Practitioners’ Insights: Fundamentals of Active Management: Delivering Returns while Minimizing Risk

Over the past couple of years, the Indian markets have performed very differently compared with many other global markets. Although this leads to a heightened expectation on future returns, it also makes future outperformance much more difficult for chief investment officers and fund managers. This market behaviour has been characterised by some interesting trends, such as excessively high investor interest in small- and mid-caps along with record retail participation in derivatives trading.

In this webinar, we will explore fundamentals of active investment management. We will focus on market trends, including sector-specific nuances—for example, active fund management in the context of how investing in the life insurance industry is different from other investments. Other issues are relevant for insurance business, such as the need for robust risk management and long-term thinking as well as how the CIOs respond to these challenges.

The webinar will also touch on issues like important global and local factors that shape CIO thinking, the likely trajectory for the Indian markets over a long-term horizon, and the broader macro-opportunity for investing in India. Anyone interested in exploring the investment landscape and these active management principles should join this webinar. This webinar will help you learn the intricacies of asset selection and how managers use it for portfolio management.

Learning Outcomes:

• Learn how investors should think about the market outlook and the likely impact of speedbumps arising because of local and global factors, such as geopolitics, elections, and the possible trajectory of monetary policy in India and the United States.
• Discuss the ways Indian markets have historically behaved when valuations went higher as well as the risk-reward that appears today.
• Examine the increase in retail participation and the developing culture of equities in Tier II and Tier III cities as well as how all this will play out in the medium to long term.
• Review future investing trends and the impact of demographics over the next few years.
• Evaluate ways that investments factor into characteristics of different segments in the markets, such as sectors and market-cap categories in the context of capital protection.
• Assess the role of asset class diversification and portfolio selection to achieve the highest possible returns with the lowest possible risks.
• Consider how different age-groups look at diversification as well as ways to manage investments more effectively and efficiently.

This is the archived version of a live webinar that took place on 18 July 2024