is that — like any habit, you can change or get over them by practice and efforts.

Also read: 5 Psychology Traps that Investors Need to Avoid!

19. Don’t take unnecessary risks

Investing all your money in a hot stock/industry to get a little higher return is never a wise move. Safeguarding your money is equally important than getting high returns. You should never take unnecessary risks while investing in stocks and your ‘risk-reward’ should always be balanced.

21. Don’t make emotional decisions

The human mind is very complex, and there are many factors both internal and external that can affect the choices we make. While investing in the stock market, do not take emotional decisions. No matter how much you like a company, if it is not profitable and doesn’t have a bright future potential, it may not be the right investment decision. Do not get emotional while making your investment decisions.

Bottom line:

In this post, I tried to cover the do’s and don’ts of stock market investing for beginners. However, this is just a guide and not a manual. You will learn more do’s and don’t through your personal experiences when you start investing on your own.

I hope this article is useful to you. Have a great day and happy investing!

Kritesh Abhishek

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kriteshrules/

May 9, 2019 Kritesh Abhishek Invest Intelligently, Investment Basics 2 comments

Why Over-Diversification can be Dangerous for your Stock Portfolio?

“Wide diversification is only required when investors do not understand what they are doing.” — Warren Buffett on Diversification

If you read any investing book or listen to a popular investment advisor, the first tip that most of them will give you is to diversify your portfolio. “Do not put all your eggs in one basket!!”

At first glance, this tip sounds logical. After all, risks involved while investing in just one stock is way higher compared to if you diversify your investments in ten stocks. However, the problem occurs when people over diversify their portfolio.

Over-diversification is a common mistake among the investing population. In this post, we are going to discuss what exactly is over-diversification and how over-diversification can be dangerous for your stock portfolio. Let’s get started.

What is diversification?

A diversified portfolio is investing in different stocks from dissimilar industries/sectors in order to reduce overall investment risk and to avoid any damage to the portfolio by the poor performance of a single stock.

Ideally, a retail investor should hold stocks between 3 to 20 from different industries and sectors. However, personally, I believe 8–12 stocks are sufficient for a diversified portfolio. It’s crucial that your portfolio is sufficiently balanced as ‘over’ and ‘under’ diversification are both dangerous for the investors:

Under diversified portfolio has more risk as the poor performance of a single stock can have an adverse effect on the entire portfolio.
On the other hand, over-diversified portfolio gives low returns and even the good performance of a few stocks will lead to a minimum positive impact on the portfolio.

Ironically, Peter Lynch described it as ‘diworsification’ highlighting inefficient diversification, in his best-selling book ‘One up on the Wall Street’.

Why do people over diversify?

Over diversifying simply means owning an excessive number of stocks in your portfolio. If you are a retail investor and holding 30–40 stocks or more, you are over-diversifying your portfolio. Now, the next question is why do people over diversify their portfolio.

The most common answer can be that a lot of investors do not even know that they are over-diversifying. They just keep buying stocks following the famous traditional tip written in popular books i.e. diversify to reduce risk. They believe that having more stocks is good for their portfolio.

A similar thing happened to me during my rookie days. At one time, I had 27 stocks in my portfolio. Out of them, I had invested almost equally in among 18 stocks and the rest 9 were trailing stocks which contributed only a minor portion of my portfolio.

Although the returns from many of my holding stocks were high, however, the overall return on my portfolio was not that big during that period. Anyways, after a few months, when I analyzed my portfolio to understand why this was happening, I found the answer. I over-diversified my portfolio. In the upcoming months, I slowly reduced the number of my holding stocks from 27 to 14, keeping only the best ones which I was confident about.

Quick Note: An amazing book that helped me to understand that the concept of over-diversification is flawed was reading ‘The Dhandho Investor’ by Mohnish Pabrai.

The principle that I liked the most in this book was ‘Few bets, big bets, and infrequent bets’. Here, Mohnish Pabrai suggests that you do not need to make frequent bets. Every once in a while, you’ll encounter overwhelming odds in your favor. In such times, act decisively and place a large bet. If you haven’t read ‘The Dhandho Investor’ yet, I would highly recommend you to read this book.

Security

Another big reason why people over-diversify their portfolio is to have ‘security’. Buying a large number of stocks helps in spreading investment risks over many instruments.

If you diversify your portfolio with multiple stocks, you’re less likely to experience major drops. This is because the possibility of all the stocks underperforming at a particular time is quite less. When some of your stocks are having tough times, others may be out-performing. Hence, efficient diversification helps is maintaining consistent overall portfolio performance.

For defensive investors, security may be a reason for over-diversifying. It definitely reduces the risk, but it also decreases the expected returns. High returns on your best stocks will be always balanced out with the majority of average/losing stocks.

Why over-diversification can hurt your stock portfolio?

By now, you might have vaguely understood the concept of over-diversification, let’s discuss why over-diversification can hurt your stock portfolio.

Low expected Returns

Over diversifying or adding too many stocks to your portfolio reduces the risk, but it also reduces the expected returns. Let’s understand it better with the help of two extreme situations.

When you own 2 stocks, your portfolio is associated with high risk and high expected gains. On the other hand, when you own 100 stocks, your portfolio risk is low, but your expected gain is also lower.

Over-diversification is a point where the loss of expected return is higher than the benefit of reduced risks. For a well-diversified portfolio, you need to find the sweet spot where you neither own too many stocks nor too few.

Tracking them all is difficult

In order to efficiently monitor your invested stocks, you need to evaluate their quarterly reports, annual reports, corporate announcements, latest news related to the companies, etc. If you are holding 30 stocks in your portfolio, monitoring them all can be really difficult, especially for the retail investors who have a full-time day job.

On the other hand, if you are holding just 10 stocks in your portfolio, monitoring them doesn’t take too much time or efforts. However, when the number of holding stocks increases, the chances of missing important news/announcement related to your invested stocks gets higher.

Duplication or inefficient diversification

Diversification means owning different companies from different industries or sectors. For example, one stock from automobile sector, two stock from technology industry, one stock from pharmaceutical, two from banking, two from energy sector, etc.

However, if you’ve bought 5 banking stocks out of 10 stocks in your portfolio, you haven’t diversified your portfolio effectively. Over-diversification often leads to owning similar companies in your portfolio.

Closing Thoughts

The majority of the investing population are given flawed tip to immensely diversify their stock portfolio. However, following this strategy is quite dangerous for retail investors. Your portfolio should be sufficiently diversified, not ‘over’ or ‘under’ diversified.

That’s all for this post. I hope it was useful for you. Happy Investing!

Kritesh Abhishek

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kriteshrules/

May 3, 2019 Kritesh Abhishek Investment Basics 1 comment

What are Bonds? And How to Invest in them in India?

A bond is a financial product which represents some debt. It is a debt security issued by an authorized issuer which can be a company, financial institution, or Government. The issuers offer returns on bonds to the lenders in the form of fixed payment of interest for the money borrowed from them.

A bond is having a fixed maturity period of its own. It is an obligation of the authorized issuer in paying interest and/or repaying the principal at a future date upon maturity. However, such payouts are dependent on the terms and conditions associated with the bonds issued by the said issuer.

Are bonds and stocks the same?

It was stated earlier that bonds are as good as debts. So, if you are a bondholder, it means that you are a lender of funds to the issuer entity. On the other hand, if you own a stock, it indicates that you have a share in the ownership of such issuer organization.

Bonds are having predefined maturity periods while stocks don’t. Anyways, if you invest in stocks, you can sell them off any day. But, if you are a holder of bonds, you have to wait for its maturity period to end to get back your investments.

What are the different types of bonds available for investing?

Zero-coupon bonds: These bonds are available for investing at a discount on the face values. After the expiry of their maturity period, they are redeemed at par.
G-Sec bonds: These bonds are considered as one of the safest bonds as they are issued by the Government of India.
Corporate bonds: These bonds are issued by corporate The companies borrow funds from the people and pay them regular interests.
Inflation-linked bonds: The principal amounts and interest payments of these bonds are indexed to inflation.
Convertible bonds: A bondholder is having the option of converting these bonds into equities as per predetermined terms.
Sovereign gold bonds: These bonds are issued by the Indian Government and offer the safest way of investing in digital Gold.

Why would you invest in bonds?

Here are a few best reasons why one should invest in bonds:

Bonds are less riskier than equities. Therefore, investing in bonds will ensure that your corpus is protected.
It is highly likely that the returns on equities are higher than bonds. But, this is also to be considered that investment in equities carries a higher risk than bonds. The payment of interests on bonds is ideally assured while equities don’t make any such promise of paying regular dividends.
If you don’t want to pay tax at all then you can invest in tax-free investment bonds. So, if you fall in the higher tax bracket, not only you keep on growing your wealth but also enjoy full tax advantage on the returns on such bonds.

(Source & Image credits: Karvy)

How to Invest in Bonds in India?

If you want to invest in Bonds in India, either you would be investing in corporate bonds or Government bonds. Let’s first talk about investing in corporate bonds.

You can buy Corporate bonds from the primary markets when the issuing company issues new bonds. In order to invest in them, you are required to file an application form and submit the same to any branch of the issuer along with prescribed documents and application fee. In case you are having Demat Account, your bonds will be credited to the same. However, if you don’t have one, then you would receive them in their physical format. You can also buy corporate bonds from the secondary markets subject to their availability.

Government bonds are not traded like shares on the stock exchange or secondary market. They are sold through their official distributors. These bonds are also made available by the designated branches of post offices and banks. For investing in these bonds, you can submit your application form, necessary documents, and required fees in any of the said places. Once your application is processed, you would receive bonds in your name.

Instead of buying bonds directly from the companies and Government, you can also invest in them through the bond brokers in India. Investing in bonds through brokers is more convenient. You can invest in bonds through their online platforms like websites and mobile applications. Brokers like ICICI direct, HDFC Securities etc offer their clients to invest in bonds along with equities. Here, to comply with KYC requirements, you are not required to pay any visit to their physical offices. They are the investment service providers and act as middlemen between you and the issuer organizations.

The bond brokers are the market makers of bonds in India. Over 90% of the bonds which are traded in India are privately placed instruments. Therefore, they are not advertised at all. The bond brokers are playing an important role in creating a deep and wide bond market in our country.

Also read:

Conclusion

In India, the majority of the people are interested in investing their money in their Bank Fixed Deposit Accounts. The next preferred investment options are the tax saving instruments like NSC and PPF. Financial literacy is not at all strong in our country. Therefore, most people are unaware of the fact that diverse investment options are available. A good number of Indians simply feel afraid to invest because of the lack of proper financial education.

The bond market in India is not as deep as what exists in western countries. Therefore, the number of individual investors in the Indian bond market is pretty low. Due to AMFI, Mutual Funds have started gaining substantial popularity in the last few years in India. So, the retail investors have started investing in bonds not directly but through debt mutual funds.

The investors in the Indian bond market majorly consist of Banks and Financial Institutions. Advertising is not permitted in India with regard to investing in bonds. If any authority takes the initiative to encourage bond investing, then India can witness a more liquid bond market someday.

May 3, 2019 Rajarshi Bose Investment Basics 1 comment

What is ETF (Exchange Traded Fund)? And How to Invest in them?

Exchange Traded Fund or ETF is getting a lot of attention among the investing population lately because of the ease and flexibility it offers to the investors. It is a basket of securities like mutual funds but can be bought and sold through a brokerage firm on a stock exchange.

In this post, we are going to discuss what exactly is an Exchange Traded Fund and how to invest in them. But before we start discussing ETFs, let’s brush up the basics of mutual funds as they are somewhere related.

Mutual Funds

Mutual Fund is a financial product where a Mutual Fund company pools funds from its investors and in return, allot them units. The amount collected is invested in a portfolio of securities which are traded in the markets. Mutual Fund schemes are low-cost investment options which help you to plan your personal finance effectively. You can start investing in mutual funds with an amount as low as Rs 500 per month via SIPs. Through Mutual Funds, you can invest your savings across diverse asset classes, industries, and economies.

In Mutual Fund investing, you can either choose to be an ‘Active’ investor or opt for ‘Passive’ investing style. The Mutual Fund schemes where the underlying assets are frequently churned to outperform their benchmarks are known as active funds. Passively managed funds are those which replicate the portfolios of their benchmark indices.

ETFs are the best representatives of passively managed funds. Let’s have a discussion on ETF basics.

Exchange Traded Funds

An ETF or Exchange Traded Fund is a variety of Mutual Fund which tracks any particular index, be it an index of stock, commodity or any other security. ETF invests in a portfolio of assets of a specific nature. For example, you can invest in a Gold ETF or Bond ETF or Currency ETF.

ETFs trade in the stock exchanges and therefore can be bought and sold during market hours like any instruments listed in a stock exchange. The price at which an ETF is usually traded is close to its Net Asset Value (NAV). In order to invest in an ETF, you need to have your own Share Trading Account and Demat account.

You can earn income from your ETF investments in two ways. Firstly, you can earn in the form of dividends. The second one is that you can trade your ETF units like shares and generate income in the form of capital gains.

Some people have this doubt in their minds whether ETF is the same as Index Funds or not. Well, what is the reality then? Let’s dig deep into it.

ETF vs Index Funds

An Index Fund is also a variety of Mutual Fund like ETF. The portfolio of an Index Fund is built in such a manner that its components look similar to that of a specific stock market index. An index fund aims in replicating the performance of a particular benchmark index.

On the other hand, an ETF is a special form of Mutual Fund consisting of similar securities, falling under any specific market index. An ETF is the only type of Mutual Fund which is traded like shares in a stock exchange. Its composition is similar to any index like Sensex or Nifty.

So, both ETF and Index Fund look quite similar except the fact that the ETF is traded in the stock market.

Is this the only difference between the said two investment options? The answer is a big no. Let’s have a look at some more key differences between the two:

You can invest in an Index Fund only during a specified time in a day. But, you would be happy to know that you can trade in the ETFs throughout the day.
The price of any ETF keeps fluctuating throughout the trading hours. On the other hand, the price of an Index Fund is fixed only at the end of the trading day.
The basis for the pricing of an ETF is the demand and supply of the same in the market. Whereas, the pricing of an Index Fund depends on its NAV.
To invest in an ETF, you will have to incur expenses in the form of brokerage. But, for investing in an Index Fund, there is no such transaction charge applicable.
The expense ratio of an ETF is comparatively lower than that of an Index Fund.
If you want to invest in an ETF in the Indian market, the minimum investment required is Rs.10,000. Whereas, you can invest in an Index Fund by paying a minimum lump sum of Rs.5,000. Moreover, you can choose to invest in the Index Funds with a minimum amount of Rs.500, if you choose the SIP (Systematic Investment Plan) route. Please note that investing in an ETF via SIP is not applicable.

Why you should invest in an ETF?

The next question that can come to your mind is why you should invest in an ETF? I can state a couple of reasons in favor of this.

Investing in an ETF is certainly convenient. Buying and selling an ETF unit can be done by having a look at the market price available on the trading platform. The exchanges where the ETFs are listed are well regulated by the concerned authorities. This has resulted in increasing transparency in the trading of ETFs.

Furthermore, you can choose to invest in ETFs as the expense ratio is much lower than any other Mutual Fund. Again, if you are unable to figure out which stocks to invest in, you can invest in a sector-specific ETF instead with a small corpus.

(Updated till 2nd May 2019 | Source: Moneycontrol)

How to invest in ETF in India?

In order to invest in an ETF you need to ensure the following two things:

You are mandatorily required to open a Share Trading Account with any Stock Broker/ Sub-broker.
You must also possess a Demat Account in your name for the purpose of holding the ETF units which you are going to buy.

Now, to apply for the above two things, you have to submit the following documents for complying with the KYC (Know Your Customer) norms:

A copy of your Passport, Driving License, or PAN Card as your identity proof.
A copy of your Passport or any Utility bill as a proof of your address.
A copy of your Bank Account statement for the last 6 months.

After you have got access to your online trading platform, you can carry out any ETF transaction. You can invest in ETFs via any of the following two modes:

You can place your order in the market through the online trading terminal provided to you. Trading in ETFs is no different than carrying out transactions with respect to stocks listed in the stock market.
The second option is that you can place your order by calling your Broker over the phone and let them know about your trade requirements.

Also read:

Closing thoughts

If you are willing to take part directly in the stock market but unable to figure out which security to pick, you can start investing with ETFs. In case you are an existing investor in the market and looking to try something different, you can look to include ETFs in your portfolio.

In India, people are still predominantly interested in investing in traditional saving schemes like PPF, FD, and NSC. Stock Market investing is yet to get popular among the Indians at a significant level. Not even ten percent of the income earners in our nation are having their Stock Trading Accounts. Therefore, there is no doubt in saying that the number of participants in ETFs in our economy is still pretty less.

AMFI has been working hard in the last few years to popularize the concept of Mutual Fund investing in our country. So, as the Indian Mutual Fund industry grows, it is expected that more and more investors will show an inclination towards ETFs.

May 2, 2019 Rajarshi Bose Investment Basics, Mutual Funds No comments yet

Dividend Investing: Pros and Cons That You Should Know

One of the most popular ways to generate income from stocks is dividend investing. Here, the investors enjoy the benefits of dividend income along with capital appreciation.

Anyways, if you are new to dividend investing, let me give you a brief introduction.

Dividends are basically a portion of income that a company distributes to its shareholders. Dividend investing means investing in those stocks which give high consistent dividends to their investors.

For example, in the last financial year (Mar 2018), HPCL gave a dividend of Rs 17 per share to its shareholders (Dividend yield=3.8%). Therefore, if you were holding 100 shares of HPCL company in your portfolio 2018, you would have received Rs 1700, credited directly into your bank account without selling even a stock.

A lot of equity investors invests in stocks just for the dividends. Dividend investing is a good way to earn secondary income along with enjoying the capital appreciation for your invested stocks. When invested correctly, investors can earn amazing income through dividends. (Also read: How to make money from dividends- the right way?)

In this post, we are going to discuss the pros and cons of dividend investing that you should know before making your investment in dividend stocks.

Pros of investing in Dividend Stocks:

Let’s start with the pros. Here are a few best advantages of investing in dividend stocks:

1. Passive Income:

This is probably the biggest advantage of investing in dividend stocks. You can treat dividends as a passive income- which means getting paid without doing any work. For the people looking for a few alternate secondary sources of income, dividend investing is the answer.

Anyways, for making passive income through dividend investing, initially, you need to put big efforts to find good dividend stocks. However, once the work is done, you can enjoy the passive income for multiple years.

2. Double Profits:

If your invested stock goes up by 30% in the next 3 years, and you received a dividend yield of 3% per year from the same stock, the combined profits are way higher than just the capital appreciation. Here you can earn double profits compared to investing in companies that don’t give any dividends.

3. Hedge against bad markets:

Everyone makes money in a rising market. However, the scenario is different when the market turns sour.

In the bear market or corrections, the share price of a lot of your favorite stocks may fall. And hence you might not be able to make a good return from capital appreciation of stocks. However, if you have picked right dividend stocks in your portfolio, you can enjoy a decent dividend income even when your portfolio is down.

Further, dividend stocks are generally big matured companies and hence are less influenced by a bear or speculative market. Investing in these companies can provide a good hedge to your investment from a bad market. In addition, dividend investing also helps in capital preservation. Even if the stock price of your invested company doesn’t go up, if you are getting regular high dividends, you will be able to preserve your capital.

4. Steady Income:

Profits from stocks are only on ‘paper’ unless you sell them. This money is not in your bank account. The profits/loss are unrealized until the final settlement i.e. selling the stock. However, dividend stocks add steady income in your pockets without worrying about selling any stock.

5. Dividend Reinvestment:

You can use the dividends that you receive from stocks to buy more stocks and reap the benefits of dividend reinvestment. Else, you can use that money to invest in any alternative investment options like Bonds, gold etc if you want to diversify your portfolio. Once you get the money back in your account, you have immense options to re-invest them back in whichever investment option that suits you.

6. Long-term investment:

One of the best strategies to make money from stocks is the same old philosophy of ‘buy and hold’. However, while investing for the long term, there may be a number of situations where the investors may be in the need of a few extra bucks. Here, selling stocks may be the only option available to them if they want to make money from their invested stocks.

Nevertheless, as dividend stocks offer a steady income stream, investors may prefer to hold the stocks longer and enjoy the benefits of long-term investing.

Cons of investing in dividend stocks:

No investment strategy is perfect and the same goes with dividend investing. Here are a few biggest disadvantages of investing in dividend stocks:

1. Low-growth companies

Most growth companies do not give dividends to their shareholders as they reinvest their profits in expanding their businesses like opening new plants, entering new cities, buying new machinery, acquiring small companies, etc.

On the other hand, big matured companies do not have so many opportunities and hence they offer a large profit to their shareholders. While investing in dividend stocks, the investors may be investing in low growth companies which may not always offer high returns.

2. High dividend payout risks

High dividend payout means that the company is distributing a major portion of their profits to their shareholders. For example, if a company made a profit of Rs 100 crores in a financial year and shares Rs 85 Crores as dividends, this means that the dividend payout ratio is 85%.

At first glance, it may sound favorable for the shareholders. After all, they are getting a major portion of the profit as dividends. However, in the long run, it may not be advantageous for investors.

Think of it from the other angle. When the company is not retaining enough profit for itself, it doesn’t have any big money left for reinvesting in its growth. And if the company is not reinvesting enough, it may face problem to grow, compete with the rival companies or even to retain the same net profit in upcoming years. Moreover, if the company doesn’t grow or increase its profits, it can’t add more value or increase dividends for the shareholders in the future.

3. Double Taxation

Companies pay Dividend distribution tax (DDT) of 15% to provide dividends to their shareholders. However, once dividends are credited to the shareholders, the investors again have to pay a tax on the capital gain. Although, small investors do not have to pay any tax on dividends. However, if the dividend received is more than Rs 10 lakhs, the investor has to pay a tax of 10% on the capital gain by dividends.

Also read: Do I Need to Pay Tax on Dividend Income?

4. Dividend cut

This is the worst case scenario. Dividends are not obligations and a company may decide to cut the dividends anytime in the future. Moreover, when the company cuts the dividends, even the share price falls significantly as the public sees it as a negative sign. And that’s why the dividend investors may face double side trouble.

Further, many times, the board of directors can also change the dividend policy of a company. This can again have an adverse effect on the dividend investors if the decision is made against the existing dividend policy.

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When you should exit a dividend stock?

Now, that you have understood the pros and cons of dividend investing, the next big question is when should you exit a dividend stock. If you’ve invested in dividend stocks, look for the following signs periodically to avoid any dividend pitfall in your invested company. Here are the three signals that you should exit a dividend stock:

— Dividends start declining: A fall in dividend for a year compared to the previous one can be ignored by the investors as businesses can always have a few losses in some years. However, if the dividends start continuously declining year-after-year, it may be a sign for the investors to exit.

— High dividend payout: A payout ratio greater than 70% for the continuous years may be a warning sign that the company is not retaining enough profit for its growth.

— An adverse change in dividend payout policy: If the company changes its dividend policy against the favor of the investors, then again it may be a sign to exit that stock.

Closing Thoughts:

Traditionally, dividend investing approach was used by the retirees or the people entering their retirement age. As these people do not have any primary source of income (regular paycheck) after retirement, receiving small dividends per year in their account can be a good secondary source of income.

However, these days even the young and middle-aged investors are looking forward to dividend investing. Why? Because it is always a joy to see dividends get credited to your account periodically. Moreover, they do act as a secondary income source.

That’s all for this post. I hope it was helpful to you. Happy Investing.

Kritesh Abhishek

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kriteshrules/

May 1, 2019 Kritesh Abhishek Investment Basics 2 comments

What are STP and SWP in Mutual Funds? A Beginner’s Guide!

Systematic transfer plan (STP) and Systematic withdrawal plan (SWP)

In India, the Mutual Fund industry has started growing off late due to the immense efforts by Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI). Previously people used to be more interested in parking their money in Fixed Deposits and Recurring Deposits. Today, many Indians are looking to invest in Mutual Funds for gaining higher returns, ensuring larger security, and enjoying more liquidity.

Unfortunately, the percentage of Indian population investing in the Mutual Funds would not even cross the one-fifth of the total number of income earning Indians. At present, as high as 80% of the Indian income earners are either unaware of Mutual Funds or they have a plethora of misconceptions regarding the same.

One of the myths that many Indians have is that SIP is a feature of the Mutual Fund. The fact is that SIP is a mode of investing in Mutual Funds. You can invest in Mutual Funds either via lump sum mode or through SIPs. Let us have a basic understanding of SIP.

1. Systematic Investment Plan (SIP)

SIP means ‘Systematic Investment Plan’. You can invest a fixed sum of money at specified intervals of time, over a time period in a systematic manner. You can choose to make SIP investments yearly, half-yearly, monthly, weekly, or even daily.

SIPs are similar to Recurring Deposits. You are required to invest your money on a predetermined date and the Mutual Fund Company will provide you units based on that day’s NAV.

If you are looking to invest in the Mutual Funds via SIPs, you do not need to time the market. The major benefit that SIPs provide you is ‘rupee cost averaging.’ Therefore, your investments are not subjected to the risk of market fluctuations as SIP investing averages out the cost of your investments.

Now, there are two crucial concepts associated with SIP. The first one is the Systematic Withdrawal Plan or SWP.

2. Systematic withdrawal plan (SWP)

SWPs allow you in withdrawing a specific amount of money at regular intervals of time. SWP plans are more suited for retired people who are looking for a regular income to meet their expenses, preferably on a monthly basis.

After investing a lump sum amount in a Mutual Fund, the fixed amount and frequency of withdrawal are to be set by you. Not only SWPs help in providing you with periodic income but also protects you from the ups and downs of the stock market.

SWPs work in the manner opposite to SIPs. In case of SIPs, your money is invested in the Mutual Funds from your Bank Account. While, in case of SWPs, your Mutual Funds units are redeemed and gets deposited in your Bank Account.

Let us consider an example to understand how SWPs work in reality. Suppose Mr. Akash is having 10,000 units of a Mutual Fund on 1^st January. He wishes to withdraw Rs 5,000 per month through SWP for the next three months. Therefore he sets up an SWP to give effect to it.

The units from your Mutual Fund holdings will be redeemed automatically to provide you with a regular income of Rs 5000 per month. The table shared below explains the process.

Date	Opening Units	NAV	Units redeemed	Closing units
1^st Jan	10000	20	250 (5000/20)	9750
1^st Feb	9750	16	312.50 (5000/16)	9437.50
1^st March	9437.50	15	333.33 (5000/15)	9104.17

Now let us discuss the second key concept i.e. Systematic Transfer Plan (STP)

3. Systematic Transfer Plan (STP)

STPs allows you to transfer your money from an Equity Mutual Fund scheme to a Debt scheme. The opposite can also take place. STP acts as protection against market volatility. STP is an automated way of transferring your money from one Mutual Fund scheme to another.

Whenever you feel that the investment made by you in an Equity Fund is being exposed to a higher risk, you can transfer your units to a Debt scheme periodically. Therefore, you can set up STPs which transfers your funds from your Equity scheme to a Debt Fund. When the market settles itself, you can again transfer the money from that Debt Fund to an Equity scheme.

Let us now understand how STPs work. You need to select a Mutual Fund from which your funds should be transferred to another scheme. You can set up STPs in a manner where a transfer can take place. It could be yearly, quarterly, monthly, weekly, or even daily.

STP means redeeming units of a scheme and investing the proceeds in the units of another scheme. Generally, STPs are allowed to an investor by a Mutual Fund company only within the schemes of the same company.

Through setting up STPs, you can keep earning your returns on a consistent basis. Moreover, your investments are also protected against adverse market circumstances. STPs also help you enjoy the benefit of ‘rupee cost averaging’ similar to SIPs.

STPs help you in rebalancing your portfolio. You can keep your funds moving from debts to equity when the Stock Market witnesses a bullish trend. Similarly, you can move your Equity investments away from the market and invest in Debt schemes when the market corrects itself.

Also read:

(Image Credits: Edelweiss)

Taxation rules

Investing via SIPs is not going to fetch you any tax benefit unless you invest in an ELSS scheme. Under section 80C of the Income Tax Act, 1961, you can enjoy a tax deduction on your investments up to Rs 1.5 lakh. This tax benefit is available if you invest in any prescribed securities including ELSS.

SWPs result in the redemption of units of a Mutual Fund. Let us assume that you have invested in a Debt scheme and set up an STP to transfer money to an Equity Fund. Assuming 3 years have not been completed, any capital gain you make due to the redemption of units in Debt Fund will be taxable as per your tax slab. If you withdraw your investments after 3 years, capital gains are taxable @10% and 20%, with indexation and without indexation, respectively.

STPs also result in the transfer of units and therefore the capital gains are subjected to Income Tax. Suppose, you shift your investments from an Equity Fund to Debt scheme within 1 year, the capital gain tax is chargeable @15%. If 1 year exceeds, the tax is attracted @10%, provided capital gains in a Financial Year exceeds Rs 1 lakh.

Also read: Mutual Fund Taxation – How Mutual Fund Returns Are Taxed in India?

Closing Thoughts

If you lack both time and knowledge for Stock Market investing, you can invest your money in the Stock Market via Mutual Funds. For investing in Mutual Funds, you require making use of SIPs, STPs, and SWPs in any phase of your investment journey.

When you earn regular income in our life, investing in Mutual Funds via SIPs seems ideal. As per changing market circumstances, you can set up STPs to maximize your returns by minimizing your corpus loss. SWPs usually come in the picture when you stop earning income actively and looking for a passive source of regular income for the rest of your life.

Mutual Fund is a great investment option for growing your long term wealth. The systematic arrangement of your investments and withdrawals in the form of SIPs, STPs and SWPs help you live a financially disciplined life.

May 1, 2019 Rajarshi Bose Investment Basics, Mutual Funds No comments yet

What is Private Equity? And how does it work?

Whether its buying ice-cream at Cold Stone or filling gas at a Shell petrol station, a large proportion of companies that we consume goods and services from is backed by a private-equity firm. This makes private equity a favorable investment option for many people. In this article, we will explore how private equities work and how they can benefit private companies.

What is a private equity firm?

To put it into simple terms, private equity is a part of the much larger finance sector known as private markets. It is a type of financing, whereby, capital is invested by the investor, usually into a large business in return for equity in the company. They are termed private because the stocks in the company are not traded in a public equity market (i.e. stock exchanges).

The private equity firm will then raise capital for the private companies they buy equity in, to fund the new projects, pay off existing private debt or raise capital for mergers and acquisitions. The funding for private equity firms comes from institutional investors such as large banks or insurance companies. For example, in 2017, during Lyft’s series G funding, they raised $600 million from private equity firms. This increased the company’s valuation from $5.5 billion to $7.5 billion.

Private equity firms are funded by pension funds, labor unions, foundations and many other powerful organizations who invest large sums of money in the hopes of receiving a large return on their big investment. Due to the hefty investments, private equities often have a large control over the industry of the companies they invest in. They invest in companies and manage and improve their operations and revenue over a period of time. Once the private equity has improved the investment value of the company, it can do one of two things. The company can issue an Initial Public Offering (IPO) to go public or it can be sold to a larger corporation at a profitable price.

Between 2000 and 2006, all private equity buyouts worth over $1 billion rose from $28 billion to $502 billion and has been at a steady upward growth since. There is no denying that is an incredibly prosperous business in the finance sector.

Here is the list of the largest private equity firms by PE capital raised:

(Source: Wikipedia)

What do private equity investors do?

Private equity investors have a versatile and powerful job and it is a profession that attracts the brightest and smartest people in the corporate world. The job of a private equity investor can be focused on three important tasks:

— Raise capital from large entities

Just as private companies raise money from private equity firms, private equity firms also go through rounds of funding to raise capital from large institutional investors. Sometimes, the owners of the private equity put in their own capital but this is no more than 1-5%. When raising capital, private equity firms prefer large companies that invest 10-100 million dollars each vs. many small companies that invest money in the thousands.

There are two time periods when a private equity raises funding. ‘First close’ means that the company has raised the required amount of money but new investors can still join the equity for a short period of time. The ‘Final close’ is when the private equity is done raising capital and no new investors can join.

— Buying out private companies

The main function of a private equity is to invest in private companies in both single or multiple sectors. Therefore, a large part of a private equity investor’s job is to source out potential companies, perform extensive research on why the company would be a good investment and finally implement a plan of action to acquire the company.

Prospective deals on companies usually come as a result of a partner’s reputation in the industry or from the in an auction conducted by investment banks where equity firms raise bids for a company and in each round of bidding, companies are rejected from the race. The bidding process happens for companies that have a very high potential for growth.

Once the potential companies are sourced, the private equity investor will perform the due diligence to acquire the company.

— Improve the investment value of the acquired company

Once equity in the company has been acquired, it is the duty of the private equity investors to improve operations and increase revenue in the company. The investors are not in charge of the day-to-day running of the company, rather, they take seats on the company’s board and provide advice and support on the strategies and operations management of the company.

The level of involvement by the investor can vary depending on how big their stake in the company is. If they own a large stake, they will have a significant influence on how the company is run and will be more involved in improving the workflow of the company.

The end goal of the investor is to exit the portfolio company once the investment value of the company has improved. This exit may happen 3-7 years after the company has been bought. The investors gain value in holding this investment through the revenue gained during the investment period, the reduction in costs as a result of streamlining the process and the revenue earned from selling the company which is used to pay off the debt incurred when the company was originally purchased.

Once the company’s revenue has been optimized the investors will either issue an IPO or sell it to a larger corporation.

Private Equity Strategies

Here are three commonly used private equity strategies:

— Growth capital

These are investments made in well-established companies who are looking for capital to expand their current operations or to expand their target markets. These investments are usually a minority investment by the private equity firm. The mature companies they invest in are looking to expand operations without affecting the ownership in the business.

— Leveraged buyouts

This is when a private equity firm borrows a large amount of capital to buyout other companies because they believe that they will get a significant return when they hold and eventually sell the company. Almost 90% of the LBO is financed through debt. Once the company is acquired, the private equity will either sell parts of the company or will improve the investment value of the company and exit at a profit.

— Fund of funds

A FOF strategy is when the private equity invests in various other funds and not directly into stocks and securities. Using this strategy provides a more diversified portfolio for the private equity and the ability to hedge the risk during the different stages of funding. On the downside, investing in funds of funds is expensive as there are additional fees involved such as the management fee and the performance fee.

Conclusion

A private equity investment is great for businesses that are looking to grow and expand their operations. The investors bring a lot of knowledge and experience to the table that can improve the company’s value and revenue and help leverage its position in both local or international markets.

March 26, 2019 Divya Premkumar Investment Basics 1 comment

3 Past Biggest Scams That Shook Indian Stock Market

Do you know that if you had invested Rs 100 in the Sensex in 1979, your corpus would have become over Rs 30,000 by the end of 2017?

There is no doubt in saying that the Indian stock market has yielded enormous returns to the investors in the last few decades. However, there were also times, when the market witnessed extreme malpractices carried out by a few wicked minds. Many people with foul intentions applied brainstorming techniques to manipulate the Indian stock market prices. You can have a look at this blog to understand a few common types of scams in the Indian stock market.

In simple words, a scam is referred to as the process of obtaining money from someone by deceiving him/her. The majority of the securities market scams that took place in India eventually led to a lot of financial distress to the retail investors. They adversely affected the normal functioning of the markets and degraded the trusts of lakhs of investors on the Indian share market.

3 Past Biggest Scams That Shook Indian Stock Market

Although there are hundreds of scams reported by the equity investors every year, let us have a brief study of three of the past biggest scams that shook the Indian share market.

1) Harshad Mehta Scam

During the early 1990s, Harshad Mehta, a stockbroker, started facilitating transactions of ready forward deals among the Indian banks, acting as an intermediary. In this process, he used to raise funds from the banks and subsequently illegally invest the same in the stocks listed in the Bombay Stock Exchange to inflate the stock prices artificially.

Because of this malpractice, the Sensex moved upwards at a fast pace and reached 4,500 points in no time. The retail investors started feeling tempted seeing the sudden rise of the market. A huge number of investors started investing their money in the stock market to make quick money.

During the period from April 1991 to May 1992, it is estimated that around five thousand crore rupees were diverted by Harshad Mehta from the Indian banking sector to the Bombay stock exchange. After the fraud was revealed, the Indian stock market crashed consequently. And as guessed, Harshad was not in a position to repay crores of money to the Indian banks.

Conclusively, Harshad Mehta was sentenced to jail for 9 years by the honorable court and was also banned to carry out any share trading activity in his lifetime.

(Credits: Finnovationz)

2) Ketan Parekh Scam

After the Harshad Mehta scam, a Chartered Accountant named “Ketan Parekh” had similar plans of arranging comparable securities scam. Coincidently, Ketan used to work as a trainee under Harshad Mehta earlier and hence also known as the heir of Harshad Mehta’s scam technique.

However, Ketan Parekh not only used to procure funds from the banks but also other financial institutions. Like Harshad Mehta, he also used to inflate the stock prices artificially. Apart from the Bombay Stock Exchange, the other stock markets where Ketan Parekh actively operated were the Calcutta Stock Exchange and the Allahabad Stock Exchange.

Nonetheless, Parekh used to deal mostly in ten specific stocks, also known as the K-10 stocks. He applied the concept of circular trading for inflating their stock prices. You might be surprised to know that even the promoters of some companies paid him to boost their stock prices in the market. Anyways, after the Union budget in 2001 was announced, the Sensex crashed by 176 points. The Government of India carried out an intensive investigation into this matter.

At last, it was the Central Bank who determined Ketan Parekh to be the mastermind behind this scam and he was barred from trading in the Indian stock exchanges till 2017.

3) Satyam Scam

The Chairman of Satyam Computer Services Limited (SCSL), Mr. Ramalinga Raju confessed to SEBI of the manipulation done by him in the accounts of the Company. This corporate scandal was carried on from 2003 till 2008. It is estimated that the fraud took place for around Rs five thousand crores of cash balances as the company by falsifying revenues, margins.

The stock price of Satyam fell drastically after this incident. Eventually, CBI took charge of conducting the investigation into the matter. They filed three partial charge sheets against Satyam. Subsequently, these three partial charges were merged into one charge sheet.

In April 2009, Raju and nine others involved in the fraud were sentenced to jail by the honorable court. Consequently, Mahindra Group acquired SCSL and it was renamed as Mahindra Satyam. It subsequently merged within Tech Mahindra in 2013.

BONUS

Apart from the above-mentioned scams, here are a few other famous corporate scandals which also deserve to be mentioned in this post.

1) Saradha Scam

Sudipta Sen, the Chairman of the Chit-fund company called Saradha Group, operated a plethora of investment schemes. The schemes were called the Ponzi schemes and did not use any proper investment model. This scheme is alleged to have cheated over a million investors.

The Saradha Group collected huge funds from the innocent investors in West Bengal, Assam, Jharkhand, and Odisha. The money collected was used to be invested in real estates, media industry, Bengali film production houses and many more. The Saradha scam came to the fore in April 2013 when Sudipta Sen fled leaving behind an 18-page letter.

Although the Saradha scam didn’t have any direct impact on the Indian stock market, it had an indirect impact on the stock exchange. The Foreign Institutional Investors (FII) took a step back seeing such unregulated Ponzi schemes being floated in the market.

2) NSEL Scam

National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL) is a company which was promoted by Financial Technologies Indian Ltd and the NAFE. Two individuals named Jignesh Shah and Shreekant Javalgekar were held guilty for this scam. The Funds that were procured from the ignorant investors were siphoned off. This is because most of the underlying commodities did not have any existence at all. The transactions of commodities were being carried out only on the paper.

NSEL attracted the attention of the retail investors by offering them fixed returns on paired contracts in commodities. Around 300 brokers have been alleged role in the ₹5,500-crore NSEL scam in 2013.

Also read: NSEL scam: 300 brokers face criminal action

Closing Thoughts

Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) was established in India in the early 1990s to administer and regulate the functioning of the Indian securities markets. It is the apex authority which regulates the affairs of Indian securities market participants. If you are a follower of the financial market, you would know the frequent amendments that come every year in the SEBI Act and Regulations.

Although the occurrence of stock market scams and corporate scandals has reduced subsequent to the establishment of SEBI, but haven’t completely stopped.

Additional resources to read:

March 26, 2019 Rajarshi Bose Investment Basics No comments yet

10 Best Dividend Stocks in India That Will Make Your Portfolio Rich.

10 Best Dividend Stocks in India (Updated: May 2019)–

“Do you know the only thing that gives me pleasure? It’s to see my dividends coming in.” – John D Rockefeller

Whenever a retail investor, like you and me, buys a stock, then their main aim is to earn money through their investment. There are two methods by which anyone can earn money by investing in stocks. They are:

Capital Appreciation
Dividends

The first one, capital appreciation, is quite famous among investors. Everyone knows this secret to earn in the stock market. Buy low and sell high. The difference is capital appreciation or profit.

Suppose you bought a stock at Rs 100 and two years hence, the price of the stock has increased to Rs 240. Here, the capital appreciation is Rs 240- Rs 100 = Rs 140. In short, you made a profit of Rs 140 or 140%.

Almost everyone who enters the market knows this method of earning by stocks. It can also be concluded that most people enter the market hoping that their investment will be doubled or quadrupled and will make them a millionaire one day through capital appreciation.

Now, let us move to the second method of earning through stocks- DIVIDENDS.

Whenever a company is for profit, it can use this profit amount in different ways. First, it can use the profit amount in its expansion like acquiring a new property, starting a new venture/project, etc. Second, it can distribute the profit among its owners and shareholders. Third and final, it can distribute some portion of the profit to the shareholders and use the remaining in carrying out its expansion work.

This amount distributed among the shareholders is called DIVIDEND.

What is a dividend?

“A dividend is a distribution of a portion of a company’s earnings, decided by the board of directors, to a class of its shareholders. Dividends can be issued as cash payments, as shares of stock, or other property.”

Typically, most companies give dividends two times a year, namely– Interim dividend and final dividend. However, this is not a hard and fast rule. Few companies, like MRF, gives dividends three times a year.

Read more: Dividend Dates Explained – Must Know Dates for Investors

Why are dividends good?

Suppose you are a long-term investor. You have invested in the stocks of a company for 15-20 years. Now, if the company does not give any dividends, there is no way for you to make money until you sell the stocks.

On the other hand, if the company gives a regular dividend, say 4% a year, then you can plan your expenses accordingly.

A regular dividend is a sign of a healthy company.

A company, which has given a consistent (moreover growing) dividend for an interval of over 10 consecutive years, can be considered a financially strong company. On the contrary, the companies that give irregular dividends (or skips dividends in harsh economic conditions) can not be considered as a financially sound company.

If you want to learn stocks from scratch, I will highly recommend you to read this book: ONE UP ON THE WALL STREET by Peter Lynch- best selling book for stock market beginners.

Big dividend yield can be an incredibly attractive feature of stock for the people planning for retirement.

Now that we have understood the meaning of dividends, let us learn a few of the important financial terms that are frequently used while talking about dividends.

Must know financial terms regarding Dividends

1. Dividend yield: It is the portion of the company earnings decided by the company to distribute to the shareholders. A stock’s dividend yield is calculated as the company’s annual cash dividend per share divided by the current price of the stock and is expressed in annual percentage. It can be distributed quarterly or annually basis and they can issue in the form of cash or stocks.

Dividend Yield = (Dividend per Share) / (Price per Share)*100

For Example, If the share price of a company is Rs 100 and it is giving a dividend of Rs 10, then the dividend yield will be 10%. It totally depends on the investor whether he wants to invest in a high or low dividend yielding company.

2. Dividend %: This is the ratio of the dividend given by the company to the face value of the share.

3. Payout ratio: It is the proportion of earnings paid out as dividends to shareholders, typically expressed as a percentage. The Payout Ratio is calculated as follows:

Payout Ratio = Dividends per Share (DPS) / Earnings per Share (EPS)

As a thumb rule, avoid investing in companies with very high dividend payout ratio. In other words, be cautionary if the payout ratio is greater than 70%. (Also read: The Fundamentals of Stock Market- Must Know Terms)

To move further now that we have understood the basics behind the dividends, here is the list of 10 Best Dividend Stocks in India.

10 Best Dividend Stocks in India-

In addition, if you are interested to know about other high dividend stocks, then you can find it here: BSE TOP DIVIDEND STOCKS

The growing companies give less dividend yield to their shareholders as they use the profit amount in their expansion.

On the other hand, the Blue Chip stocks, which are large and established company and has already reached a saturation point, gives good regular dividends. Further, the public sector companies are known for giving good dividends. Industries like Oil and petroleum companies, in general, give decent dividends.

Here are few of such stocks with high current dividend yields which are also worth investing:

Also Read: PSUs with high dividend yields

Where to find dividend on a stock?

You can find the dividend of stocks on any of the major financial websites in India. Here are few:

Money Control: http://www.moneycontrol.com/
Economic times- Market: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets
Screener: https://www.screener.in/
Investing.com: https://in.investing.com/
Market Mojo: https://www.marketsmojo.com/markets

That’s all. I hope this post about ‘10 Best Dividend Stocks in India That Will Make Your Portfolio Rich’ is useful to the readers. Further, I will highly recommend not investing in stocks based on just high dividend yield.

New to stocks and confused where to start? Here’s an amazing online course for the newbie investors: INVESTING IN STOCKS- THE COMPLETE COURSE FOR BEGINNERS. Enroll now and start your stock market journey today!

If you have any queries or suggestions, feel free to comment below. I will be happy to receive your feedback. #HappyInvesting.

Kritesh Abhishek

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kriteshrules/

March 20, 2019 Kritesh Abhishek Investment Basics, Market, Stocks 16 comments