5 Effective Ways to Track Your Mutual Fund Investment Performance
August 17, 2023 Mutual Fund
Investment in mutual funds has become popular among investors over the past several years. With the market experiencing substantial expansion and change, it becomes more important than ever to select the ideal mutual fund to optimise returns on investment.
However, just investing in suitable mutual funds isn’t enough. After making an investment in mutual funds, you must periodically monitor the performance of those funds. While investing in mutual funds is a complex process, tracking your investments is the final piece you need to put together to ensure everything is going as planned.
Why One Should Track the Mutual Fund Performance?
When you are travelling to a destination, you plan the route for the same; you may set the GPS and start driving accordingly. Now on the way, you may face various challenges such as car breakdowns, landslides or road blockages, weather concerns etc. In this case, you either take a different mode of transport or change the way to reach your destination.
Similarly, with mutual funds, you may invest to achieve your long-term financial goals; however, a lot can happen from when you invest to when you reach your goals. This includes the impact of uncertainty in the macroeconomic events, high market volatility, geopolitical concerns, natural calamity or pandemic, etc., which could influence the performance of your mutual fund portfolio.
Even when you invest for the long term, you still need to monitor the performance of your mutual fund investments occasionally. Then only you will be able to determine how well your assets are doing. If not, you can swap out the underperforming funds for more effective ones. You can do the mutual fund tracking by yourself by taking a financial advisor’s help or using a mutual fund portfolio tracker.
Read further to find out more about how to track your mutual fund investments…
In this era of AI-driven technology and ease of access to information, it has become relatively easy to keep track of investment and portfolio performance. Financial experts usually provide updates and review statements that track portfolio and scheme performance. Even in the absence of this guidance, there are several websites and mobile apps that track mutual fund investment performance.
Investors should have some understanding of their own investments, even if SEBI-registered investment advisors play a crucial role in your financial journey. You don’t have to sit there staring at confusing graphs and spreadsheets, so don’t worry. Simply use the many tools at your disposal to keep track of your mutual fund assets.
Unlike stocks, it makes little sense to examine the performance of mutual funds on a daily or monthly basis, but you should keep an eye on it on a semi-annual or yearly basis. But how can I monitor my mutual fund investments? – Thanks to digitalization, which has made it possible to achieve this, take a look at this:
Here’s 5 Simple Ways to Track Your Mutual Fund Performance:
1. Mutual Fund Fact Sheet
A mutual fund’s fact sheet is a good starting point if you want to begin tracking your mutual fund performance. All Asset Management Companies (AMCs) are required to release ‘Fact Sheets’ of every mutual fund scheme and update it monthly with detailed information regarding the scheme. This document contains all the information, including the most recent portfolio allocation, NAV, fund managers, and investment performance.
A one-page summary of mutual fund scheme with a focus on the portfolio and performance is called a mutual fund fact sheet. It functions as a report card for mutual funds and provides information on the fund’s health. Fact sheet of a mutual fund includes:
- Key information about the scheme such as name, objective, expense ratio, fund manager and his expertise, assets under management (AUM), net asset value (NAV), portfolio turnover, and modified duration (for debt funds)
- It is important that AMC discloses the portfolio every month and declares the investment details, i.e., where the fund invests the money, asset allocation by sector or by the rating of debt securities.
- Since mutual funds are subject to market risk, it is important to check the risk-adjusted returns and other volatility measures – like Sharpe ratio, standard deviation, beta, modified duration, tracking error, and portfolio yield.
- The fact sheet includes data regarding the mutual fund returns and SIP (systematic investment plan) returns. It also compares the returns with the benchmark to evaluate if the scheme has outperformed/underperformed.
[Read: How to Compare Mutual Funds]
You may learn more about the latest changes in the scheme portfolios and analyse their performance by visiting the official website of the specific fund house, mutual fund distributor, or other financial organisation providing the fact sheet data.
2. Consolidated Account Statement (CAS)
A consolidated account statement (CAS) is a statement of all financial transactions in a month done under the same PAN (permanent account number) across fund houses and mutual fund folios. As per the guidelines, investors are entitled to receive CAS from CDSL (Central Depository Services Limited) or NSDL (National Securities Depository Limited) for months when there has been a financial transaction in their mutual fund portfolio.
While the CAS is sent to the registered email address of the investors, you can also access the statement online by visiting the official CAMS website.
- Log in to the https://www.camsonline.com/ website and click on MF investors;
- Select ‘CAS-CAMS’ under the ‘Statements’ menu to get a consolidated view of your mutual funds across RTAs;
- Now, enter your registered email ID and provide a password for the document (you also have the option to choose a specific folio listing and the period for which you want the CAS statement);
- An email will be sent to your registered email ID. To open the document, enter the same password to access your CAS.
Without having to consult different account statements for each investment, a CAS statement makes it easier for investors to monitor their investments and their performance. It entails all acts that have an impact on the value of mutual fund investments, such as new purchases, redemptions, switches, dividends, bonus units, and other transactions.
3. AMC’s Mobile App/Web Portal
CAS could be helpful for investors to get review mutual fund investments in-depth, but how will you track investments for months when you don’t perform any transactions? The answer is logging into the AMC website or mobile app.
Today’s tech-savvy investors can view the performance of their mutual funds by logging into the website or mobile application of the fund house or MF distributor. For example, if you’ve invested in ABC mutual fund, you can log in to their portal to track the performance of your fund. However, if this strategy might be time-consuming if you have investments in mutual funds of multiple AMCs.
4. Online Portfolio Trackers
If you have invested in mutual fund schemes from multiple AMCs, the above methods could be time-consuming as you will have to log into each AMC account individually. Using one of the free online portfolio trackers will make this work easier. Several platforms have built online tracking tools which can do more than just tracking. In case any fund is underperforming, they even suggest better alternative.
These trackers allow you to analyse schemes across fund houses, it will track the performance of your mutual fund investments. Initially, you may need to input details of your mutual fund holdings. Once your portfolio is updated, the daily NAVs are updated automatically so that you can see the market value of your portfolio at any point of time. It also offers features like evaluate asset allocation, shifts in the portfolio mix (exposure to equity and debt), Keep a tab on gains & losses. These online portfolio trackers are easy to access anywhere and anytime.
5. SEBI-registered Investment Advisor
A SEBI-registered investment advisor is the most conventional technique to monitor the success of your mutual fund investments. If you are just getting started with mutual funds, you should speak with a skilled, SEBI-registered investment advisor who can help you select the appropriate schemes based on your investment goals and risk tolerance. Additionally, the advisor may monitor your assets and provide financial guidance to assist you maximise your returns.
So, these are the ways one can track their mutual fund investment performance, However, while comparing the mutual fund scheme performance, one can do so by assessing a variety of qualitative and quantitative parameters.
[Read: How to Evaluate a Mutual Fund Scheme’s Performance]
In conclusion, no matter how you track your mutual fund investments, reviewing the portfolio at periodic intervals is essential to ensure that it aligns with investor’s risk appetite, investment horizon and steadily assists you to achieve your financial goals.
This article first appeared on PersonalFN here
