Mutual funds: First time investors should look for these details while comparing the schemes

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Also Read: Mutual funds: How to tweak investment in hybrid schemes for a balanced portfolio? Some of the technical terms which an investor would find online are Sharpe ratio, Beta, standard deviation, Alpha, Sortino Ratio, R-Squared etc .These technical terms indicate risk, consistency, volatility, performance etc. Without knowing these factors well you will not be able to choose a scheme which fits your risk profile.

It should be more than convincing that the above points and the technical attributes are very critical information about the funds and decisions taken without considering them will not be any less than uninformed decisions. Also it's not just at the time of investing, it's throughout the journey of the investment that this information is highly relevant, which a lay investor would be unaware of .

This information miss could mean a substantial miss in the return opportunity and risk suitability.

Also Read: Mutual Funds: Monthly SIP of ₹12,000 in this value fund would have grown to ₹36 lakh in 10 years The information online portals provide on the landing pages are more about past performance , risk and the current portfolio. As the disclaimers of mutual funds read, "The past performance of the mutual funds is not necessarily indicative of future performance of the schemes".

So, clearly the information which easily hits our eyes like a great past performance, have very little relevance with regards to the investment decision as your investment is for the future and long term when the past performance and the current portfolio can change completely. Also, the present portfolio which would have delivered in the recent past could have already lost steam and there is no guarantee that it would perform in the