The Indian equity markets have turned volatile in the last few months. In the same period, the Indian rupee has also depreciated against the US dollar. DSIJ explains how you can use International funds to diversify your portfolio and gain from the falling rupee. 

Financial independence, though desired by many, is achieved by very few. Making a winning and sustainable portfolio will help you to achieve it. There is no secret mantra or rocket science to attain your financial independence early and securely. The formula is well researched, documented and open to all. 

The mutual fund industry has come a long way since 1993, when the first private sector players entered the space. In July 1993, Kothari Pioneer, a joint venture between Chennai-based Kothari Group and US-based Pioneer Mutual Fund, was the first private sector asset management company to get licence to launch MF products. Prior to that, the MF space in India was largely dominated by government-owned institutions and banks. But contrary to the general expectation that entry of private players would take the industry growth to the next level, the MF space remained a non-starter even after the entry of foreign firms such as Morgan Stanley. For the next ten years, AUMs of the industry grew at a laggardly rate of 10.5 per cent per year. 

This is an open-ended equity scheme, which seeks to invest in a diversified manner in the stocks of large-cap and mid-cap companies. The portfolio of the fund shows that the scheme invests equally in the large-cap and mid-cap space. Both of these categories carry around 45% weightage in the fund's portfolio. 

Mutual fund investments are assessed globally based on the fundamentals of the underlying and the suitability of the fund for an investor's risk-return profile. Some of the professional organisations around the world use five ‘P's, namely People, Process, Parent, Performance and Price, to select the right kind of mutual fund for investing. The reason these firms employ such methodology is because mutual fund investments are meant for the long term and these fundamental parameters help in assessing the fund's performance over the long run. 

Creation of Prosperity with Peace & Serenity Nadeem Ahmed, a salaried executive of 31 years, approached us in June 2006 for financial guidance. He was still single and had many challenges to meet. The only good thing he had done was buying a ready flat in Mumbai's suburbs. He disclosed to us all his financial and personal information and reposed absolute faith in our expertise. 

Selecting The Right DEBT Mutual Fund Debt funds are as versatile as equity funds. DSIJ guides on how to use debt funds to complement your equity portfolio. 

The volatility in the equity market has deterred many investors from adding in fresh money into mutual funds. DSIJ explains, how and where to invest in these times

The Rise And Rise Of Retail MF Investors Mutual fund investors who had invested at the start of the year in equity schemes might be seeing red in their portfolio. Barring a couple of sectoral funds and large-cap dedicated funds, all categories of funds have given negative returns in the last three months to six months.

The following table lists top-ranked equity funds based on DSIJ's proprietary research methodology. We have evaluated each funds underlying portfolio of stocks and ranked them based on their expected portfolio returns. This way we are also able to rank newly launched funds that are not rated by others due to their short duration of existence.