Explore the Taxation Impact on Portfolios: Mutual Funds vs Direct Equity. Understand how taxes affect your returns in 'Taxation Impact on Portfolios'.

A clear breakdown of how taxes impact post-tax returns in safe investment options like FDs, Liquid Funds, and Arbitrage Funds—helping you make smarter, tax-efficient choices.

Should you chase the highest returns or build a balanced portfolio? In this post, we break down key investment concepts like risk-adjusted returns and diversification using simple analogies and real data. Learn why the smoothness of your investment journey matters just as much as the destination—and how a diversified portfolio can help you stay the course through market ups and downs.

Angel investing can be thrilling, but it comes with high risks, time demands, and limited access to quality deals. This blog breaks down the realities behind the hype—who it’s best suited for, how to manage risk through diversification, and why it may not be ideal for most retail investors. A must-read before diving into the world of startups.

One of the most cherished life goals for most families apart from retirement is funding their children’s higher education. However, what many underestimate is the sheer pace at which education costs are climbing. Unlike general inflation, which hovers around 5-6% in India, education inflation has consistently been in the range of 10-12% domestically and 5-7% internationally (in USD terms). Factor in currency depreciation, and the real impact is even more staggering for global

In recent years, the rise of financial influencers, or "FinFluencers", has transformed how individuals approach retirement planning. Platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok have become hubs for financial advice, with FinFluencers offering insights on building a retirement corpus, achieving financial independence, and more. However, while their content is engaging and accessible, it's crucial to critically assess the accuracy and applicability of their advice.

SIPs help investors stay disciplined and build wealth over time. However, many paused their SIPs during the 2025 market correction, missing key opportunities. History shows that bear market SIPs often deliver the highest long-term value.

The harsh reality of India’s F&O trading boom, where 93% of retail traders suffer losses while institutions, brokers, and the government profit handsomely. It dives into the structural disadvantages faced by individuals—like time decay, over-leveraging, and social media misinformation—that make success nearly impossible for the average trader. The article serves as a warning and a guide, urging retail investors to understand the game before risking their hard-earned money.

In recent years, the performance gap between gold and silver has widened significantly - prompting both curiosity and concern among investors. Gold has dramatically outperformed silver, defying traditional assumptions and raising questions about whether the historical gold-silver relationship still holds in today’s market landscape.

In the world of wealth management, real estate often finds itself caught in polarized opinions. Many investment advisors tend to lean towards financial assets - mutual funds, stocks, ETFs - and frequently downplay or even dismiss real estate as an inferior or overly risky investment. While it's true that real estate comes with its share of complexities and Indian households are overly heavy on real estate, a blanket dismissal is clearly misplaced. In reality, when approached

Choosing the right investment advisor can make a significant difference in your financial journey. The right advisor not only helps grow your wealth but also protects it from unnecessary risks and inefficient strategies. With the financial landscape evolving rapidly, especially in India, it’s important to know what to look for when evaluating a potential advisor.

Dear Reader, We are not going to bore you with yet another post on Jane Street. Our job is to keep an eye out for things that impact your wealth and that requires filtering out the noise. In case you want to read our views on why F&O is a bad idea, you can read our older blog here. Markets have been on a downtrend in India since our last newsletter on 28th June where we pointed to elevated valuations. The critical earnings season has just started. The markets had run up in a

Dear Reader, In our last newsletter, we touched upon what might provide an up move to the Indian equity markets - tariff resolution or another GDP surprise. The somewhat visible thaw in India-US trade relations led to a small hope led up move in Nifty +2.26%. NASDAQ 100 continued to outperform with gains of +3.44%. The rally in US stocks is clearly led by AI - those are the stocks gaining massive market capitalization and investments continue to flow there. Some analysts have

Dear Reader, The markets witnessed the biggest drop in weeks and have retracted to Oct ’25 levels. Nifty is below the 200 DMA signalling short term weakness. FIIs have been net sellers, Q3 results have been tepid, rupee has plunged to fresh lows, tariff wars have wiped off ₹16 lakh crores from the market capitalisation. Gold (~17%) and silver (~50%), have soared higher in the last one month. Geopolitical tensions - from Venezuela and Greenland to Iran and diplomatic brinkmans

Dear Reader, If the first week of the year is any indication, 2026 will reward preparation far more than prediction. Nifty 500 gained ~1% in the first two days of the new year, and then fell 2.62% this week. This early volatility is not an anomaly - it is a continuation and likely a preview. The year ahead will test both portfolios and patience. The Indian macroeconomic situation remains somewhat strong - helped by government action in cutting taxes (both direct and indirect)

Dear Reader, As 2025 comes to a close, we thought a quick retrospective was in order. Here is a snapshot of how various asset classes that we invest in performed this year. While silver was the standout performer, all asset classes other than Indian equities demonstrated above average returns! Here’s a set of one liners that capture how the markets played out this year: 1. Interest Rates stayed higher for longer. 2. The Indian economy slowed down, prompting government efforts

Dear Reader, This week, the Rupee’s sharp move to 90 against the US Dollar understandably caused anxiety. Most financial outlets have covered the immediate triggers - FII outflows, stalled US trade discussions and a widening trade deficit. Imports continue to outpace exports, and gold demand has surged again, all of which increase demand for the USD relative to the INR. For much of the post-Covid period, we saw massive foreign inflows and that helped build the RBI’s dollar wa

Dear Reader, Warren Buffett’s famous Rule No. 1 - never lose money - sounds deceptively simple. But capital protection is not an act of caution; it is an act of discipline. And when markets sit at all-time highs, optimism is abundant, and scams proliferate, this principle becomes even more important to revisit. There are three major ways investors typically lose money - and all three are preventable with the right processes. 1. Controlling Drawdowns: The Power of Losing Less

Dear Reader, Recently, the Lenskart IPO dominated the financial news, igniting a fierce debate and dividing people into two camps - those who thought it was worth a buy and those appalled at its valuation. It also created thousands, if not millions, of valuation experts out there. This note is longer than usual, but we strongly recommend that you read it fully. Lenskart is being valued at roughly 10x price to sales - the P/E ratio is meaningless for a company which was loss m

Dear Reader, This was a special week that happens in India only once a year - Indian stock market has a 1 hour special trading session on Diwali - called ‘Muhurat Trading’ and it is considered auspicious to buy/sell instruments in this 1 hour. We sent out a note to our (paid) clients before the session on 20th Oct, 12:45pm to not invest in Gold/Silver but instead to buy some NIFTYBEES. It so happened that Gold and Silver started a big correction (-4.7% and -6.85% respectively