Value Matrix for Distributor /IFAs / IFA

Value Matrix for Distributor /IFAs / IFA

Everyone knows Mutual Fund is a risky product . Simply put returns are not assured and so at times there can be mismatch between expectation and realisation . Distributor /IFA is the first layer of risk management and Fund Manager is the 2^nd layer in risk management of investor’s money . You face the risk from product after you have invested but the entity who makes you understand the risk and guides you to invest is managing the first layer of risk management . Someone not investing or investing totally in traditional products that is also a risk if looked from opportunity cost aspect . Distributors/IFAs are the most important link in the product communication, product positioning , risk communication .

The industry needs to value Distributors /IFAs and have a structured Value Matrix of Distributor /IFAs.  

In application form we have “ I have read the terms and condition……” which many sign without reading  . In addition to it why not have “ I have been apprised / conveyed by Distributor /IFA on risk -return aspect of the fund ……… “ . This will bring more accountability on Distributor /IFA. They will focus on knowledge upgradation and wise relevant communication to clients . This will also make clients more accountable and can not put all blame squarely on Distributor /IFA if their expectation are not met. After all its their money and they also need to be a bit responsible not only in asset choice , product choice but also in Distributor /IFA choice . Now time is to have a structured accountability and evaluation system right from filling an application to on going basis both for client and Distributor /IFA .

I have seen clients suddenly changing Distributor /IFA or going direct after being served by a Distributor /IFA last 5 or 10 years . How can someone become bad overnight and if he was not serving well how come client continued for such long time ?. Its point to ponder . We need to have a transparent system where everyone ( both client and his Distributor /IFA ) are constantly evaluated will all fairness .

Every 6 months or 12 months ( on semi annual/annual) basis every investor has to compulsorily do due diligence of his Distributor /IFA through a structured format. 

To make this whole process totally objective and no subjectivity a value matrix has to be made on many  parameters ( product knowledge , market understanding , operational knowledge , service quality ………) . Now the Distributor /IFA also knows where he stands , where he need to improve , what his clients expect etc . The weightage of each parameters should be decided to get a holistic balanced view of distribution or advisory services . All parameters are important but may be in not same proportion for different clients or might not every Distributor /IFA be equally competent on every parameter . This gives an opportunity of matching on specific parameter ( client – Distributor /IFA ) if that parameter is key for any client . Distributor /IFA need not spend their time , money and energy only on running after clients to get business ( short term approach ) but position themselves as Value driver and get business on merit ( long term and stable approach ) .

Based on composite inputs Distributors /IFAs need to be ranked as  A,B ,C , unrated category . This will help to differentiate between them . Further once differentiation happens most  Distributors /IFAs will strive to upscale their competence level . The biggest motivator for change is ones own experience or feedback. Some Distributors /IFAs if feel embarrassed at low rating if they request their rank need not be disclosed .  The choice of display or disclosure of rating will rest on that particular Distributor /IFA. Simultaneously any investor will have a complete visibility and assessment on the choice of Distributor /IFA.  Tomorrow they can not blame the Distributor /IFA .

If the MF industry has to grow exponentially then objective value drivers have to be in place where all stake holders have to be given importance . In my view this industry has grown to approx. 25 lakh crore majorly due to continuous hard work of Distributors /IFAs . I can say this thing based on my own experience since 1989 when I entered this industry . As industry owes to them its time to have a structure methodological approach in place where Distributor /IFA grows on his transparent merit and not on someones favour . Its high time Distributor /IFA should also realise their worth and competence and create a space of themselves .

If a fund can be rated , AMC can be rated , Fund Manager can be rated why a Distributor /IFA can not be rated ? It will lead for qualitative improvement and quantitative growth beneficial to all stake holders in Mutual Fund .  

Managing Investment Risk by Yourself

Three things you need to do/have: Strong belief ; Learning from past experience and Understanding present information

Strong belief : “I am going to lose my money” or “I am going to gain from investment”? what is your belief when you invest in any investment instrument or investment product. If its of loss then there is no point of investing in that product. Reason is you will be always fearful and a slight negative can affect you emotionally and you end up taking wrong decision i.e. withdraw when not required.  When you invest, your mindset, your belief system, your conviction should be positive. No doubt, no fear, strong faith.

Learning from past experience: If there is lack of positive belief, conviction why it is so? Is it because of past experience or is it because of what others are saying? Please remember what others are saying could be their own experience which might or might not be relevant in your case. You have to analyse your experience only from your perspective, your action/inaction that led to this experience. Lets say you had a bad experience of illiquidity or loss . Why it happened ? was it because of wrong choice of product or was it because of wrong economic /market condition when you withdrew or was it because you withdrew out of fear as everyone was doing due to some negative factors at that time . You have all those records with you . See how much you got that time and what is the value today . Check what if you had not withdrawn at that time? . would you have lost or gained ? On most occasion one has seen it has been judgmental error. So by now you should know what caution and precaution you need to taken moving forward . One or few bad experience should never be generalised . One need to understand the cause of it .

Understanding present information correctly: Now you don’t need to repeat past mistake . Understand and interpret present information from credible reputed sources in terms of risk (losing) and return(gaining) . You know both psychological and information gap you had which led to past losses . Once you know present information , you need to take a call what will be your reactions . We never remain in same mindset always . It changes with changing scenario . So better you note down somewhere if X ( Worst happen in next 3 month , 6 month ,1 years what will be my reaction ) . This has to be written with all fairness based on what you actually believe you will do . Go through it few times on different day when in different mood to ascertain there is consistency in your belief system.  If you feel you might repeat same mistake as past better avoid such product and invest in safer ones . If you know now with learning you can withstand notional loss, volatility for short term and not panic then no issues you are on right track .

Another point on information interpretation is never believe blindly even if told by a great expert . Understand the notional risk part and its impact on you emotionally , psychologically and even physically ( health wise). Many times we have seen in past many future predictions of experts have gone wrong as no one is God here . Your loss is your loss , your mental distress is your distress and so only you have to safeguard against it .  

Remember the famous proverb at Railways Stations “Passengers please take care of your own luggage”. Same way in investment  “ Investors please take care of your own money “ . So please follow the three stated principles to safeguard your investment interest.

Understanding “Atmanirbhar “ as a Layman

Understanding “Atmanirbhar “ as a Layman

Lots of economic stimulus package given to help all segment of society and economy in general. Different experts have different view on it. Some are praising and some finding shortcomings . There is political affiliation also in individual expert or economist view point so one can not say if it is devoid of any bias or prejudice . If a layman reads two  divergent view reports he will get confused on which to believe as both from highly learned economist and expert .  

I have tried to explain to the layman with a layman perspective .

Indian government has already deposited a huge chunk of money directly in the banks account of crores of poor still many find it quite less . Some Opposition leaders and even economists aligned with them advocating of more and more money to be given to poor .

Assuming we have 10 crore poor families in about 35-40 crore total families  Indian government  decides to put total of 100000 crore ( 1 lakh crore ) in the bank accounts of poor . How much to put in each account . lets say 10000 in each so that each of 10 crore poor will get 10000 each . how long this money will last ? 1 month , 2 month ? what after that ?. Will government again shell out another 100000 crore ( 1 lakh crore )? . Its getting into an unending cycle of transfer of money every month . With revenue growth already under stress  is it a viable solution ?. Yes its very bad time for poor and they need to be ensured of 3 time meal at least but it is bad time for revenue generators ( business ) in the economy as well . We need a balanced approach to fight present crisis .  

Lets see this with an example . A family requires 10 litre of water in a day for drinking . for that they store it in a bucket of say 100 litre . If they just keep consuming this reserve will  be over by 10^th day . what will they do then ?. So if there is continuous consumption, simultaneously there has to be regular filling of bucket also . From where water will come to fill the bucket on daily basis ? It simply means there is another (3^rd ) much bigger storage with much larger capacity not only to fill 1 bucket but many buckets daily and not keep providing consumption requirement of 10 litre to one family but to many families . That BIG STORAGE is what we call ECONOMY .

Now lets understand Atmanirbhar . In simple layman words it is allocation of capital to all sectors of economy to boost consumption ( cater to demand ) , to boost production (cater to supply ) . Supply and demand are two end of same thread . Job and People are vital ingredient in this thread . In my view it’s a very holistics view with a balanced approach to get out of economic slump where people , money , job , livelihood , companies , industries all integrated together .

We need to make labour as productive asset ( providing job/self employment  and making them to earn ) and not a liability asset ( make them idle and just keep feeding them 3 times of food ) .China has made its huge population as productive asset and is a economic giant today and India has followed making population as liability asset (feeding them and not making every individual Atmanirbhar )   . So this is Atmanirbhar all about . Slowly every citizen has to become a productive asset and self reliant and make India a self reliant economy which develops a capability to withstand all economic shocks like USA , Japan and other developed countries .

How Diversification helps in reducing the Portfolio Risk

How Diversification helps in reducing the Portfolio Risk

Many people feel that they can also construct a portfolio on their own or manage risk on their own. This thought comes when (1) market is having a bull run and one makes money in almost all equity stocks (2) when they see return going down and feel risk has not been managed so why to invest through a professional manager.

Diversification is not just buying securities from different industries but much more than it.

This article is to make them aware how risk is managed through diversification which a normal person howsoever learned he may be, can not do the way the professional fund manager does. This article will talk on those aspects.

·        Investment process – (1) security selection based on risk –return of available investment alternatives (2) best Portfolio selection from the set of feasible portfolios.

·        Having an Optimal portfolio in any given situation. Optimal Portfolio is one which gives maximum return at a given level of portfolio risk OR has minimum risk for a given level of return.

·        As per fund mandate, Portfolio is made based on type of security. Security is selected after security analysis based on fundamental and technical factors with due emphasis on economic and industry analysis.

·        Business Cycle is forecasted:  The current state of the business cycle gets incorporated into asset prices. Fund Manager makes decisions based on future economic conditions. It is important to evaluate and also forecast changes in economic variables.

·        A strong relationship exists between the economy and the stock market.

·        Security markets reflect what is expected to go on in the economy because the value of an investment is determined by (1) its expected cash flows (2) required rate of return (i.e., the discount rate). Both gets impacted by economic situation.

·        Stock prices consistently turn before the economy does. Stock prices are forward looking. Stock prices reflect expectations of earnings, dividends, and interest rates. Stock market reacts to various leading indicators. Very important to assess, understand and analyze the trend which only a professional can do well.

·        So, what a professional manager does – (1) Analyses Economic situation and predicts probability of different economic scenario (2) Allocation of capital accordingly for best possible return (3) sector rotation (4) security selection (5) strategy and style for better performance of fund

Let’s take an example of a portfolio management in a span of time say 5 years and how diversification helps in reduction of risk.

·        Few things we need to understand in all these 5 years, economic condition might not remain the same. For some months it can be very good and some months normal and some months could be very bad (like present situation).

·        For simplicity sake and for quick understanding let’s take a portfolio with 2 securities.

·        Portfolio risk is measured by Portfolio variance of return and Portfolio Standard deviation of return.

·        Portfolio variance of return and Portfolio Standard deviation of return is less than that of individual securities ?

·        Its because of Covariance and Co-efficient of correlation.  

·        Portfolio return is weighted average of expected return of individual security but Portfolio risk is not the weighted average of expected risk of individual security but the interplay of two securities also play a role and that where diversification helps in reduction of securities.

·        Co movements or interplay between returns of securities are measured by the covariance (an absolute measure) and coefficient of correlation (a relative measure)

·        Covariance reflects the degree to which the returns of the two securities vary or change together

·        Positive covariance between 2 securities means the return of the 2 securities move in same direction (positive or negative) whereas negative covariance between 2 securities means the return of the 2 securities move in opposite direction (if positive in one then negative in another and vice versa)

·        Coefficient of correlation is simply covariance divided by product of Standard deviation of the two securities

·        Coefficient of correlation is from -1 (perfectly negatively correlated or perfect co movement in opposite direction) to +1 (perfectly positively correlated or perfect co-movement in same direction). 0 means no correlation or co movement. If Coefficient of correlation is -1 it means if return of security A is x then return of security B is -x and vice versa. Similarly, If Coefficient of correlation is +1 it means if return of security A is x then return of security B is also x and vice versa

·        For Portfolio risk we need information on weighted individual security risk and weighted co-movement between the returns of securities included in the portfolio

·        Portfolio Risk in case of 2 security is:

Variance = σ_p² = w₁²σ₁² + w₂²σ₂² + 2 w₁w₂σ₁σ₂ρ₁₂

Standard Deviation = σ_p = (w₁²σ₁² + w₂²σ₂² + 2 w₁w₂σ₁σ₂ρ₁₂)^1/2

(σ_p² is the Variance of the portfolio return, w₁ and w₂ are weights of security 1 and 2 in portfolio, σ₁² and σ₂² are the variance of return of the of individual security 1 and 2 and σ₁σ₂ρ₁₂ is the covariance of the returns on security 1 and 2)

·        Fund Manager will ensure that covariance between the two securities and Coefficient of correlation has been negative . That has helped the reduction of Portfolio Risk .

·        It’s a not possible for a normal investor to calculate these complex variables, select securities keeping them in mind and construct a portfolio to give least of Portfolio risk (Variance and Standard deviation in portfolio return)

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Lets see a portfolio with more than 2 securities

·        In a portfolio you have many securities, may be 10, 15 , 22, ….. If there are 10 securities portfolios then it will have 10 variance and 90 covariance (10*9). If say there are 30 securities then it will have 30 variances and 870 covariances (30*29). Is it possible for a normal investor to calculate so many covariances?.

·        One thing also important to note as the nos of securities increases the impact of individual security variance (individual security risks) becomes less and impact of covariance increases in overall portfolio risk

·        Hence the Portfolio Risk (Variance) of a well-diversified portfolio is largely dependent on Covariance. The lower it is, risk gets further reduced. If it is negative that is the best situation. This is where role of diversification helps in reduction of portfolio risk

·        With more securities added in portfolio the portfolio risk keeps reducing, reaches a minimum level (not zero). For each type of portfolio there could be maximum number of securities desired to make Portfolio risk to a minimum level. Beyond that if more securities added will not help in further reduction of portfolio risk. Its not easy for a common person to know what is that maximum number of securities.

·        Portfolio total risk cannot reduce beyond a certain level because there exists systematic risk also (from economic and market factors) also along with unsystematic risk (company specific risk).

·        In an Equity fund portfolio since asset is same, they will have positive covariance. But there also diversification can be done considering the nature of business and effort is to reduce the covariance as far as possible.

Conclusion:

·        In a scenario where there are so many economic variables which impacts industries, securities and security market in different way the best way to manage risk and get optimal return is by investing through a professional Fund Management like Mutual Fund.

·        Why Mutual Fund – (1) Research is the key in Fund management (2) Top Down approach (Economy – Industry -Company) is followed methodically (3) Security selection more on fundamental factors (4) tactical allocation done more to take short term market advantage