Too busy to trade? Five ways to invest

There’s never enough time… 

Working life can be hectic. The few free times you get has to be spent with family, friends and hobbies. In such a case, it is very difficult to find time to research for investments, let alone actually trade and monitor your portfolio.

Here are five ways to invest while juggling a busy life:

• Use SIP:

One way to invest without spending too much time is through the Systematic Investment Plan (SIP) route. Under this plan, a fix amount of money will be automatically invested every month or quarter. This helps spread out your investments over a period of time and across different market conditions. SIP is specifically helpful when you want to invest even when the market is down. It will eventually help give you a better average value of investment. For example, when you invest Rs 10,000 in a month when the mutual fund unit costs Rs 110, you get 91 units. The next month, if the unit value falls to Rs 90, you get 111 units. As a result, the average cost of each unit is Rs 101.

• Use an advisor:

Just like we outsource the maintenance work of our cars, why not rope in an expert advisor to conduct the research on your behalf?The expert will be able to cater to your specific needs and advice you accordingly. All you will have to do then is put your money. You could also make use of Kotak research reports, which regularly analysis individual stocks, sectors and the overall market.

• Use online tools:

With so many stocks listed on the market, it can get confusing to track them. There are various stock trading applications to follow the markets easily on a daily basis and cut down the time required for research. This helps you narrow down stocks on the basis of their stock price, trading volumes as well as other finer details like company performance, dividends, etc. The application can be downloaded easily on various mobile platforms.

• Online trading:

Conventionally, most investors rely on a stock broker to undertake their investments. They have to either fix a meeting or call up and place their orders. This is quite time consuming. Instead, you can activate your online trading account and place your orders on the go. Moreover, this service is not just for stocks, but also for other investment options like mutual funds, bonds, ETFs etc.

• Automated trading:

The biggest decision in the stock market is not ‘which stock to buy’, but ‘when to buy or sell’. The idea is to buy during lows and sell during highs. This needs regular monitor, which can eat into your free time. As a result, there are many options available for automating buy and sell orders. You can place a request to be either alerted when the stock reaches a particular level, after which you can manually buy or sell. Investors also have the option of ensuring a stock is bought or sold as soon as it reaches a preset level.

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