This is a debt mutual fund screener for portfolio selection, tracking, and learning. It also includes hybrid funds that invest in bonds. It will satisfy investors who wish to invest in money market funds, banking PSU funds, etc. The credit quality of the bonds in the portfolio and the bond maturity profile can be tracked.
Instead of looking at average credit rating and average portfolio duration (maturity) – which can be misleading ) – the sheet lists the weights to ratings like AAA, AA, A, etc. It also divides the bonds maturing within a year, three years, five years and above. This allows the user to understand better credit and interest rate risks in a fund or fund category.
The file (in Excel without macros so that it will open in any spreadsheet software) contains the following sheets (each has the Excel data filter function enabled)
- Fund Asset Allocation: This is relevant for hybrid funds. It lists the equity: debt mix.
- Credit Rating: The % of the portfolio in AAA, AA, A, A1, A2, A3, BBB, etc., are listed.
- Maturity profile: The % of portfolio bonds maturing within a year, within 1-3 years, within 3-5 years and above five years are listed.
- Upgrades or downgrades List of bonds that have seen upgrades or downgrades are listed (latest factsheet data compared with previous factsheet data)
- YTM Mod duration Avg Maturity (see below)
- Returns: This lists some trailing returns with some representative benchmarks. Please do not judge debt funds by returns!!
- Offer: discounted links to our two courses: How to get people to pay for your skills (aka earn from skills) and the lectures on goal-based portfolio management.
- 25 Categories are covered:
- Aggressive Hybrid Fund
- Arbitrage Fund
- Balanced Advantage
- Banking and PSU Fund
- Conservative Hybrid Fund
- Corporate Bond
- Credit Risk Fund
- Dynamic Asset Allocation
- Dynamic Bond
- Equity Savings
- Floating Rate
- Gilt Fund with a 10-year constant duration
- Liquid
- Long Duration
- Low Duration
- Medium Duration
- Medium to Long Duration
- Money Market
- Multi-Asset Allocation
- Overnight Fund
- Short & Mid Term
- Short Duration
- Solution-Oriented – Children’s Fund
- Solution-Oriented – Retirement Fund
- Ultra Short Duration
How to use the sheet
Use 1: To learn more about debt funds.
- If you are new to debt funds, you can download the beginners’ guide to understanding debt funds from our e-books page (there are six other free ebooks!).
- Before using the screener, you need to know what modified duration stands for (a measure of interest rate risk, higher the value, higher the NAV fluctuations). Average portfolio maturity also measures interest rate risk (duration risk). The higher this value, the higher the risk. Note this risk is present in all types of funds, even if they do not take credit risk.
- Yield to maturity information measures risk, not reward or returns!! The higher the YTM, the higher the credit risk in the portfolio.
- Once you understand the basics of credit and internet risk, you can use the screener to learn how different fund categories invest in various bonds.
Use 2: To shortlist funds with good credit quality (these are broad thumb rules only, not investment advice)
- For this, you have to be clear about your needs.
- If your need is in 1-3 years, look for funds that predominantly invest in bonds that mature within 12 months
- If your need is in 5 years, look for funds that predominantly invest in bonds that mature within 12 months (conservative) or 1-3 years
- If your need is in 5-10 years, look for funds that predominantly invest in bonds that mature within 1-3 years
- if your need is above ten years, you can consider funds that predominantly invest in bonds that mature within 3-5 years (conservative) or above five years (will have interest rate risk and credit risk if non-gilt funds are used)
- The above steps can be used to shortlist the categories. Then, you can look at the category’s credit rating profile. You can shortlist funds with only AAA or A1 bonds, gilts, etc.
- Please note: the data is as per the latest factsheet. Once you create a shortlist, read the scheme document to understand how much credit rating and bond duration can vary. Download past factsheets of the shortlisted funds to know how the modified duration, average maturity and YTM of the funds in your shortlist have changed in the past relative to current data.
- Once you know the nature of the bonds the fund will invest in and the associated credit and interest rate risks, you can pick a fund from your shortlist. Please note: debt fund investors must keep an eye on YTM, modified duration, and average maturity change in their funds occasionally.
Important Information
- This screener costs Rs. 300 and is meant for personal use only.
- Inside, you get discounted links to our two courses: How to get people to pay for your skills (aka earn from skills) and the lectures on goal-based portfolio management.
- The cost is only for the current month’s screener and the data in the sheet.
- While freefincal will do its best to publish updated screener sheets each month, we cannot guarantee it.
- The file contains no buy or sell recommendations and only has the abovementioned data.
- Disclaimer: Enough care and effort have been put into weeding out errors. However, we cannot guarantee that the sheet is free of error. Information for some funds could be missing. After creating a fund shortlist, users are advised to verify the data with the fund factsheet downloaded from the AMC site. No part of this sheet should be treated as investment advice. We are not responsible for any losses (or gains) that may arise in your investments or investment portfolio due to using this sheet.
- The buyer will have to research using the information in the spreadsheet. No recommendations or assistance are included in the sheet and will not be provided separately.
- We will not provide any further help or assistance in using the sheet.
- The sheet purchased is for personal use and should not be shared privately or publicly.
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Dr M. Pattabiraman(PhD) is the founder, managing editor and primary author of freefincal. He is an associate professor at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. He has over ten years of experience publishing news analysis, research and financial product development. Connect with him via Twitter(X), Linkedin, or YouTube. Pattabiraman has co-authored three print books: (1) You can be rich too with goal-based investing (CNBC TV18) for DIY investors. (2) Gamechanger for young earners. (3) Chinchu Gets a Superpower! for kids. He has also written seven other free e-books on various money management topics. He is a patron and co-founder of “Fee-only India,” an organisation promoting unbiased, commission-free investment advice.
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