An investment is a sacrifice of current money or other resources for future benefits. The sacrifice takes place now and is certain. The benefit is expected in the future and tends to be uncertain. The investment process consists of two tasks. The first task is security analysis which focuses on assessing the risk and return characteristics of the available stocks. The second task is portfolio selection which involves choosing the best possible portfolio from the set of feasible portfolios or…    Read More >>

On August 10th 2011, the third trading day after the S&P downgrade of the US credit rating, the treasury yields sank to record lows. The 2 year yield hit 16 bps, the lowest ever, 3 year quoted at 31 bps, 5 year yields traded at 92 bps and the 10 year yields dropped to 213 bps, finally breaking below 200 bps 2 weeks later. The treasuries rallied and the stocks crashed after the U.S rating downgrade. The markets experienced crazy…    Read More >>

UBS’s trading woes came true at the worst possible time. As if the global financial turmoil 2.0 was not enough, UBS gave markets a hint that it will be reporting a unprofitable third quarter after a $2 billion loss from unauthorized trading. The man behind the scenes is 31 year old Kweku Adoboli, Director ETF and Delta1 Trading at UBS Investment Bank. UBS shares tanked 10%+ and the scandal wiped £4 billion off the value of shares in UBS affecting…    Read More >>

With the double dip recession in sight and the worst of the first decade of the 21st Century, we have seen the resilience and robustness of the Indian Financial System. We have also seen a spree of activities at an unprecedented pace in India. Policy makers are thinking of reforms day and night and many of these are getting implemented to change the face of India. Though India has gracefully steered clear of the global slowdown, the task ahead is…    Read More >>

In India, trading in the stock markets is often treated as the gambling. To say the truth it is to some extent, just with a certain risk-reward ratio attached to it which is up to the trader to decide. I have often been asked about the one “holy grail trading strategy” which will always get you the winning trades. There got to be one right with mathematics and algorithmic trading advancing so much. I hate to break the news and…    Read More >>

India has aggressive targets for GDP growth rate at 8 percent to 10 percent per annum and would require USD 1 trillion to fund infrastructure requirements during the Twelfth Five Year Plan period. In order to achieve this target, it requires a massive capital for which debt market can contribute significantly. Although the corporate debt market is an alternative source of funding, it is still at its nascent stage in India. The corporate debt market in India is merely 6.5%…    Read More >>

26 Feb 2010 Budget Speech by Finance Minister:- “To promote savings as well as to ensure their utilization for the thrust area of infrastructure, I propose to allow a deduction of an additional amount of Rs.20,000 for investment in long-term infrastructure bonds as notified by the Central Government. This would be over and above the existing limit of Rs.1 lakh on tax savings. I am sure that these reliefs will put more money in the hands of individual taxpayers for…    Read More >>

As I write this article on 9th August, 2011 the total public debt of USA stands at $14, 590, 253, 225, 0662 according to US debt clock, including the $238 billion by which the US debt shot up as soon as the debt ceiling was raised just before August 2nd and at the current rate it is all set to grow to $15 trillion by the time 2011 ends. US debt is already hovering near to 100% of its GDP….    Read More >>

India embarked on its journey to complete full financial integration with the global markets two decades ago. After 1991, India started to adopt free market policies like liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation. During the same time it also started to shift its exchange rate policy from a pegged exchange rate to a managed float exchange rate system. In the process India achieved full current account convertibility and partial capital account convertibility. At present, India is facing many problems like high fiscal…    Read More >>

As the business environment is becoming increasingly global and companies are listing themselves in stock exchanges of various countries, the need for a common platform and framework for understanding and reporting of accounts is increasing. Looking at a broader picture, bringing about a convergence to the International Financial Reporting Standards or IFRS by various group entities will enable the management to bring all the components of the group on a common financial reporting platform. This will eliminate the need for…    Read More >>