In the last 15 years, Indian asset management has grown leaps and bounds. One of the amazing success stories of this period has been Mirae Asset management, which is best known for its well managed equity funds.  In this episode, I caught up with Swarup Mohanty, the CEO of  Mirae Asset Investment Managers (India). Swarup has been at Mirae since day 1 during a period when both Mirae and the Indian markets have grown immensely. I hope you enjoy listening to the conversation as much as I enjoyed recording it.  In this episode, he speaks about:  0:00 - Introduction  2:55 - Influx of young investors into the markets  5:55 - The evolution of Indian asset management  10:15 - Thoughts on the current market cycle  15:05 - The biggest mistakes investors make  20:55 - What’s it like to be the CEO of Mirae?  26:15 - Performance chasing  31:17 - Are there too many AMCs in India?  34:14 - Active vs passive   If you have any questions or thoughts about the topics in the conversation, post them on TradingQnA. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, do let us know @zerodhaonline on Twitter.

We are at an important crossroads in history. The pandemic might seem like it’s behind us but we have a raging war in Europe, unprecedented sanctions, currency crises, inflationary pressures, and volatile markets. There are early signs of a shift away from the dollar and uncertainty about the US led global order. So what does all this mean for India and the world? We caught up with Debashish Bose, Managing Director—Public Equities at Oaks Asset Management, to make sense of it all. In this conversation, Debashish talks about:   1. How money is created in the modern world  2. The geopolitical divide  3. Fall of Yen and Japan’s currency conflict  4. Limited power of central banks   5. Cracks in the current dollar-dominated system  6. Advice for investors and much more Debashish had come on the show previously and we had talked about making sense of the macroeconomic developments in the world. You can check out that conversation here: You can follow Debashish on Twitter for more. We hope you enjoy this insightful conversation as much as we did, recording it 😀   Timestamps  0 - Introduction   1:34 - Creation of money   10:14 - Financial repression   11:50 - The geopolitical divide   16:33 - Japan’s currency conflict   27:43 - Do central banks have enough power?   32:34 - Is the dollar system breaking?   40:10 - China, Russia and deglobalisation   47:46 - Bretton woods III?  55:00 - What to do as an Indian investor   1:08:30 - What about gold? If you have any questions or thoughts about the topics discussed, post them on TradingQnA. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, do let us know at @zerodhaonline on Twitter.

Up until the 1990s, the Capital asset pricing model (CAPM) was the dominant model used to explain market returns. But in 1992 Nobel Laureate Eugene Fama and his partner, Ken French said that market returns can be explained by three factors namely: 1. Value: the tendency of cheap stocks to outperform costly stocks 2. Size: the tendency of small cap stocks to outperform large cap stocks 3. Market factor: the risk premium of the market over the risk-free rate, like a government bond. Over a period of time, other factors like quality, momentum, and low volatility were added. Institutions were the first to adopt factor investing but with the popularity of ETFs, around 2010, factor ETFs also known as smart beta ETFs started becoming popular in the United States. Given that Indian markets are still very young compared to the US, we just had our first wave of factor or smart beta funds around 2017. But in the last 3 years, there has been an explosion in factor ETFs and mutual funds. But investors often think of factor investing as a guaranteed way to generate higher returns than the market. They often look at the historical returns of factors like value, momentum, quality, and low volatility and think that these factor funds will always outperform Nifty, which isn’t true. Having said that, factor investing can play a very important role in your portfolio, and it’s important to know how to use these funds in your asset allocation. This week on the show, we caught up with Sankaranarayanan Krishnan, a quant fund manager at Motilal who has rich experience designing factor models and managing factor funds. In this conversation, we start with the absolute basics of factors investing and talk about two major factors — low volatility (low vol) and momentum. We talk about why these factors exist and the explanations, return expectations, and how to use them in an asset allocation framework. In this conversation, Sankar talks about:  How did he become a quantitative fund manager What are factors What drives the returns of factors Will factors continue working forward? Factor performance in India Are factors free lunch? Introduction to low volatility and momentum Why do low volatility and momentum anomalies exist Does the macroeconomic environment matter for factors? What would make low volatility and momentum stop working? Various approaches to implement low volatility and momentum strategies and what investors should know Are factors replacement for active funds? Factors funds, diversification and asset allocation Will factors always outperform marketcap-weighted indices? His personal investing philosophy Career advice for someone who wants to pursue opportunities in quantitative finance Book recommendations.  This was an absolute masterclass on factor investing, and we hope you enjoy listening to this conversation as much as we did recording it. We have an upcoming episode on the other two factors—value and quality. We also have an introductory note on smart beta funds on Varsity, do check it out.  If you have any questions about anything discussed in the episode or thoughts in general, do post them here on TradingQnA. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, do let us know by tweeting, we are @zerodhaonline

What does it take to survive multiple market cycles and create wealth?  This week, we have a really, really special guest. I caught up with Sankaran Naren, one of India's most admired and well-known fund managers, and the chief investment officer (CIO) of ICICI Prudential AMC. In this conversation, we spoke about his 3-decade career in the Indian markets as an investor, broker, and fund manager. He's perhaps best known for his contrarian style of investing that has helped him create immense wealth for investors. This conversation was nothing short of a masterclass on investing, and I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as we did recording it. In this conversation, Naren speaks about: How he discovered the stock market. His thoughts on the current market cycle and the similarities if any between the 2008 crash and the 2000 dot-com burst.  What makes him optimistic about India. Contrarian investing and value investing.  The influence of central banks on the financial markets.  IPOs of new-age companies. Corporate governance in India.  Asset allocation and the role of gold, debt, and international stocks.  Asset management. How he invests personally and his investing philosophy. Career advice for people who want to enter finance.  Book recommendations.  If you have any questions about anything discussed in the episode or thoughts in general, do post them here on TradingQnA.

One topic we keep talking about on the podcast is debt funds. As we've alluded to numerous times in the show, most investors focus too much on the equity part of their portfolio and ignore the debt part. They often take debt for granted and invest based on recommendations or based on whatever partial understanding they have. This often ends up backfiring whenever there are bad phases in the debt markets like the IL&FS, DHFL, and Franklin episodes.  The other risk that investors don't pay much attention to is the interest rate risk. Rising interest rates are bad for debt funds, and falling rates are good for debt funds. Given the strong inflationary pressures, RBI has hiked interest twice over the last month, and that has led to the debt fund NAVs falling. Predictably, over the last 3 odd months, the most common query from mutual fund investors was, “why are my debt fund NAVs falling?.” So we caught up with Mahendra Jajoo, the CIO of Fixed income Mirae Asset India. In this conversation, Mahendra talks about: What's happening in the debt markets Why are debt fund NAVs falling Why are interest rates rising What's causing inflation? Why have debt in your portfolio? How should investors invest in a rising rate environment Tips on building a debt portfolio and much more Hoep you find this useful. 

Retirement is the ultimate goal for everyone. We work, save, and invest so that we can kick back and retire comfortably, but a vast majority of Indians aren't ready for their retirement. This is due to structural economic issues, lack of awareness about the need for retirement planning, the lack of quality advice, among other reasons. PGIM India Mutual releases an annual survey of retirement readiness among Indians, and the last one was in 2020. Given that we're living through this mega COVID shock that has disrupted the personal finances of pretty much everybody, we thought it would be the perfect time to talk about the importance of retirement. So Sahil caught up with Ajit Menon, the CEO of PGIM India Mutual.  In this conversation, Ajit talks about: What does retirement mean The good, bad, and the ugly from the PGIM India Mutual Fund Retirement Readiness Survey 2020 Why are Indians saving less? How has COVID changed retirement planning Why should you think about retirement? Thinking about how to structure various aspects of your retirement How to build that mindset to think about retirement readiness Retirement readiness around the world Advice for someone starting to think about retirement today And a whole lot more. This conversation was absolutely brilliant and full of insights. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did recording it.  If you have any questions about anything discussed in the episode or thoughts in general, do post them here on TradingQnA.

The way the markets have run up post the March 2020 crash have equally surprised and perplexed investors. Given the pace of the recent bull run, that's understandable. A lot of smart people are wondering what's happening in the markets. But that's how the markets work—they don't have to make sense and they rarely do. So, we caught up with Kalpen Parekh (MD & CEO, DSP Mutual Fund) and Sahil Kapoor (Head of Products & Market Strategist, DSP Mutual Fund) to get a sense of the madness in the markets and what you should do as investors:  In this conversation, Kalpen and Sahil talk about: Some key takeaways over the last 1-1.5 years How to make sense of inflation The disconnect between the real economy and the markets A bird's-eye view of the Indian and the global economy Are the markets in a bubble? Investing in the age of markets where central bank actions have a massive impact Why do investors stop investing in equities early?  What can be done to get people to stick with their investments How not to get carried away by all the madness around Asset allocation How to think about fixed income in a low-interest rate environment Keeping your behaviour in control and avoiding mistakes Can you pick the best fund or best fund manager in advance? Discussing Sahil's article on this.  International investing and the role of global funds in a portfolio The role of gold in a portfolio How the Indian mutual fund industry looks in the next 5-10 years Sahil and Kalpen's investment philosophies Book recommendations You can follow Sahil and Kalpen on Twitter for more of their perspectives.  If you have any questions about anything discussed in the episode or thoughts in general, do post them here on TradingQnA. 

The CFA Society India recently published the second edition of The Investor’s Guide to Shareholder Meetings in India. As investors, even though we hold stocks of various companies, we rarely think about our rights. Investors also rarely realize that by virtue of the shares they hold, they are entitled to voting rights in a company. It's a chance for them to question the management and engage with them so that they aren't taken for granted as minority shareholders.  So we caught up with Sivananth Ramachandran, CFA, Director of Capital Markets Policy (India) and Amit Tandon, Founder and Managing Director, IiAS, who worked on the report to talk about:  The objective behind publishing the report Shareholder meetings post-COVID Basics of shareholder meetings Why don't retail investors attend these meetings Evolution of corporate governance in India Do the votes of retail investors count? Things to look for when analysing shareholder proposals put forth by companies ESG investing and the role of shareholders Shareholder activism and ESG Shareholder meetings in India vs other countries and a whole lot more.  Please enjoy this conversation with Sivananth and Amit.  Here's the link to the An Investor's Guide to Shareholder Meetings in India. If you have any questions about shareholder meetings and shareholder rights, do post them here on TradingQnA. 

In this episode, we have a really really special guest. We caught up with Prashant Jain, the chief investment officer (CIO) of HDFC Mutual Fund. Prashanth is a market veteran and the first India fund manager to manage a single mutual fund scheme for over 25 years. He manages some of the largest active mutual fund schemes in India. Over his nearly 25+ year career in the investment management industry, Prashant has pretty much seen all the cycles of the Indian markets. The experience and insights he shared in the conversation are all the more relevant to us given the euphoric mood in the Indian markets currently.  In this wide-ranging conversation, Prashant spoke about:  His journey into the markets The evolution of our economy and the Indian markets What does a good business look like to him His research process His thoughts on portfolio construction What does being wrong look like His thought on using macro inputs in an investing framework Whether the opportunity set of stocks in Indian markets is limited The road ahead for India His thoughts on quality at any price Active investing vs passive investing Indian valuations, global valuations, rates and inflation Advice for aspiring analysts and portfolio managers How he invests If you have any questions about this episode, you can post your queries here and we'll answer them. Disclaimer: Mutual fund investments are subject to market risks. Please read all scheme related documents carefully before investing. This show is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be construed as investment advice or a solicitation to invest. Please consult your financial advisor before making any investment decisions.

Gold is probably one of the most controversial and perplexing asset classes. Some well-known investors like Warren Buffett call it useless while other investors take the middle path and recommend small allocations. As for investors, they often struggle to think about it in a portfolio construct. So we caught up with Chirag Mehta, senior fund manager at Quantum Asset Management who also manages the Quantum Gold Fund.  In this conversation, Chirag talks about:  His journey into the markets His perspective of what happened in the markets last year What moves gold prices Why do Indians love gold so much? Historical performance of gold in India vs equities and bonds Pros and cons of various gold options like physical gold, gold ETFs, Sovereign Gold Bonds, Gold Mutual Funds etc What roles gold plays in a portfolio How much to invest in gold His thoughts on some popular arguments against investing gold Central banks actions and their impact on gold going forward How do Indian gold ETFs and Mutual Funds manage their gold, where do they store it, safety measures etc Things to keep in mind when picking gold funds His personal investment philosophy Some unique stories from his career Some reading recommendations You can explore gold mutual funds on Coin and gold ETFs on Kite.  If you have any questions about investing in gold, you can post your queries here and we'll answer them.  Disclaimer: Mutual fund investments are subject to market risks. Please read all scheme related documents carefully before investing. This show is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be construed as investment advice or a solicitation to invest. Please consult your financial advisor before making any investment decisions.