mutual-fund-analysis-indialisted

# Mutual Fund Analysis (India) Indian fund selection is dominated by two errors: judging a scheme on trailing one- and three-year returns, and ignoring the expense drag compounded over a holding period. This skill fixes both. ## Step 1 — Establish the category and the mandate SEBI's scheme categorisation binds each fund to a defined mandate. A fund cannot be compared to a fund in another category. **Equity categories (one scheme per category per AMC):** Large Cap, Large & Mid Cap, Mid Cap, Small Cap, Multi Cap, Flexi Cap, Dividend Yield, Value, Contra, Focused, Sectoral/Thematic, ELSS. **Market-cap definitions come from AMFI**, which publishes the list of stocks by full market capitalisation **every six months**: | Bucket | Definition | |---|---| | Large cap | 1st to 100th company | | Mid cap | 101st to 250th | | Small cap | 251st onward | Minimum allocations that matter: - **Large Cap**: at least 80% in large caps - **Mid Cap**: at least 65% in mid caps - **Small Cap**: at least 65% in small caps - **Multi Cap**: at least 25% each in large, mid and small — a hard constraint that forces small-cap exposure in every market - **Flexi Cap**: at least 65% in equity, **no market-cap constraint** — the manager chooses - **Focused**: maximum 30 stocks - **ELSS**: 3-year lock-in per unit, at least 80% equity **Multi Cap and Flexi Cap are not synonyms.** Multi Cap is mandated into small caps; Flexi Cap can sit entirely in large caps. Users conflate them constantly. **Debt cat