Is it time to sell my fund?

I am 29, married and earning Rs 40,000 every month. These are my current investments.

Magnum COMMA Fund: Rs 20,000

Magnum Contra Fund: Rs 20,000

Magnum Emerging Businesses Fund: Rs 10,000

Magnum Global Fund: Rs 10,000

Have I invested in the right funds? I don't want to sell my units for at least a year. 

- Raj Khanna

You have mentioned that your time horizon is a year, at the very least. If you are planning to sell your units soon after a year of buying, then an all-equity portfolio can be risky.

If the equity market turns bearish, you will end up with huge losses.

Ideally, for equity investments, your time horizon should be at least three years. In fact, the longer, the better.

If you plan to invest for durations of less than a year, then you should have more of a debt component in your portfolio and equities should form a very small part of it. What we are trying to say is that our of your total investments, equity (shares) should form a small portion. The bulk of must be in debt (fixed-return investments).

Coming to your selection of funds, we don't think it's appropriate to invest in the funds of just one fund house.

You have only bought schemes from SBI Mutual Fund.

It will be better to diversify your portfolio across the funds of a few fund houses. There are plenty of other good funds from other fund houses to choose from as well.

Magnum COMMA and Magnum Emerging Businesses are quite new and do not have a long track record of performance. Hence, nothing much can be said about them.

Magnum Global has done exceptionally well during the recent bull run. However, its historic performance, particularly during the tech bubble, has been poor.

Magnum Contra has a good performance record.

However, three of these funds - Magnum Contra, Magnum Emerging Businesses and Magnum Global used to be managed by Sandip Sabharwal, who has recently left SBI Mutual Fund.

The fund manager has a key role to play in the management of any fund. While these funds performed well under Sabharwal, it is still to be seen if they continue to do so under the new fund manager.

Our advice to you would be to add good funds of other fund houses to your portfolio as well.

Secondly, track the performance of your funds closely and see if they continue to flourish under the new fund manager.

• Should you worry if your fund manager changes

I invested Rs 10,000 in the Standard Chartered Classic Equity Fund.

Unfortunately, when comparing the fund's performance to other diversified equity funds, I feel that the fund is not doing too well.

Should I sell the units or wait for some more time?

- Pavan Kabra

Investing in equity and equity funds is a long-term game. It is totally inappropriate to contemplate whether or not to sell the units in such a short period of time. Look at your equity investments from a long-term perspective.

Also, please keep in mind that good funds are not necessarily the ones that emerge at the top of the charts over short periods of time. Good funds are those that have the ability to perform well consistently during different market cycles over a period of time. You must see how they perform in a bear run and a bull run.

That's why investing in established funds is always recommended.

Our advice to you would be to closely track the performance of your fund for the next few months before deciding anything. For your future investments, choose funds with a proven track record of performance rather than going in for new funds. To figure out which ones to invest in, read How to compare mutual funds.