Master And Student - All about Stock Markets

What Exactly is Spread Betting and How Easy is it to Set Up?

2012-05-30T17:20:00.000+05:30

If you've never come across the words 'spread betting' in a financial sense, you would probably be forgiven for thinking that it has something to do with bookies and sporting events.

So what exactly does it entail?
In essence spread betting is a fairly simple concept. It merely entails placing a bet on which way you think a particular market is going to go. If you think the market is going to rise and you have bet on it going up (going long), then when it does you make a profit. If on the other hand you predict that the market is going to fall and you bet on that exact scenario (going short) and it does, then again,you make a profit. When you close your bet you can claim your profit.

Let's put this into a proper scenario...

Okay let's say that we bet on the NASDAQ and based on some recent news we think that it may go up, so we place a 'long' bid. If the index does exactly what we want it to do and rises, then we are in profit. How much profit depends on the spread. For example, say that the index started off life at 100 and it rises to 200. If we close the bet at this point then the spread would be 100. Therefore if we placed a £1.00 bet then we would have made a healthy profit of £100.

Risks
Obviously it isn't all cut and dried and there are definite risks involved in spread betting. For example if you got it horribly wrong and instead of the stocks going up by 100 points, they went down by the same margin, then you would then be 'in the hole' for £100. This can be prevented by placing a stop order should the stocks start to fall beyond a certain point, however it doesn't eliminate the risk altogether. The potential is there to incur heavy losses if you are not careful.

So how easy is a spread betting account to set up?
In essence, setting up a spread betting account online is a fairly simple process. Many of the trading platforms offer spread betting online and will also have demo platforms for you to practice. This is where many people look to dip their toes in the water and it's worthwhile checking out the brokers product spec before opening up a pro spread betting account. Download a practise demo version - it's an ideal starting place if you are looking to learn how to make money out of the stock markets.

Like anything it pays to do your research first before you jump in with both feet as success certainly isn't guaranteed. If you are happy to go ahead and have the funds to do so then spread betting is a great way to earn some extra cash, provided that you understand what you're doing.

Speciality Restaurants IPO Review

2012-05-15T07:20:00.002+05:30

Speciality Restaurants is coming out with its IPO plans to raise about Rs 171-181 crore and this issue is open for subscription from May 16 to May 18. Speciality Restaurants is the owner of restaurant brands such as Mainland China, Sigree, Machaan and Oh!Calcutta among others.

The company plans to use the proceeds of IPO for developing new restaurants and partial repayment of debt. About 80 per cent of the proceeds (Rs 131 crore) would be used for the development of 45 new restaurants.

Issue Details:

Issue Open: May 16, 2012 - May 18, 2012.
Issue Size: 11,739,415 Equity Shares of Rs. 10.
Issue Price: Rs. 146 - Rs. 155 Per Equity Share.
Market Lot: 40 Shares.
Listing At: BSE, NSE.

Fundamentals:

For the fiscal Years 2010 and 2011 the company reported an EPS of 3.92 and 5.48 respectively . For the full year 2012, the EPS could be around Rs.4.25 and at the upper band, the IPO is done at 36 times the 2012 earnings. The book value of the company stands at Rs.32 for the reported year 2011 and the issue is being done at 5 times the book value. The company is growing at 30% and considering the appetite for such companies in food industries segment, the issue is worth looking at. The only deterrent is the weak market condition and over pricing of the issue, in such market conditions. The company might do well post-listing, if not immediately.

Could be another Jubilant Foods ? Let's wait and watch.

Nifty Futures Flash Crash

2012-04-22T08:00:00.002+05:30

There was huge and abnormal activity in Nifty Futures on 20 April 2012 around 2.40 pm, when it fell from 5338 to 5000, a drop of 7% within few seconds. Later it recovered and settled around 5250/5300. During this crash the number of contracts traded were 35,000 lots or 17.5 lakh shares. What could have happened and how can a trader protect himself from such wild swings?

To start with, there could be many possibilities which could have caused this crash.The error could be due to wrong punch or entry of a sell order with a wrong quantity or price. Another possibility is that it may be due to algorithmic trading or prominently known as Algo trading, which is so programmed, that in case there is a fall below a particular price level, the algo will initiate a sell order no matter what the price is. There was also a similar flash crash in US markets in 2010, when Dowjones crashed about 1000 points in a matter of few seconds.

What does this all mean for a trader? As a trader, if you are long or short, you have to hedge your positions to minimize your risks in trading. One has to be prepared for such kind of flash crashes or up-freeze market, when markets went up 20% in 2009 post-election results.Any retail trader trading nifty futures or other similar derivative products, must hedge his positions buying puts or selling higher strike price calls. Say, one is long in nifty futures at 5300, it is better to sell 5400 strike calls or buy 5200 puts. There are many more such strategies which could be used depending upon individual trading positions.

As an investor, such wild swings give you big opportunities. Such crashes provide you an opportunity to buy good stocks for long-term, if they come down 15-20% , for no fundamental reason. As always, if wealth creation over the long term is really your objective, it is better for retail investors to invest in mutual funds and leave the rest to the market.

Akshaya Tritiya - Gold, Gold ETFs or Gold Funds?

2012-04-21T07:48:00.003+05:30

Akshaya Tritiya, by Indian tradition, is considered an auspicious day for buying gold. Nowadays, there are quite a few options for investors who want to invest in gold, other than physical gold. Prominent among them are Gold ETFs,Gold Funds and Gold coins from banks. Let us take a look some of the advantages and disadvantages of these products.

Physical Gold or Gold coins:

Buying and selling physical gold adds substantial costs to your purchases, since jewelers always charges a making cost of 7 to 21 per cent over and above the price of gold. Also, when you want to sell it back to the same jeweler, you would be offered lesser price than the market price, which is a big disadvantage in investing in physical gold.Also storing your physical gold in lockers can cost you about Rs.1000-5000, depending on the institutions which offer you lockers and there are always risks associated with such placements.

As far as Gold coins are concerned, they are similiar to physical gold, involving costs of about 4-5% of the price of the gold.You can either buy these coins from the jeweller or from leading banks. You have to note that,you cannot sell the coins back to the banks as most of them don't offer such facility.

Gold ETFs:

Exchange Trader Funds or ETFs: If you have missed earlier article about Gold ETFs, you can read it here at Gold ETFs. In short, ETFs are cheaper, liquid and easily bought and sold through any stock broker with a Dmat account. Check out the list of Gold ETFs avaialble.

Gold funds:

Gold funds ( Fund of funds) are similar to ETFs, but more simpler. They don't require Dmat accounts like ETFs and there could be some charges like entry and exit loads. These charges are less than 1%, which is the same you have to pay your stock broker when purchasing ETFs, so not much of a difference. The advantage with gold funds is that they can be bought with any amount as low as Rs.500 or 1000 depending upon the mutual fund. Also, SIP option is available, in which one can invest fixed amount every month. Check out about the features and various Gold Funds.

Conclusion:

Considering the pros and cons of all the investing options available, Gold Funds are better and ideal for retail investors and the next better option could be Gold Etfs. Now the bigger question is whether one can invest in gold at these prices ? Investors need to understand, gold as an asset class has given positive returns for the past 10 consecutive years. The prices cannot go up continously and they can correct and correct substantially. Also investing in gold should be limited to 10-15% of one's portfolio and Gold alone should not be one's core portfolio.

Invest wisely !

High Dividend Yield Stocks 2012

2012-04-09T07:13:00.004+05:30

What is Dividend Yield?

Dividends are payments made by a company to their shareholders and these payments are paid out of the profits made during the year. Dividend yields are returns from dividends, which can be calculated by dividing the dividend per share by the current market price of the stock. For e.g., a company quoting at 200, declares a dividend of 10, the dividend yield works out to 5%. High dividend yield stocks are for those investors who are looking for regular income as well as capital appreciation over a longer period of time.

These stocks can be picked up during market down trend or when market trend is not clear. In a downtrend, dividend yields of such companies goes up as the stock prices fall. Before investing in companies that provide high dividend yields, care to be taken that these companies have sound fundamentals, regular dividend paying and enjoy healthy cash flows. We have picked few stocks which have high dividend yields in the range of 6-9% and with a low P/E ratio. Though the earnings growth of these companies may not be among the highest in the industry, they manage to deliver good results across business and economic cycles. During this time of the year, the companies declare their annual results and dividends. Hence, before investing in these companies, watch out for their annual results and performances as well.

The stocks that are picked have been limited to CNX 500 Index and of course, there are few other stocks outside this index with better yields also. While investing in the above stocks, an investor should limit their exposure to about 15-20% of their portfolio, since dividend-investing alone should not be anyone's investing strategy. If you find any other such high dividend yielding stock which might have missed our attention, please inform us or post them in the comment section.

Is Short Selling Dangerous ?

2012-04-02T07:49:00.000+05:30

What is short selling?

Short selling is a a trading technique a trader uses to profit from the falling price of a stock. It is a technique of selling a stock without owning it, with the view that the price is likely to fall further and, hence, there is profit to be made by buying it back at a lower price.

When the market is bearish or in downtrend, it presents a window of opportunity for traders to make money by 'shorting' stocks with the hope that the market will continue to be bearish and this is where short selling comes into picture.

Is short selling dangerous?

To start with, traders should be aware that short-selling is trading and not investing. They should also be aware that trading requires lot of skills and discipline and there are risks involved with it. To find whether short selling is dangerous or not, let us look at some of the key points below.

Historically, individual stocks and equity markets, both domestic and global, have moved upwards (short-term movement aside). Thus, if we agree that the direction of markets is generally bound upwards, then holding on to a short position for a longer time is betting against the historical trend of a market is very risky.
A trader should always exit the market once the target is achieved or the stop loss is triggered. But as this discipline in market is against our natural instincts of fear and greed and lack of such discipline, makes the position riskier.
Theoretically, one stands to make only limited profit on a short sell with chances of unlimited loss. This is because, the stock price can rise to any level, whereas the gain is limited since the stock price cannot go below zero.

In Indian equity markets, short selling is typically undertaken via the futures and options route, since short positions in the cash markets can be held only intra-day. One may not be able to carry forward short positions in cash markets, since stock lending and borrowing is yet to kick in a big way to facilitate short selling in cash markets. As for as the futures are concerned, the quantity or the lot sizes of the stock futures are so high that many are not aware of the huge risks involved in short selling such instruments.

To summarize, though short selling could a profitable strategy occasionally, it could result in substantial losses and it should not be used by investors or traders who are new to the market and who do not understand the dynamics of stock market.

3 Ways to Survive a Bear Market

2012-03-26T07:12:00.000+05:30

If you were hiking in the mountains and stopped in a small river for a drink only to look up and see a bear charging at you, what would you do? Our instinctual reaction in a life-threatening situation, such as being charged by a bear, is to run. But wilderness experts will tell you that instead of running from a bear, you should curl into a small ball.

The moral of the story is that you can’t outrun a bear. And the same is true of metaphoric bears — a bear market, for example.

Anyone who has invested in the past decade, and especially in the past five years, has seen what finance people call a "bear market". What is a bear market? In the most basic terms, it is exactly what it sounds like: a confluence of unfortunate factors that make the stock market a terrible, scary place to be, especially for inexperienced investors.

Our instinctual response to a bear markets is the same as our reaction to a live bear — we want to run. We want to scramble and get out as soon as possible to protect our investments. The thing about a bear market, though, is that it is a natural period of decline. Inevitably, after a period of large gains, the market will sink. Here are three ways to handle a bear market and come out with all your limbs intact:

1. Don’t run. Just as with real bears, trying to run away from a bear market by selling out and transferring your assets into a cash market will generally yield worse results than just staying put. In fact, by trying to run, you only lock in your losses. Volatility in built into the market system, so you can’t let a bad spell shake your faith. If the market is down, the damage is already done to your investments, so don’t make it worse by jumping ship. Instead, plan for the troughs by taking a long-term approach. If you do this, you’ll be in an optimal position to ride the wave back to a prospering market when it recovers.

2. Take stock. One way to take a long-term approach is to review your asset allocation when the market is down and readjusting the mix based on your risk tolerance. Wise investors will tell you that you should be re-balancing your portfolio at least once a year anyway, regardless of how the market is doing.

3. Be consistent. It’s very important to stay the course, even when the market is down. Typically this means that you should continue to add to your portfolio as you would when the market is up. This strategy is called dollar-cost-averaging — if you have a set amount of money you invest each month, buying more when prices are low and less when prices are high, the average price per share you’ll pay will be less expensive than the standard average share price.

Timing the market is as difficult and futile as running from a bear. So curl up, and wait for the bear to drop you, and you’ll be likely to outperform others who try to run.

By-line:
Alvina Lopez is a freelance writer and blog junkie, who blogs about accredited online colleges. She welcomes your comments at her email Id: alvina.lopez at gmail dot com.

NBCC IPO Review National Buildings Construction Corporation

2012-03-15T19:56:00.000+05:30

National Buildings Construction Corporation NBCC is coming out with an IPO of 12,000,000 Equity Shares of Rs. 10 each by way of an offer for sale of Equity shares by GOI. The company, started in 1960, is one of the few public sector companies engaged in the business of (i) project management consultancy services for civil construction projects (PMC) (ii) civil infrastructure for power sector and (iii) real estate development.

The company is headquartered in New Delhi and in addition has 10 regional / zonal offices across India. The projects undertaken by the Company are spread across 23 states and 1 union territory in India.

Issue Details:

Issue Open: Mar 22 - Mar 27, 2012.
Issue Size: 12,000,000 Equity Shares of Rs. 10.
Issue Price: Rs.90-Rs.106.
Listing At: BSE, NSE.
CARE Rating: 4 indicating above average fundamentals.
A Discount of 5 % on the Offer Price shall be offered to Retail Bidders and Employees.

Positives of the company:

1.Established brand name and reputation.
2.Operations in diverse sectors with strong Order Book position.
3.Qualified and experienced management.
4.Significant experience and track record.
5.Vast Industry knowledge and technical expertise.

Key Risks:

1.The company's revenues are significantly dependent on our PMC business. Any decline in PMC business, could adversely affect the company's business prospects, financial condition and results of operations.
2.Certain board of directors are involved in a number of legal proceedings, which may adversely impact the company's business reputation.
3.There could be cyclical risks associated with this industry.

NBCC IPO Price:

The EPS for the year ended March 31, 2011 is Rs.11.71 and latest EPS is Rs.15. The book value stands at Rs. 72 and the issue is being offered at 1.5 times the book value. At the higher end of the offer price band of Rs.90-Rs.106 , the P/E ratio is 7 times, where most of the infra and construction companies are available. Currently, similar companies under the sector are reeling under pressure and going by the current scenario the issue is an above average one. Though the sector offers substantial growth, the company itself growing at 20%, there are concerns and risk factors which could affect the company's earnings. At the indicative offer price, the issue is better for long-term investors only and for traders who want to sell on listing, it could be a tricky one.

5 Mistakes to Avoid While Investing in Stocks

2012-03-05T07:21:00.001+05:30

Due to availability of easy access to online trading, provided by many brokerage houses, investing and trading has been made easy. This is great, because it encourages more people to explore investing for themselves, rather than depending on mutual funds and portfolio management schemes (PMS). But the big question is, whether an investor would be able to do their own research, pick stocks, invest and make money?

Yes, it is possible to be a successful investor and for that one needs to be aware of the common mistakes while investing. By avoiding these mistakes, their path to successful investing would be a smoother one.

1. Investing all the money in a single investment

You should never put all your eggs in one basket. Investing 100% of your capital in a single stock or a sector is not a good move. Since, one particular stock or sector may under-perform the market, while the rest of the market moves up. One has to have a diversified portfolio of different sectors and stocks. Diversification is a key to good investment.

2. Chasing News

Buy on rumors and sell on news, is an old jargon. Investing on news is a terrible move. If you are lucky enough, you would get away with it or else you would be stuck with that particular stock. Rather than following news and rumors, investments should be made in companies you understand and which you believe are fundamentally sound and currently undervalued.

3. Buying on Tips and calls

This is another form of news and rumors.We have already seen why tips and calls won't make you money. Tips and calls are given for traders and not for investors. And these calls are given with specific price targets and stop-losses. Investors buy on these tips, forget about stop-losses and stuck with the stock, knowing what to do. Make your investment decisions on your own using fundamental analysis.

4. Low-priced or Penny stocks

The low price of the cheap or penny stocks does not necessarily mean they are safe. So, even if you may see such shares rising up pretty fast in the short-term, over the long-term they don't perform well. It is not wise for a small investor to buy these penny stocks, which involves risk of losing his capital. Using good fundamental research techniques to define whether to buy a stock or not, helps in making good investment decision.

5. Buying on leverage

Leverage is available in many forms - like margin trading, futures etc., and using such leverage magnifies both the gains and the losses on a given investment. Use of leverage involves risk of capital and learning to control the risk does not come easily for a small investor. Hence it is in the good interest of the investor, buying on leverage is best avoided.

Remember, investing is not that easy and it is always wise to invest with a long-term view, whether you do it buy investing directly in stocks or through top mutual funds.

MCX Listing and Pre-open session for IPOs

2012-02-22T20:43:00.002+05:30

We have already seen how the pre-open session or call auction trading session for existing securities works. And similarly for the new listings of the IPOs during listing day, the exchanges have introduced a Special Pre-Open Session (SPOS) for IPOs and re-listed scrips.

Salient Features of Special Pre-open Session :

1. This session shall be conducted for IPO scrips only on the first day of trading, i.e. day of listing of the scrip on the Exchange and for Re-listed scrips only on the day of re-commencement of trading of that scrip on the Exchange.
2. SPOS shall be for duration of 60 minutes from 9:00am – 10:00am for scrips participating in that session and shall be followed by continuous trading session.
3. From the next trading day onwards, trading would be normal.
4. Only limit orders will be permitted during the special pre-open session and Market orders will not be accepted.
5. For IPOs of Issue size greater than Rs.250 cr - during pre-open session, there would no Price Bands. But, during the normal trading session it would be 20% of Equilibrium Price (Listing price).
For smaller issues, with size of less than Rs.250 cr., the price bands are 5%.

The above point is interesting, since there wouldn't be no 50/100 % moves after the listing price, which is intended to curtail huge swings in stock prices post-listing.For e.g., if the MCX issue price is fixed at Rs.1000 and during the pre-open session, the price discovered is at 1200, then the price band is fixed at 20% of the listing price, on either side. And because of this new method the volatility on the listing is expected to be substantially reduced.

MCX listing date is to going to be an interesting session, since this is the first time an IPO is being listed using the above methodology. Let us wait and watch, how the new method is being implemented.

MCX IPO Review

2012-02-15T20:40:00.004+05:30

MCX or Multi Commodity Exchange of India, the country's largest commodity exchange, is coming out with an IPO of 6 million shares of Rs.10 each in the price band of Rs.860-1032 next week.
After long period of time, an IPO of this size and stature has hit the market, which is unique of its own. This is the first ever IPO by an exchange in the country and the issue has been given highest grade of 5/5 by the rating agency Crisil.

Issue Detail:
Issue Open: Feb 22 - Feb 24, 2012.
Issue Size: 6,427,378 Equity Shares of Rs. 10.
Issue Price: Rs.860-Rs.1032.
Listing At: BSE, NSE.

The promoter of the company is Financial Technologies, which is a leader in offering trading solutions like ODIN and other similar products. Globally, MCX is the fifth largest commodity exchange, which holds top two positions in gold and silver segments and higher positions in other commodities as well.

The EPS for the reported year 2011 stands at Rs.34.5 and the book value at Rs.210. The company had recorded Rs 447.5 crore of total income and net profit of Rs 176.2 crore with an equity capital of about Rs 38 crores for the year March 31, 2011. Considering the current growth of about 70-75%, the current year EPS would be around Rs.60 and at the lower price band of Rs.860, the issue is done at 15 times earnings and at the upper end of the band at Rs. 1,032, valuation per share works out at a PE of about 18 times.

Though the pricing seems on the higher side, considering the huge growth potential, the issue price is justified. Hence investors with long term view can invest in MCX IPO and not for listing gains alone. Once this issue is gone through, one could expect couple of similar IPOs from BSE and NSE also.

Watch out this space for more such IPOs and as well as about the big one from the international front, which is the Facebook IPO.

200 DMA of Nifty and Nifty-50 Stocks

2012-02-01T06:49:00.001+05:30

200 DMA or the 200 Day (Simple) Moving Average, is an important indicator in technical analysis. The 200 DMA is a long term moving average that helps determine overall strength of an index or a stock. The 200 DMA is generally used as a trend following indicator, which do not predicts market direction, but rather gives an idea about the current direction. Moving average is a lagging indicator, since it is based on past prices of an index or a particular stock.

An index that is trading below its 200 DMA is considered to be in a long term downtrend and when it is above, it is in an uptrend. Whenever the index or a stock trades near these averages, they attract support in a bull market and finds resistance in a bear market. Currently, the 200 DMA of Nifty is around 5200 and the index has closed around this level of 5200.

What does this indicate ? Is the market heading higher or is it going to correct after good run in the past few weeks? As said earlier during bearish phases, the 200 DMA find some resistance and attracts selling.We have seen many times in the past, nifty reacting down from the 200 DMA. But any strong close above this level would attract fresh buying and the prices may move higher. Hence, watch out these levels and follow-up action closely, to make your trading decisions better. The following chart may be of helpful, which shows the 200 DMA and the current market prices of the Nifty and Nifty-50 stocks. Also you would find the data for leading indices like Bank Nifty , CNX IT and CNX Midcap as well.

If fact, the 200-day moving average may act as support or resistance simply because it is so widely used. It is almost like a self-fulfilling prophecy. The advantage of using moving averages is they are trend following and these indicators are always lagging, This lag factor not necessarily be construed as a disadvantage, but can be used viewed as a supportive factor to identify that whether a trader is line with the current trend or not.

For a trader, trend is your friend, isn't it?

Can you beat the Market ?

2012-01-26T17:22:00.000+05:30

The question on every investor's mind is - Can you beat the market? Believe it or not, there's a simple method for getting the market-returns, if not beating the market. And that is so simple many investors would rather not use it because it takes the fun and flavor out of the game. It requires not much of a work, no thinking, and no decisions, and it can be summarized in a single sentence.

What's the catch? After all, most Wall Street investment managers, roughly 70 percent, tend to trail the overall market average over the long term, despite spending a lot of time researching companies, reading extensive reports, tracking the moves of the Dow Jones Index and huge churning of the portfolio. So how does a small investor got any chance of outperforming most of the experts?

Here's how you do it: Buy an index mutual fund and set up a checking account deduction plan that automatically buys additional shares(units) of the index mutual fund each month.Then sit back and watch your money grow. It's that simple !

Termed dollar cost averaging or systematic investment plan, the system relies on the volatility of the market to ensure that the investor automatically buys more units when markets are down and fewer units when markets are up.

And the real kicker is, you can do it automatically through a checking deduction plan, so the process continues to work without any physical, mental, or emotional involvement from you.

The question you may have is, if it's that simple and that reliable, why doesn't everyone do it? Why waste your time reading earnings reports, tracking price/earnings ratios, following the market, and agonizing over when to buy and when to sell, if you can use index fund dollar cost averaging with no effort?

Why? Boring!

Investors play the market because they enjoy it. Trying to beat the market can be fun and exciting. You pit your wits against the market experts, playing your hunches, making some buys and sells, in the process leads you to lots of excitement. But on the other hand, the above mentioned passive investing provides you no such fun, but you are left with peace of mind and good amount of market-returns. The choice is with the investor !

Buzzing Stocks MMTC and PSU Stocks

2012-01-08T15:12:00.002+05:30

PSU stocks like MMTC, Hindcopper, STC India, NMDC, Dredging Corporation etc., have gone up anywhere between 30-60% last week. MMTC has rallied from Rs.540 to Rs.900 up 66%, followed by STC India up 53% and Hindustan Copper up 56%.

So, what's the buzz? The government has been thinking of raising funds through the buyback route and under the buyback mode, the government can raise money by selling its equity in the company. After the government's due approval, institutions, banks and companies interested in buying government stake in PSUs will be able to send their proposals and buy these shares.

Recently, SEBI has allowed promoters to offload their stakes through auctions and this move will facilitate the government's efforts to sell these stocks at better prices. With the new window, the government will be in a position to negotiate better prices for the stake sale and hence the huge spurt in stock prices of these companies.

Does buyback move warrant such huge jump in these stocks? No, since most of the companies on the fundamental part do not justify such high price - for e.g., MMTC is just a trading company and its current EPS stands at Rs.2 and at the current price of Rs.900 the P/E ratio works out to 450, which is abnormal. And similar is the case with other mines and mineral stocks.

This huge rise is entirely driven by the buy-back news and also due to low liquidity of the floating stock (since Government of India holds about 90% each in all of the stocks mentioned above). We have seen many such hi-fliers before and know what happened to them later. Hence, investors are better off, if they would stay away from such stocks, even if they fall 30-40% from current prices.

Buyer beware !

Historical BSE Sensex returns - updated 2012

2012-01-01T15:40:00.000+05:30

We have already seen the historical returns of the BSE Sensex, which indicated an average return of about 20% per year, despite many yearly returns varying from -20% to +60%. The following table shows BSE Sensex historical data - yearly high,low,close and also the yearly returns of the sensex from 1991 to 2011.

There are some interesting points to note from the above data. Post 2008 crash of about 50%, one can see how the markets have performed differently in each year. In 2009, the markets gave positive returns of about 81%, in 2010 the returns were just 17% and in 2011 the returns were down 24%. The interesting point to here is the average returns are about 20%, even after the 2008 crash and 2009 boom. The lesson is pretty much clear - long term investing pays and one need not bother too much about the ups and downs of the markets.

During the past few years, the returns from investing in individual stocks are varied, only few were multi-baggers, while most of them have come down anywhere between 80-90%. The message for retail investors is clear that - index investing is better than individual stocks. Individual or Retail investors are better of investing in index Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) like Nifty Bees or Top mutual funds, which have given consistent returns over longer term.

Be a wise investor !

What is Price/Earnings to Growth (PEG) Ratio ?

2011-12-17T18:15:00.000+05:30

We all know about P/E Ratio, but what is this PEG Ratio and what does it mean?

The PEG ratio or Price/Earnings to Growth ratio is one of the most popular valuation ratio calculated for determining the relative trade-off between the price of a stock, the earnings per share (EPS), and the company's expected growth rate. This was popularized by Peter Lynch, who wrote "The P/E ratio of any company that's fairly priced will equal its growth rate", i.e., a fairly valued company will have its PEG equal to 1.

Basic formula:

PEG = (P/E) / (projected growth in earnings).
For example, a stock with a P/E of 30 and projected earnings growth next year of 15% would have a PEG of 30 / 15 = 2. A lower ratio is 'better' (cheaper) and a higher ratio is 'worse' (expensive).

What does PEG tell us?

PEG, which is derived from P/E ratio, is generally higher for a company with a higher growth rate. Using just the P/E ratio would make high-growth companies overvalued relative to others. PEG is a popular indicator of a stock's correct value. Similar to PE ratios, a lower PEG means that the stock is undervalued more.

It is preferred than P/E ratio because it also accounts for growth. If a company is growing at 30% a year, then the stock's P/E could be 30 to have a PEG of 1. The PEG ratio of 1 is sometimes said to represent a fair trade-off between the values of cost and the values of growth, indicating that a stock is reasonably valued given the expected growth.

Investors may prefer the PEG ratio because it explicitly puts a value on the expected growth in earnings of a company. The PEG ratio can offer a suggestion of whether a company's high P/E ratio reflects an excessively high stock price or is a reflection of promising growth prospects for the company.

On the flip-side, the PEG ratio is less reliable for measuring companies with low growth rates. Large, well-established companies for instance may offer dependable dividend income but little opportunity for growth.A company's growth rate is an estimate. It is subject to the limitations of projecting future events. Future growth of a company can change due to number of factors like market conditions, expansion setbacks and hype of investors.

To conclude, we can say that though there are certain advantages of using the PEG ratio like, it accounts for growth and easy to calculate. But,it has certain disadvantages, like it can be an misleading indicator at times. Thus it should be used with utmost care and only in those situations, along with other parameters, where it shows the right picture. Well, Investing is not that easy ! Right ?

Wisely Investing in a Small Business

2011-12-12T20:10:00.000+05:30

Deciding to invest in a small business can be a wise financial decision if your research is done carefully and thoroughly. Smart and savvy financial advice for any investment is to never invest more than you can afford to lose. Use discretionary funds in order to minimize your risk and maximize your potential for return. Any investment is a risk, but there are ways to ensure that you are making a wise investment.

If you do intend on investing larger sums of money, it can be more profitable to invest small amounts with several companies. If a few of the investments do turn out to be losses, they can be offset by a few highly successful investments. No matter what investment strategy you end up taking, it is important to remember not to invest more than you can afford to lose.

Professional venture capitalists will tell you there are no magic formulas for deciding where or how to invest your money, but there are basic elements that are important to consider first. Investigate how long a potential business venture has been established, whether it is a new company or if it has recently expanded and how deep in debt they are. You should also take a close look at the management of the company. You should also determine if the company has enough business working capital to maintain a positive cash flow. If the management deals unfairly with investors, has a high employee turn around or if the management receives bonuses out of proportion to the stage of the business's development, these can all be signs of a high-risk investment and can signal problems in the future. It is always wise to investigate a company thoroughly before investing.

Once you decide you are ready to invest in a particular company, the next step is to decide how to invest. There are many ways in which an individual can invest in a small business. One way is to offer bad credit business loans to a company you believe can be successful if they have enough business working capital available, but do not qualify for a traditional bank loan. Part of the terms of the loan can be a percentage of ownership or a certain number of shares. Bad credit business loans can be high risk, but even the best venture offerings pose some risk. Bad credit loans can also demand a higher interest rate.

Investing in a small business can be a wise financial decision if you exercise caution, investigate before you invest and do not be pressured into making a fast decision. Take your time, there are plenty of opportunities available and plenty of small businesses that will welcome your money.

Byline: This is a guest post by Sara Mackey.

How to Minimize Investment Risk

2011-12-12T16:28:00.001+05:30

Many people are hesitant to invest, even when the market would be in their favor, because they see investment as a dangerous, “high risk” gamble, rather than as an opportunity to grow their wealth.Granted, there is some inherent risk in investing, but it isn’t as wild as some think it is, and more importantly it is a risk that can be managed, if handled correctly.

Diversify Your Holdings

To the lay investor, diversification is an earful, and probably sounds technically intimidating, but diversification is actually one of the simpler, and most effective, ways to minimize investment risk. Simply put, diversification is not putting all your eggs in one basket. That is to say that you shouldn’t over-invest in one stock or fund, because, while it may be exciting when it is performing well, if the value drops, it will be devastating.

Conversely, if you divide your risk across several stocks, you will get multiplied benefits when they are all performing well, and won’t be crushed if one of them plummets.

Average Your Dollar Costs

Part of what makes investing difficult is the dimension of time. Timing, as they, is everything. But as it turns out, timing isn’t necessarily everything, and there is a smart way to invest that takes much of the guesswork out, and leaves you with more predictable gains, no matter how the market is performing. This strategy is called dollar cost averaging.

Essentially, dollar cost averaging means that you are consistently adding to your investment, regardless of what is happening with your stocks. By investing a fixed amount on a regular schedule, you are able to capitalize on the fact that the market fluctuates. Instead of buying a lot when the prices are low and not buying at all when prices are high, you have a set amount that you use to buy shares every month – $100 for example and you just distribute that and buy as many shares as you can with it each month. In the end, your average cost will be much lower than it would be when you try to outsmart the market.

Consider your goals when investing, and ask yourself if dollar cost averaging and diversification are good strategies for you.

Byline:

This is a guest post from Jacelyn Thomas. Jacelyn writes about identity theft protection and she can be reached at jacelyn.thomas@gmail.com.

What are Inverse Mutual Funds?

2011-12-07T17:58:00.000+05:30

We all know mutual funds, but what are inverse mutual funds all about?

They are a special type of funds in which the value goes up when the stock market comes down. They are nothing but "short funds" or funds having short positions of the index or stocks. By investing in this fund investors/traders can take advantage of fall in the markets.

The main objective of the inverse mutual fund is to provide investors with an alternative during market-decline and in the case where they cannot short sell the index. This type of fund is generally linked to the market index such as the S&P 500 or any other benchmark index. The value of such funds change similar to the traditional funds, on a daily basis, say if the index declines by 1 percent in a day, the fund value increases by 1 percent for that day.

In what other ways these funds differ from the traditional funds?

While a traditional mutual fund purchases shares of index or stocks, which is income generating in the form dividends, the inverse mutual funds do not purchase the stocks themselves. Instead, they may short sell the index or stocks or even buy put options on the index or the stocks. Hence, these funds make money only if the particular index or stock falls.

How does these funds benefit retail investors or traders?

Many investors,rather traders, can make use of this type of fund as a hedge against market conditions.Hedging is method that can be used to protect your investments in case of a market fall. During market corrections, investors/traders could buy some shares of an inverse fund in order to protect their long positions in other funds or stocks. This way, even if the market does go down, they will be able to recoup some of their losses on their long positions with the inverse fund.

Disadvantages:

Unlike the traditional funds, there are no dividends in these type of funds. The costs involves are also high since frequent churning of positions required on a day to day basis. They also involve high risks and needs constant monitoring of the fund value and the market direction.

Conclusion:

Firstly, investors should only purchase an Inverse Mutual Fund if they completely understand the risks associated with shorting and the returns associated with it. These funds can work as a hedge only and investors will not benefit from investing a large amount of money into it, since stock markets have performed well in the long-term. This can be used as short-term strategy only and not as a long-term one. Hence, Inverse Mutual Funds are complicated instruments than traditional mutual funds and it should only be used by sophisticated investors and traders.

There are many such funds in developed markets and there aren't any such funds in emerging markets like India. Hope some fund house would take some cue from this and launch an inverse fund soon.

What you should know about Stock Split and Bonus Shares !

2011-11-07T10:27:00.000+05:30

A stock split is sometimes confused with bonus shares, however it is different from bonus shares. So, what is the difference between these two and which one is better for the investors?

To start with some basics - all publicly-traded companies have a set number of shares that are outstanding on the stock market. These shares are nothing but sub division of capital. So if a company's capital is 100 m divided into 10m shares of 10 each, then this 10 is called the face value of the share.

Stock Split:

A stock split is usually done by companies if their share price increase to levels that are either too high or are beyond the price levels of similar companies in their sector. The move is generally seen to improve the liquidity of scrip since more investors participate due to the smaller ticket size.

A stock split is done to increase the number of shares that are outstanding by issuing more shares to current shareholders. For example, in a 2-for-1 stock split:

Two shares for one share.
Face value reduces by the split ratio, i.e., if earlier the face value was 10, after the split it will reduce to 5 per share.
The market price is affected by a stock split and it will reduce by similar ratio, e.g., 200 per share becomes 100.
The market cap does not change, since the outstanding shares are same.

Important point to note here is there is no financial impact on the stock, due to stock split. Recent stock split done by companies include Titan Industries, VIP Industries and Crisil.

Bonus Shares:

Bonus shares, are given free of cost to the investors. So when you get a bonus share, the number of shares you own increases at no cost to you. A stock split is also like a bonus, but that is where the similarity ends. A bonus is a free additional share whereas a stock split is the same share split into different number of shares.For example, if a company was to issue a 1:1 bonus share:

It would increase the amount of shares by 100% (1 share for every 1 share owned).If there are 1 million shares in a company, this would translate into an additional 1 million shares.
Face value does not change.
The market price changes and the price would reduce by half.
The market cap increases, since the outstanding shares increase.

The bottom line is that a stock split is used primarily by companies to provide greater marketability and liquidity in the market. Whereas bonus shares are issued with the intent of rewarding the investor and the financial effect of bonus share is that it increases the number of shares outstanding and reduces the earnings per share accordingly. Companies like Karur Vysya Bank, Infosys Technologies have rewarded investors with consistent bonus issues and have performed well on the enhanced equity too.

Which is better - Gold ETFs or Gold Funds ?

2011-10-27T12:14:00.000+05:30

The buzz word in the investing world is now - GOLD. Nowadays, there are many ways to invest in gold, other than buying physical gold and they are Gold ETFs and Gold Funds. There is a lot of confusion among retail investors about understanding and investing these products and we are quite sure this article would clarify things better.

To make things clear, both Gold ETFs and Gold Funds are mutual fund products — only the mode of purchase differs. The Gold Funds are fund of funds, which invest in their own fund house ETFs, for e.g., HDFC Gold Fund invests in HDFC Gold ETF.

Similar funds have been launched by Reliance mutual fund, Quantum mutual fund and Kotak mutual fund. Investors can get details of these funds from their respective websites.

Gold ETFs:

ETFs are exchange traded funds launched by leading mutual funds which are traded in stock exchanges like Nse and Bse.
You need a Dmat account and a trading account with your stock broker, to buy and sell these ETFs.
Charges involved are brokerage charges and Dmat charges.
They can be bought and sold over the exchange through a broker on a daily basis during trading hours. Gold ETFs provide an opportunity to benefit from changes in price movements of gold as the prices of gold ETF reflect the value of the underlying gold on real time basis.
SIP is not possible, since it involves manual purchase by the investor every month.

Gold Funds:

Gold Funds are fund of funds launched by mutual funds, which can be bought and sold through mutual fund agents or through online websites offered by the fund houses.
You don't need a Dmat account or trading account.
Charges involved - no entry load, but exit load of about 1 - 2%, if sold before one year from the date of purchase.
Can be bought and sold on any working day, but the NAV of the fund at which the fund sells the units is based on the closing NAV calculated based on price of the gold on the previous day.
SIP can be done, which is a good positive thing, since investing a fixed sum of money every month ensures you better average cost of purchase.

To sum it up, investing in Gold Funds are for those investors who want to invest in a simple and systematic method, involving lower costs. Whereas ETFs are for those active investors and traders, involving high costs and continuous monitoring of buying and selling.

4 Must-Have Stock Trading Mobile Apps

2011-10-05T07:43:00.000+05:30

With the emergence of smart phones, mobile applications have completely transformed how we live our lives. Applications make activities that we were once only able to perform in a stationary environment into something that we can do anywhere, anytime. Of the millions of activities, like banking, shopping, and more, that have now been made mobile, even stock trading is now made that much easier thanks to mobile apps. Here are some of the best ones out there:

1.Bloomberg
Bloomberg, the media and financial services behemoth, has always been a one-stop shop for information about the markets. Now, Bloomberg is available on a nifty app, so that you can have real-time stock information, market news, and more right in the palm of your hand.

2.E*Trade Mobile Pro
If you use E*Trade to buy stocks, then its mobile app is especially helpful, since you can use it to buy and sell stocks, transfer money from any financial institution, and monitor the markets with comprehensive charts and live stock quotes.

3.Virtual Stock Market Lite
Virtual Stock Market Lite is a great app especially if you are relatively new to the markets. When you download and begin using this particular app, you are given $100,000 in virtual cash to invest as you please. The app uses real stock prices and real markets, so using this app is wonderfully accurate, not to mention, fun, way to practice trading!

4.Stock Twits
Stock Twits has all the benefits of apps like Bloomberg in terms of information and news about markets. The one aspect of Stock Twits that makes it unique, however, is that it serves also as a social network for traders. You can follow traders who invest the same way you do, discuss different strategies, and generally become part of an entire community of like-minded investors.

Trading and investing has never been a walk in the park. It takes time and energy, business savvy, and of course, a little bit of luck. Using some of these apps, however, will enable you to access an enormous amount of data and expertise so that you can make the best investment decisions, any time and any place.

Author Bio:
This is a guest post by Nadia Jones who blogs at accredited online colleges about education, college, student, teacher, money saving, movie related topics. You can reach her at nadia.jones5 at gmail.com.

Goldman Sachs Mutual Fund - GS Gold Bees, GS Nifty Bees updates

2011-09-26T07:30:00.000+05:30

Goldman Sachs is a leading global investment banking, securities and investment management firm that provides a wide range of services worldwide to a substantial and diversified client base that includes corporations, financial institutions, governments and high-net-worth individuals.

With effect from 14th July 2011, Benchmark Asset Management Company Private Limited (BAMC) and Benchmark Trustee Company Private Limited (BTC) are a part of the Goldman Sachs group. Subsequent to this acquisition, all the schemes of Benchmark Mutual Fund will be renamed. Benchmark Mutual Fund has 13 schemes in operation currently.

The popular ETFs of Benchmark Fund - Gold Bees and Nifty Bees would be renamed as GS Gold Bees and GS Nifty Bees. Hence investors need not worry too much since change in the name of the schemes will not result in any change in the basic characteristics and fundamental attributes of the schemes.

The name changes of other schemes are available here. Also during trading hours one can get the live/real time NAV of Gold Bees and Nifty Bees here.

What is E-Gold and E-Silver ?

2011-09-04T10:50:00.001+05:30

The buzz word now in Gold Market is E-Gold from National Spot Exchange. What's this E-Gold all about and how is this different from Gold ETFs, which are already traded in National Stock Exchange?

E-Gold is offered by National Spot Exchange Limited(NSEL) which enables you to buy gold in electronic form, and hold it in a Demat account.

Features of E-Gold:

1. You can buy and hold minimum of 1 gram of E-Gold in electronic form.

2. The commission and the transaction charges would be about 0.5%,same as you buy any other ETF from NSE.

3. E-Gold can be converted it into physical gold, which is known as re-materialization and there are charges for this re-materialization. The minimum quantity for converting into physical gold is fixed as 8 grams.

4.Rematerialization facility is currently available in 15 major cities and hence if you want to convert it to physical gold, check with your broker.

5. VAT: When you rematerialize you will have to pay some rematerialization charges (which will be in the range of Rs.150 for 8 grams), but the VAT might be a bigger amount based on how much quantity you hold.

6. The storage charges of holding gold in demat form is Rs.0.60 per unit/month.

7. The purity of e-gold is not approved by LBMA and there is no standard benchmark in domestic gold prices.

8.One can trade in gold ETFs only till 3.30 p.m., while e-gold can be traded till 11.30 p.m., providing the investors better opportunities and flexibility.

Apart from E-Gold, the other commodities available are E-Silver and E-Copper. Since no Silver ETFs are available currently, E-Silver is a better option, if anyone wants to invest in silver. And the minimum quantity is been fixed at 100 grams and the transaction charges are similar to E-Gold. You can get the live data from National Spot Exchange.

The idea behind both e-gold and gold ETFs is the same, which is relieving investors of the worry of storage and purity, making gold investment more efficient and convenient. Though E-Gold is a cost-effective for people who have a long investment horizon, investing in gold through ETFs would be more prudent for small investors.

Key to Successful Investing

2011-08-16T07:43:00.000+05:30

Investing your money can be a great way to ensure your financial future. With the right investment choices, you can be sure to have money for emergencies, to put towards the education of your children, and to have available when the time comes for you to retire. There is a key word in the preceding phrase however- “right”. If you make the wrong investment choices, you may just end up where you started or worse than that.Most people who invest wisely by making the right decisions with their money, follow the same basic investment pattern, although they may define it by another name. The following are simple but valuable investing rules, which have withstood the test of time and by following these, one can be successful in their investing venture.

Allocation: First of all, make sure that the money you choose to invest is indeed earmarked for the purpose. Do not put up money that you cannot afford to lose,in case the market takes a downturn and remains in a bear market for a longer time.

Know the Basics: Believing that with a little understanding they can work the market themselves, they do not entrust another person with their money. This is incorrect. In the first place, most people will not be able to begin to unravel the complicated graphs, charts, and statistics by which the investment world relates its information.

In order to understand what the numbers mean, you will need to have some basic training. There may come a time after you have had some experience in the market that you will be able to make sound decisions on your own, but the initial get-your-feet-wet phase is not the time to attempt it.

Think long term: Unless you invest millions of dollars initially, it will take time for your investments to mature and begin to accumulate substantial gains. The best investments are proven over time, and thus it is best to place your funds in long term choices.

Diversification: A good portfolio will include cash and cash equivalents (Fixed Deposits), growth investments (Stocks), and growth and income investments such as Mutual Funds. Diversification ensures that you do not have all your eggs in one basket should any part of the market experience a downturn. Note that diversification means not only investing in several areas, but also making sure that no single avenue contains a disproportionate percentage of your funds.

Be a wise investor !