What Ho!» Mutual Funds

CAMS Web Site Woes

gautamsatpathy — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 08:47:23 +0000

I tried accessing the CAMS web site (http://www.camsonline.com/) today on my BlackBerry and got a rude surprise. Their web site is not at all mobile friendly! Even Opera Mini failed me today on this web site.

Don’t get me wrong – I am a big CAMS fan and regularly use their excellent mailback services to keep track of my offline mutual fund investments. They added Karvey as a data source some time ago and blew me away. I was very happy to get all my data in one place and stopped visiting Karvey’s web site.

However their web developers suck big time. Browser compatibility has always been an issue – I have to use Internet Explorer! It leaves me frightened every time I visit them. Their main supported browser is the worst browser available. Also their web site uses lot of frames, JavaScript and other 1990s web technology. Which shows that they need a new IT Group – people who know what they are doing and have a good understanding of web technologies.

CAMS is a classic example of a great business model with a flawed implementation. You will never get good ouput if you don’t have good people. And good people are not only hard to come by, they are also expensive.

Are they worth the price to CAMS?

Update:
The web site actually worked. I received the statements I wantd but the site did not seem to be working so I ended up with 7 copies of each statement in my mailbox! Opps…

Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.

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ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund – Online Services & Customer Support

gautamsatpathy — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 17:00:16 +0000

Update: This is a personal web site and NOT the web site of ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund.

I was pleasantly surprised today with my experience with the ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund web site, the PruTracker. I have multiple portfolios with ICICI as I used different vehicles to purchase their funds over the years. I had lost track of one folio and found it again in a CAMS report. This particular folio was not available in my PruTracker login.

Today I was trying to find the IPIN Form download on the PruTracker web site thinking that I would have to fill it out and visit CAMS again to get an IPIN for the missing folio and that it would take at least a week or so. I was therefore surprised to see a link to “Generate an IPIN Online, Instantly…”. Well, I stared at it for a while and then clicked it. It walked me through a wizard asking for details of the folio, my bank account, PAN etc. All the personal data that is associated with the folio and is unique to me. All the data that is actually needed to uniquely identify me as the owner of the folio. And data that only I should be able to provide.

Neat!

I haven’t seen this with any other Indian AMC.

So I jumped right in, very excited. I wouldn’t have to wait a week after all! Then of course I hit a snag. The Wizard didn’t work. It kept complaining that I had given it the wrong data. But I hadn’t! It was frustrating and a big let down.

A tried a few combinations since this was an old folio I hadn’t used for a while. But no joy. Then I decided to brave the call center. The girl who answered had me fill in the details again. I repeated each value as I filled in the form and she stopped me when I came to the PAN. They had the wrong PAN! One digit was wrong. A 8 had become a 3. No wonder the thing wouldn’t work! The girl at the call center had me use the wrong PAN and complete the process. And then she registered a service request to correct the PAN.

So I ended up with the folio linked to my PruTracker login in about 20 mins. Not bad. And if there hadn’t been the problem with the PAN it would not have taken me more than a few minutes. Fill out the wizard’s forms, go check your email, click the link they send you and you are done!

Cool.

No paper work. Simple. Effective. Gets the job done.

Good job ICICI Prudential. You guys have typically been on the forefront of technology usage in the retail financial sector in India and I thank you for it. I hope to see an ever improving user experience from you people.

Many thanks.

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Mutual Fund NAVs – Ignore Them!

gautamsatpathy — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 16:20:03 +0000

Mutual Fund NAVs are often confused by new as well as old investors.

Mutual Fund Agent to Client: “The New Fund Offer (NFO) is priced at Rs. 10/-. It is Cheap! Buy! Buy! Buy!”

Mutual Fund Investor:

“Is it advisable to buy mutual funds with a high NAV?”

“Mutual Fund ABC has a high NAV of around Rs 423. Is it a better option? How much more can this go up?”

“What is the maximum value to which a NAV can go to?”

Common questions? Unfortunately yes.

The NAV of a Mutual Fund is not the same as the price of a share or commodity. It is the net value of the assets of the fund minus its liabilities like AMC fees etc divided by the number of units of the fund sold to its investors.

NAV = (Assets of the Fund – Liabilities) / Number of Units

So what does that mean? It means that you can safely ignore the NAV of a Mutual Fund when trying to decide whether it is good investment.

Lets see why:

Lets say we have two funds, ABC & XYZ. Also, lets say you have invested Rs. 10,000/- in each and that both funds go up 5%.

Okay, now for the numbers…

The fund with the “Expensive NAV”…

Mutual Fund:	ABC
NAV:	Rs. 200/-
Investment:	Rs. 10,000/-
No. of Units you Own:	10,000 / 200 = 50 Units
Increase (5%):	Rs. 10/- (5% of 200)
New NAV:	Rs. 210/-
New Value of Investment:	50 Units * 210 = Rs. 10,500/-

Now for the fund with the “Cheaper NAV”…

Mutual Fund:	XYZ
NAV:	Rs. 20/-
Investment:	Rs. 10,000/-
No. of Units you Own :	10,000 / 20 = 500 Units
Increase (5%):	Re. 1/- (5% of 20)
New NAV:	Rs. 21/-
New Value of Investment:	500 Units * 21 = Rs. 10,500/-

What does this show us?

That we gained 5% in both funds. Our investment of Rs. 10,000/- grew to Rs. 10,500/- in both cases!

So you can safely ignore the NAV of a Mutual Fund. It has no meaning in terms of “Expense”.

To determine whether a particular fund is a good buy you must look elsewhere:

What are your investment objectives? What is the fund’s investment objectives? Is there a match?
What is the fund’s investment style? What is the Risk versus Return? Does it match your risk profile?
What is the fund’s track record? Has it down well in all kinds of markets?

Ultimately you must decide what you are looking for and compare that with what the fund offers.

Go visit Value Research.

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What's Up With Sandip Sabharwal?

gautamsatpathy — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 04:24:01 +0000

Sandip Sabhawarl, a IIT Delhi graduate, won kudos with his management of SBI’s Mutual Funds, particularly the Magnum Contra and similar funds. Then came the Ketan Parekh and Padmini Technologies stock purchase from Triumph International. Sandip left SBI under a cloud and joined JM Financial Asset Management. The Mutual Fund industry and press reacted with caution. The CBI Charge Sheet against Sandip loomed heavy. Yet there was expectation that he would work the same magic for JM that he did at SBI.

Now I read that Sandip has left JM (Feb 27, 2009). Where will fortune take him now? Is he a good guy caught up in the vortex or is he a bad-one?

I intend to follow this man’s career or what ever is left of it. Let’s see what life throws at him and how he bats in response.

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SIP-O-Meter

gautamsatpathy — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 09:52:50 +0000

There are tons or articles, on-line calculators etc for Mutual Fund investment returns. Most of these show you how much to expect after a fixed number of years for a fixed amount invested every month and giving the same fixed rate of return through out the tenure of the calculation. The result of such calculators is of course a useless number to have. Even if you invest the same amount for the entire duration, there is no way the rate of return will remain the same. You will have years and months when you get great returns and when you will get abysmal returns. The logic behind such calculators is that the fixed rate of return used is an average rate.

Well that seems to make sense. To some extent. But keep in mind that the actual numbers you will see depend on a host of factors, most of which are beyond your control. So use the numbers generated as a benchmark to decide how much to invest. And err on the side of caution. Don’t assume a 20% rate of return. You will most probably never see such a rate.

Anway, the reason for this post is the SIP-O-Meter on IDFC Mutual Fund’s web site. They call it the Power of 1000. It caught my eye because it was different. Actually rather cool. Go check it out…

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Quantum Mutual Fund – 6 More Banks Added to Invest Online

gautamsatpathy — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 06:02:14 +0000

Quantum Mutual Funds has added 6 more banks to it’s Invest Online module. Quantum is the first Indian Mutual Fund house to offer it’s funds completely online. When it launched it’s funds it refused to go the broker way and refused to pay any commisions. Even before the SEBI rulling that investors transacting directly with the AMC should not be charged any entry load, Quantum has been offering it’s investors the same facility. It has remained small in size because the financial advisers don’t tell their clients about it.

The newly added banks are:

Corporation Bank
Oriental Bank of Commerce
Vijaya Bank
Bank Of Rajasthan
South Indian Bank
YES Bank

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HDFC Mutual Fund – Online Investments Supports ICICI Bank

gautamsatpathy — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 02:49:03 +0000

HDFC Mutual Fund’s online transaction platform now supports ICICI Bank for payments.

Screen shot of HDFC Mutual Fund’s online purchase page (Click for full size image)

With this addition the list of banks goes to:

This is a fairly comprehensive list and represents a good cross-section of the retail banks in India. Till recently I was using Axis Bank for my HDFC fund purchases and that meant I had to keep moving money around from ICICI to Axis and vice versa. Of course with RBI’s NEFT system this too is a painless process. So now I am spoiled for choice. Good. That’s the way it should be.

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Reliance Mutual Fund Web Site Down

gautamsatpathy — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 09:46:37 +0000

The Reliance Mutual Fund web site is down. The last time I checked, on June 5, 2008, I could not get in and today again I received gateway timeout (server unreachable).

On further investigation I found that there are two domains for Reliance Mutual Funds:

When I discovered the reliancemf.com web site address I opened it in my regular browser, FireFox and to my surprise it opened up without any problems. I immediately tried the other site (reliancemutual.com) in FireFox and it too opened properly. I went ahead and entered the online transactions section (still using FireFox) and was relieved to see that everything worked just fine. I was able to complete my transactions before the 3.00 p.m. cutoff time.

The online transactions page that appears when you click “Online Transactions” after logging in was a bit garbled in FireFox. I do remember that it renders properly in IE7. The idiots in the Reliance Mutual Fund IT department have programmed their web pages for IE. Typical. Idiots!

Reliance Mutual Fund Online Transactions page in FireFox. (Click for full size image)

Use FireFox!

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Sundaram BNP Paribas Mutual Fund – Online Transactions Update

gautamsatpathy — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 08:59:58 +0000

I had written on Feb 26, 2008 that Sundaram BNP Paribas Mutual Fund has posted a page on online transactions on their web site. I check again today to see if their promised online transactions facility is available yet but unfortunately it still isn’t. They have not updated the page yet.

Sundaram web site screen shot (Click for full size image)

Get a move on Sundaram! As per the SEBI rules investors investing directly with the AMC can avail the No Load option. At this time the only way to do this is to go the paper based purchase requition way. And the filled in form has to be submitted to the neartest CAMS or Sundaram office. Plus one has to sign a cheque. Very painful.

Sundaram has some good funds and I am invested in them for the last 3+ years. I wish they would get their act together and give us online transaction facilities asap. ICICI, HDFC, Reliance, Quantum, SBI and others already offer such facilities and it is a painless way to invest.

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DSP Merrill Lynch Mutual Funds's Envelopes

gautamsatpathy — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 18:06:17 +0000

I recently started a SIP in a DSL Merrill Lynch equity fund. This was my first investment with DSPML. I really like the envelopes they use for their snail mail post. Most such envelopes carry advertisements but somehow I like this one best. Judge for yourself:

(Click for full size image)

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