Vidya Bala
Founding Partner & Head, Research and Product
About Vidya
Vidya helped build one of the country’s earliest robo-advisory solutions in the country in her earlier role at FundsIndia. She believes in not just providing the right solutions for investors but also taking ownership for the same and following up or changing course when the situation warrants.
Vidya was the head of mutual fund research at FundsIndia where she did some path-breaking work in analysing funds and offering researched portfolios. Her recommendations had a sound track record of beating markets and showcasing consistency. They were followed widely by investors, advisors and media.
A Chartered Accountant by qualification, Vidya began her career as a Senior Internal Auditor for Ashok Leyland. She then went on to work for The Hindu Business Line’s Research Bureau, tracking mutual funds, stock markets, sectors and the macro economy for eight years. She has more than 18 years of experience, of which over 15 were spent analyzing the markets.
Vidya is known in the media for her straight talk and, calling out bad products.
Stay in touch
Vidya in the media
- One size fits all approach does not work for debt funds – LiveMint
- Big Truth about investing in Small Caps – The Hindu
- Why SEBI needs to strengthen rules to protect investors in debt mutual funds – Economic Times
- Why people are exiting their real estate investments – FundsIndia
- The debt funds spook and what it means – FundsIndia
Watch Vidya talk about her financial journey
Vidya's recent articles
A new approach to gauge market mood – The Nifty VMI tool
“Is this a good time to invest in the market?” This is a question that many of you ask us when you want to deploy additional money. Gauging market mood is never easy and this is often done mostly by short-term traders. When investing for the long term, we typically tell you that it is best to invest in phases and avoid trying to time the market. Investing in phases (or call it SIP) and holding for the long term can help contain downsides and it is a proven strategy.
2023 – The year of the DIY investor
Wish you all a happy, healthy and prosperous 2023 from all of us at PrimeInvestor!
The first month of 2023 marks the completion of three years for us at PrimeInvestor. Thank you all for coming along with us on this journey! We couldn’t have entered the investment marketplace at a better time, and here’s why!
Stock review : An under-researched, niche, small-cap play
A lot goes into making that piece of gold jewellery you see at your jewellers’. Or even the copper that goes into your two-and four-wheelers. The first step starts with mining these metal and mineral ores. The next is to crush the ore lumps into desired sizes and processing them in mills to extract the metal or mineral. This involves a lot of machinery such as crushers, screens and other mineral processing equipment. In mill equipment, there’s a critical component that protects the equipment to ensure longer life, reduce noise as well as downtime, and improve safety.
How to review your mutual fund portfolio
When answering the question of ‘How to review your mutual fund portfolio’, some of the frequently asked questions that we receive from you are as follows :
“My fund is underperforming. Should I sell it or not?”.
“How to go about selling a fund – in one shot or in a staggered manner?”
“How long should I hold an underperformer?
How to book profits in your mutual fund portfolio
With the Sensex zooming past 60k, the question that many of you ask is whether you should book profits in your mutual fund portfolio and whether we think the market is peaking. We have always held that for mutual fund investors, it is easier to make ‘rebalance’ calls based on where your portfolio is currently, rather than where the market will be.
US recession and IT sector slowdown – impact on our stock pick
Will the Indian IT sector slowdown as a result of a looming recession in the US? This is the question that many of you have asked us on the back of a sharp 32% correction in the Nifty IT index from its peak in January 2022. The next question is whether our ‘buy’ on one of the IT stocks is valid now and whether the same can be accumulated. We will try to answer these questions here.