A Step by Step Guide to Register for NCFM

For the sole objective to test practical knowledge and other skill sets required to operate the financial market, NCFM came into existence. People possessing the requisite skills and knowledge about finance can deliver quality inter-mediation following a code of conduct for the particular field. Therefore, the National Stock Exchange introduced a system that conducts tests and certifies people to build a career in the financial market, known as NSE's Certification in Financial Market (NCFM).

There are a few steps you are required to follow in order to register and prepare for the NCFM examination. They are mentioned below:

• Registration

You can register online by visiting the official NCFM website and clicking the 'Online Registration' tab in order to enroll. Once you are registered, you will receive a registration number and a User ID along with a password. Therefore, you can make payments and additional edits related to your current residential address, etc. You are required to remember your registration ID because you will have to re-use the same for all forms and modules of enrollments.

• Upload Photograph

All candidates can upload photographs online by accessing the link provided to them by NCFM website. Certain things need to be remembered such as the photo size and a solution to reduce the photo size. A passport size photograph is required for it to be printed on your certificate. Therefore, you are required to look into the size and make additional changes if your photo size is too small or too large.

• Payment

All candidates can make easy payments through the same login ID and the fee once paid is non-refundable. Also, you can make payments by making use of your credit/debit card that will be reflected immediately on the NCFM website. Net banking is equally effective.

• Enrollment

Candidates are required to enroll by visiting the website and clicking on the following link: 'Enrollment / Book your seat'. You will receive a notification through an SMS or your email ID.

You are required to take the test at the designated NSE.IT centre. Make sure you are present at the location at least 30 minutes prior to the time allotted to you along with all your essential documents. Certifications are provided to all successful candidates while the failed candidates receive their score cards.

All You Need to Know About Car Financing

Owing a car, especially in today’s day and age, has become more of a necessity. In a country like India especially, buying one is the second most expensive purchase that most of us would make, second only to our home. In all probability, the price of the car you’re considering will be a tad out of your budget, and realizing this there are a lot of financial establishments who come up with car financing options to enable to you to buy the car. These days you could apply for car finance online and even if you choose to go the traditional offline way, you would only need basic documents like proof of id, address, income, etc.

So what is Car financing? Simply put, it is a form of secured loan where you provide your car as collateral. As far as the actual loan amount is concerned, it is calculated based on factors such as current value of the car, the type of car, value of the car is the second hand market, deprecation rate of the car, etc. Most financial establishments will however, offer up to 100% of the on-road cost or at least 90% of the ex-showroom cost.

Moving on to repayment tenure; car financing companies normally set the repayment tenure between 1 to 5 years. As far as EMIs are concerned; the lower the repayment tenure the higher the EMIs tend to be and vice versa. Now, what if you default on default on a payment? Most establishments will let you to default up to two payments. Any more than that and they can have the right to seize your car. Loan defaults have a direct impact on your credit rating, which then makes it extremely tough for you to apply for a loan in future.

Moving to interest rates; you can choose between a fixed and variable one. Also, considering how popular car financing is, financial establishments have extremely competitive interest rates. You can also negotiate the interest rate and try to bring it down. Typically, if you are a devoted patron of a particular financial establishment, they will lower their interest rates for you.

Now that you have a better understanding about car financing, it is wise to go ahead do through research to see for yourself what car finance option best suits your needs.

A Guide to Open Ended Funds

A fund that is not restricted to the number of shares issued especially during the conditions when the demand is high or low is known as an Open Ended Fund. Also, it is quite flexible since an investor is free to sell it back; thus, a majority of funds are known to be open-ended and are extremely convenient in terms of being an investment vehicle. If the investment manager realizes that the total assets have become too large to manage and execute, he/she will open the investment for newer investors rather than continuing with the existing ones.

In the meanwhile, a close-ended fund is one of the mutual funds in India that is fixed and only sells a particular number of units and the existing investors cannot exit the term until the scheme ends. The price is also affected by the demand and supply of fund units. Close-ended funds offer to repurchase the units which results in an avenue for more liquidity.

Although close-ended funds are free from worries related to the fund size and regular redemption, open ended funds are still better to deal with and have performed better than their counterpart. The average return of a close-ended fund is about 7.38, 6.28 and 2.83 percent whereas open-ended funds have generated about 6.54, 8.86 and 3.36 percent of returns (same time period, i.e., a year).

The most preferred fund: Open-ended

A few examples would help you identify the kind of fund you would invest in. On the 22^nd of March, HSBC Unique Opportunities Fund, a close-ended fund converted into an open-ended fund due to the fact that it was unable to return the principal amount against the greater returns provided by an open-ended fund.

Performance issues

Open-ended funds have always outperformed its counterpart and peers especially during the market fall in the year 2008 all the way up to 2009.

NFO

The main purpose of launching close-ended fund schemes were to maximize investment and receive gains in a short duration after which one could make a hasty exit as soon as the scheme reopens for subscription. This was due to the fact that long term investors had to pay heavy duty; therefore, open ended funds were a way to eradicate the high costs.

Premature withdrawals

One of the sole reasons for the suffering and near demise of close-ended funds was the fact that there arose monthly redemption's and premature withdrawals were penalized which resulted in withdrawals from the investors. If there is a rush for redemption, then mutual funds managers need to sell liquid stocks and the market only constitute of illiquid stocks, which require some time recover. Due to the premature redemption's, close-ended fund suffer because new money is not allowed to enter the fund.

Also, a lack of monitoring affects close-ended funds, turning open-ended funds into a more desirable option for investors.  Also, there is nothing unique to offer from a close-ended fund’s point of view, therefore it is advisable to choose an open-ended fund.

Tips to Buy Used Cars in India

Many people, while buying a car decide to opt for a used car. Used cars are bought when the driver is less experienced and want to have more experience before they invest in a brand new car.

Buying a brand new car can put a lot of financial burden than buying a used car. Moreover, there are several used car finance options available that make this a favorable option. However, it is highly important to keep in mind certain factors before making the final decision that will help you get a steal deal.

Follow some of the below mentioned tips which will ease your challenging task of buying a car.

• Budget – Always fix your budget and then start looking for a car. This will help you narrow down the search and reduce the hassle for yourself and the agent. Make sure you discuss your budget with the agent and ask him to look for cars that exactly fit the budget.
• Type of Car – Once you have decided the budget, the next task is for you to decide the type of car you wish to buy. Analyse your requirements and select car that fits into it perfectly. It is really important for you to decide whether to go for a petrol car or a diesel car.
• Fuel Economy – India is country which is obsessed with the concept of fuel efficiency. With petrol prices rising every moment it is extremely necessary to select a car which offers you decent fuel efficiency.
• Seller – It is always necessary to buy the car from an authorized dealer. Almost all major car companies have a separate wing which purely concentrates on selling used cars.  Purchasing car from such a dealer will ensure that the after sales and services will be taken care of.
• Physical Check – Once you are done selecting the model, make sure you do a physical check of the vehicle. You can check the history of the car, the distance travelled, age of the vehicle, original papers, and certificates.

How to successfully prepare for your CFP Examination

The Certified Financial Planner examination is undertaken for people aiming to become finance professions and investors. This examination will ensure that a student is professionally competent for these designations while also ensuring an increase in business. So if you wish to pursue a career in stock broking, insurance agency, to become a tax professional, a loan officer, a banker, etc. this examination should be on your priority list.

There are certain things to keep in mind while preparing for these certified financial planner examinations.

They are:

• Preparation techniques

Well if you have passed our school and college by simply taking tests in order to display one's retention skills, and then think again. This examination demands much more than retention of the material studied, it requires you to merge your syllabus and your reasoning skills in planning department of finance. So memorizing the syllabus only is not an option for those who wish to score in this examination.

• Special kind of reasoning

The CPF board has special methods for its reasoning questions and one may find difficulty in deciphering their methods and how they came to a conclusion for a particular question. Hence you need to solve the previous years' question papers in order to broaden your horizons and pass the examination.

• Minimum passing marks

You do not receive a percentage such as a 50% or a 60% for the examination undertaken. You only receive a ‘pass’ or ‘fail’ response for the test/examination.

• Do not leave out any question

You should ensure that you attempt every question since there is no negative marking. Even if it means that you guess a few answers that you aren't sure of, but it is highly advised that you should attempt every question.

• Ensure you provide more weightage to studying tax

According to most, the tax section is the most difficult to learn, memorize and apply. Hence you need to spend more time on that subject.

• Try enrolling into a class for courses related to the examination

These courses are ways and means to ensure you avail help in order to avail and assimilate all possible information about the course work through the help of an instructor.

FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) in the Indian Insurance Sector

FDI or Foreign Direct Investment in the insurance sector has been a political hot topic for almost six years now. So, what does FDI in insurance mean? To answer this, we first need to understand what FDI is and what happens when a country like ours accepts direct investments from another country.

FDI, simply put, is a direct investment, by an individual or a company of another country, into business or production services of a country. This could be done in two ways viz. by either expanding the business in or by possibly buying a company in India.

Let's examine the condition of India's insurance sector. The Indian insurance sector has been in a state of constant unrest. It is facing a lot of problems due to reasons like rising costs, political reforms being stopped, etc. Thus, even though the insurance industry in India grew significantly in past decade, the Indian market still remains largely untapped. The Indian insurance industry needs to revived, and hence, the Indian government proposed to hike the foreign holding in joint insurance ventures from the 26% to 49%.

So, what are the benefits of increasing FDI in the insurance sector? There are plenty, but let’s take a look the four important ones:

1.  More money coming in will help new insurance companies to enter the market
2. Companies will be able to offer better and wide range of insurance products at extremely competitive prices
3. Companies will get product and technological expertise from their foreign counterparts
4. Companies will have to improve their infrastructure and better their operations to tap into the uninsured markets, which will lead to an increase in jobs

The good news is that, after going back and forth for almost six year, the government has finally given a go ahead to increase the FDI limit. With this happening, the insurance sector is looking at a capital inflow of nearly Rs. 60, 000 Crore in 2015.

Top Three Ways to Assess Your Funds Performance

Mutual funds are collective investment vehicles that offer substantial capital gains over investments. They are professionally managed by experts, or group of experts who are well-versed with the working of financial markets. They tap lucrative opportunities to earn profits over the underlying investments, and thus guarantee capital appreciation for the amount invested.

Mutual fund's performance plays a key role in determining the return rate of any scheme. It is a crucial factor that investors assess and verify before shortlisting a scheme. So, emphasis is laid on the funds' performance while selecting a scheme.

There are several factors that are known to affect the performance of a scheme.

The top three factors that directly influence the performance include :-

• NAV Rates

NAV stands for Net Asset Value. It is defined as the per unit value of mutual fund scheme. It is calculated by dividing the total asset value of the scheme to the total number of units. Latest Mutual Funds NAV are computed on daily basis. The closing price of the underlying securities is utilized to calculate the NAV of a scheme. Thus, higher the NAV, better is the performance of the fund.

• Yield

This is defined as the income generated by any mutual fund. It is independent of the capital value of the underlying assets. This makes it almost independent off the NAV rates of any scheme. The yield of a scheme is directly dependent on the dividend payments of the underlying securities. Thus, if some of the underlying stocks provide heavy dividend, then the Yield of the scheme will increase significantly.

• Total Gain

This is determined by assessing the performance of a fund for a particular period of time. Generally, investors consider a time frame of 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, and 3 years. This gives investors a better picture on the performance of fund.