I have a friend who is a firm believer of insurance products. He buys a new insurance policy every year and sometimes even two policies in a year.

"The ethical is always more robust than the legal. Over time, it is the legal that should converge to the ethical, never the reverse," wrote Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author, Skin in the Game.

In an unprecedented move, HDFC AMC decided to offer Rs 500 crore liquidity from its own book to some of its FMP schemes that have exposure to 

The equity investors were at the receiving end of the volatility most of the time. However, in the last nine months, investors of debt funds are facing the brunt of bouts of volatility. After a series of liquidity crises hitting the debt market in the last few months, investors are getting jittery about their debt fund portfolio. The downgrading of these companies' paper by rating agencies has only added fuel to the fire. This has led to many investors selling their debt investments. Is it really that bad a situation? 

Mutual funds now have another category of asset to invest in. The recent circular by market regulator, SEBI, has allowed the mutual fund schemes to invest in commodity derivatives through ETCDs (Exchange Traded Commodity Derivatives).

A journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step. The recent step taken by Franklin Templeton India, one of the largest asset management companies (AMC) in India, will help mutual fund investors to earn more on their investments.

Financial freedom for many of us may be a top priority. Nevertheless, the complexity and diversity of the financial goals of an individual makes most of the financial products inappropriate for the purpose to attain the goals.

One of the basic questions in the minds of debt mutual fund investors now is: what will be a suitable investment strategy to adopt after the recent cut in key policy rates by the RBI? This is the second consecutive rate cut by the apex bank in the last few months.

The latest figure from the MF industry body AMFI shows that the net inflows into equity mutual funds have slowed down to their lowest level in the last two years. The same is being reflected in MF investments in the equity markets; however, the fall is much steeper.

The Indian equity markets might have got their mojo back. This is reflected in the rise of the key equity indices. They are up by 3 per cent to 10 per cent in a month till date.