Ajay : Last year, equities gave great returns. Especially small caps gave a return of 59% in one year, whereas gold and silver gave negative returns. I am going to shift all my investments to small caps for the next one year.
Niraj : That would be the most foolish thing to do. You know that every year, a different asset class would do well. The last year’s number 1, could be this year’s bottom performer. The small cap which was a top performer in 2017, was the bottom performer in 2018.
Ajay : Oh yes. You are right. So then how do we come to know which asset class would perform in next one year ?
Niraj : We can’t come to know that. That’s why we should diversify our portfolio. We need to have equities, debt, gold, silver, real estate everything in our portfolio in the right proportion.
Ajay : Ok. So I have diversified my portfolio across equities and gold. But why Silver ?
Niraj : Silver is both noble metal and an industrial metal. Apart from Jewelry, it has huge application across various industries like Electronics, Catalysts, Bearings, Medicine, Water Purification etc.
In Near Future, the demand of silver will be further increasing because of rise in 3 industries :
Electric Vehicles
Green Energy – Solar panels
Semiconductor chips – 5G Technology
Source : Bloomberg
These 3 industries are expected to drastically increase the demand of silver by almost 8-10 times in next 10 years. And thus, Silver can add a silver lining to the portfolio.
Ajay : So are you suggesting that I should buy silver bars or silver coins ?
Niraj : You can buy them. But you would agree that holding physical silver has its own challenges – Purity, Storage cost, maintenance (silver needs regular cleaning) etc.
Ajay : So what is the way out ?
Niraj : I would suggest that you invest in a Silver Fund. This way, you will be able invest in silver, you will get the benefits of silver, but will not face the challenges of physical silver.
Ajay : O wow !! Do they have Silver Mutual Funds ?
Niraj : Fortunately yes. SEBI has recently given approval for Silver Mutual Funds. And In my opinion it can be a great addition to your portfolio.
Ajay : Thank you so much Niraj for clearing my doubts.
The Author Prof. Saurabh Bajaj (BE, MBA, FRM, CFGP, AFGP) is CEO with Nidhi Investments, Mumbai. His articles have a readership from 78 Countries across the Globe. He may be contacted on CEO@nidhiinvestments.com if you have any questions.
(The views mentioned in the article are personal opinion of the author)
Prof. Saurabh Bajaj is an Author, Mentor, Motivational Speaker and Wealth Planner.
He has done his MBA from Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS) Mumbai, one of the top 10 management institutes in India. He holds the prestigious FRM (Financial Risk Manager) degree awarded by Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP), USA. Till date, there are less than 15,000 professionals in the world, who have been honored with this degree. He has also been awarded CFGP (Chartered Financial Goal Planner) Certification by AAFM (American Academy of Financial Management).
After his MBA, he joined J P Morgan, the second largest Investment Bank in the world. He has worked with J P Morgan as Risk Analyst for more than two years.
Prof. Bajaj also holds an Advisory certification awarded by AMFI (Association of Mutual Funds of India). During his stint at Bombay Stock Exchange, he has handled Investment Management and Treasury operations of the BSE Corpus. He has set up an entrepreneurship venture in the field of Wealth Planning and Investment Consulting under the name “Nidhi Investments” and holds the profile of CEO.
Prof. Bajaj sits on the Expert Panel of CAClubindia.com and MBAClubindia.com as Investment Expert.
He is actively involved in investor education through his blog www.professorbajaj.com which has a readership from 78 Countries all over the world. His articles are also regularly published in caclubindia.com , mbaclubindia.com , totalca.com , charteredclub.com, bankbazaar.com and lawyersclubindia.com .
He has been awarded the title of “Best Article Writer” from caclubIndia.com in Jan 2012 and has been selected amongst “Top 5 Technical Writers” from all over India in Feb 2013.
He has been invited by various TV Channels like SPIN TV, CNBC TV18, UTV Bloomberg Etc for programs like "Expert Advice" , "What Markets Want ", "Budget Analysis" etc.
He has been invited by Several organisations like Lions Club, Rotary Club, Agrawal Welfare Foundation, Rajasthan Mandal, Agroha Vikas Trust, Union MF, UTI MF, Arthamitra Gurukulam, Vidyalankar Institute of Technology etc for expert lecture on "Smart Investing", "Life is A Celebration", "Financial Freedom", "The Digital IFA" etc.
He was ranked 8th Merit at All India level NMAT which got him selected for MBA programme at NMIMS, Mumbai. He did his MBA with Capital Markets as his specialisation.
Soft Skills has become an inevitable part of every selection process and teaching learning process these days. The students from small towns and tier II cities, in spite of being talented and well equipped with technical skills, are seen struggling in the selection process. This is because of their lack of exposure to these soft skills. Mr. Bajaj has a zeal for training candidates to develop these skills and has been imparting the same on since last two years. This zeal and passion inspired him to set up his own firm called “Knowledge Circle” which aims to train candidates for soft skills.
Till date, he has trained more than 5000 participants from over 220 organizations across various fields of soft skills.
He has been associated with MSBTE (Maharashtra State Board of Technical Education) to conduct Soft skills training workshop for the faculties of Polytechnic Colleges in Entire Maharashtra (Mumbai Region, Pune Region, Aurangabad Region and Nagpur Region) since last 8 years.
He has also been associated with ICAI (Institute of Chartered Accountants of India) for training CA Students on various topics related to Communications skills, Group Discussions etc.
He was invited by Fr. Agnel Polytechnic College, Vashi for a motivational workshop for faculties. He was also invited by Vivekanad Polytechnic College for "Communication Skills and Email Etiquette" training for non-teaching staff.
Apart from these, he has conducted “Capacity Building Soft Skills workshop for Faculties” at ITI Gunj, ITI Pusad, ITI Digras and ITI Umarkhed. This was the first ever soft skills workshop for faculties in the history of ITI’s in Vidarbha. He was also invited by Shivaji Education Society to conduct similar Soft skills workshops for the faculties and office staff of Shivaji Junior College Pusad, Shivaji High School Pusad, Shivaji Vidyalaya Belora and Shivaji Vidyalaya Bhojla.
He has conducted training workshop on “Effective Presentation Skills” for the relationship managers of HDFC Mutual Fund, Andheri Branch, Mumbai.
He has also been invited at College of Management and Computer Science, Yavatmal, College of Dairy Technology, Warud, B N College of Engineering, Pusad, B D College of Engineering, Wardha, College of Engineering and Technology, Akola, Dr.N.P.Hirani Institute of Polytechnic, Pusad etc. for the Guest lecture on “Developing Interview Skills”.
View more posts
5 thoughts on “Adding a Silver Lining…”
Very Insightful, We now know that Silver has many usages and we can capitalise on it by investing in it !!
A great asset class with many benefits & demand in electronics
Interest rates reduction plays a role in inflation thereby increasing attractiveness of silver is better
Silver has no risk of price reduction
A great asset class with many benefits & demand in electronics
Interest rates reduction plays a role in inflation thereby increasing attractiveness of silver is better
Silver has no risk of price reduction
Brilliant! What a read! Very insightful article. Loved the way the subject has addressed for readers. Indeed an eye opener for many who haven’t had a thought on Silver.
Very Insightful, We now know that Silver has many usages and we can capitalise on it by investing in it !!
A great asset class with many benefits & demand in electronics
Interest rates reduction plays a role in inflation thereby increasing attractiveness of silver is better
Silver has no risk of price reduction
A great asset class with many benefits & demand in electronics
Interest rates reduction plays a role in inflation thereby increasing attractiveness of silver is better
Silver has no risk of price reduction
Brilliant! What a read! Very insightful article. Loved the way the subject has addressed for readers. Indeed an eye opener for many who haven’t had a thought on Silver.
Wow thats a new knowledge that i gained today. My new SIP would be in that fund.
Thanks