Introduction and Background

I love mutual funds.  In fact, I love the whole concept of collective investment schemes. From the point of view of ordinary investors, I regard these as probably the single most important investment innovation in the history of capitalism. These have given the less-wealthy the power, in a way that nothing else has, to somewhat level the playing field that capitalism tends to bend in favor of the wealthy.

I have spent most of my working life using mutual funds to my advantage and to the advantage of anyone who trusted my understanding and my intentions. This blog is an attempt to document some of that understanding. Through this, I hope to share my observations, experiences and inferences. I hope to shed light on conceptual issues, and on best practices and questionable practices. Over time, I hope to create a resource that will benefit investors, advisors and representatives of mutual funds.

A word on being a ‘critic’: To many people, a critic is a fault-finder.  According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, though, a critic can also be someone who “expresses a reasoned opinion on any matter”.  I like to look at myself as the latter rather than the former.  The subtitle of the blog ("constructive reflections") is intended to express the spirit of that thought. Hopefully, a thorough reading of all posts should be able to confirm that.

The blog will be closed to comments but I welcome feedback, thoughts and questions via email: Vinit.Conrado@gmail.com.