All these funds have outperformed their benchmarks over  the long term. As on 5th of Oct, SBI contra managed to give  an extra annual return of 24% as against its benchmark index  19% during the three-year period and 4% over the one-year  period. The fund invested 40% in midcaps and its  benchmark is BSE 100.

Reliance Growth gave an annual return premium of 23%  over five years and14% over three years. The last two years  though have not seen much of a value addition that the fund  could do over the benchmark index BSE 100. Over the 2-  year period, it just gave 0.5% more and 6% over the one-year  period. The fund invested 63% in mid-caps and has BSE 100 as its benchmark.

DSP Equity’s five years annual returns were 19% more than the benchmark, 3 years returns 13% more and 1 year return 9% more. It has been one of those funds that have managed to consistently be on top of returns among its peers. It currently invests around 60% in midcaps and has Nifty as its benchmark index.

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Pop quiz: How many visitors did your web site receive last week as
part of your latest direct mail promotion? Which pages are the most popular with your customers? What was the most popular search term customers used to find your website?

If these questions have you searching for answers, you’re not alone. Unfortunately, many companies are in the dark with regards to these types of questions and ultimately, their website’s ROI (return on investment). Fortunately, there is an easy solution: web site statistics reporting. The good news is that you have been collecting this information through your web servers already. The next step is to set up a reporting tool that will give you the following information about your site’s customers:

1. Which pages are most (or least) popular with your customers
Are customers coming to your web site’s home page, and then leaving? Web reports offer a summary of the most visited pages on your site as well as the pages receiving the least amount of traffic. Knowing this information can be an enormous help in revising your site’s content in order to better meet the needs of your customers.

2. How customers are finding your site through the search engines
Reporting software offers an excellent summary of the top search engines that customers used to find your site, and, more importantly, which keywords were used to find your site. This can be a huge help in planning your search engine marketing strategy to maximize the return of your investment.

3. Tracking online/offline promotions
Imagine that you have just launched a new product or service through a large advertising campaign that includes direct mail. One of the ways you can track the effectiveness of your mailer is to include a unique web site address for prospects to learn more, such as www.yourcompany.com/promoxyz. Utilizing web site reporting enables you to monitor the number of customers visiting a specific web address to analyze the effectiveness of your campaign.

4. Where your visitors are coming from
If you are marketing toward specific larger companies, you can often see their company web address listed in your reports, which can help you pinpoint where visitors are coming from to your site.

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The past five years were heady times for financial services companies as they lent money out at low interest rates to home buyers and corporations alike and watched profits soar.

Bank stocks climbed as the firms cashed in on a booming housing market. Strong merger activity, led by private equity firms borrowing money to finance deals, also boosted demand for loans.

But when it became apparent a few months ago that many banks handed out too much money too easily and that some borrowers weren’t able to pay back their loans, the market panicked.

Companies like Countrywide (Charts, Fortune 500), a big mortgage lender that had lots of subprime borrowers — borrowers with less-than-perfect credit — were hit the hardest, but even those with less exposure to the subprime housing market weren’t spared by the sell-off.

And now, the market is worried that the corporate debt market could also be heading into trouble, fueling further fears of a looming banking crisis.

But is this already priced in the shares of many bank stocks? The recent panic may have created some great values for investors.

Investment banks tank……!

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National Bank reported net income of $233 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2007, an increase of nine per cent over the same period last year, largely on the back of higher profits in its financial markets and wealth management segments.

Canada’s sixth largest bank reported Thursday that diluted earnings per share were $1.40, up 11 per cent from $1.26 in the second quarter of 2006. Had it not been for the net gain on the sale of its shareholder management business in the second quarter of 2006, the increase in diluted earnings per share would have been 14 per cent, the bank added.

Between the second quarter of 2006 and the second quarter of 2007, total revenues grew nine per cent to $1.02 billion, while return on common shareholders’ equity stood at 20.3 per cent.

“Standing here on my last day as head of the bank, I am very satisfied with how the bank fared during the quarter. It exceeded all of its profitability objectives with strong contributions from all segments,” said Real Raymond, outgoing president and CEO.

Incoming president and CEO Louis Vachon said he feels the financial institution is in an excellent position to continue its trend of profitable growth.

“National Bank has once again demonstrated the value of its growth strategy based on a balance between its three core areas of expertise: personal and commercial banking, wealth management and financial markets. Over the coming quarters, the segments’ strategies will be brought up to date to enable the bank to further strengthen its presence in its priority markets and exceed the expectations of all parties that have a stake in its success.”

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Here are additional helpful tips to gain financial knowledge:

1. When hiring a person to work for you, hire one who is more knowledgeable in the position you intend to hire him/her for. This way, you will have less worry if he/she is able to perform the job. You get to learn from the person, and you’ll have more time to attend to other moneymaking ventures. Don’t think the person might be a threat to your business, as long as you pay him/her well. Otherwise, he/she need not work for you in the first place.

2. Changes, especially those that involve bargains, can spell profit. Take for example in a supermarket where there is a “sale.” People’s most likely reaction is to buy and stock up. It is normal reaction but peculiar when analyzed. In the stock market, when there is a price crash, people tend to shy away. This is contrary to what happens in the supermarket. Why?

Perhaps, we will never know. On the other hand, when prices in a supermarket go up, people shy away. Again, in the stock market, when prices go up, people start buying which shouldn’t be the case.

3. Part (or shall I say a big portion of) financial knowledge is knowing the difference between an asset and a liability.

Actually, an asset or a liability depends on the person looking at the thing. What you think is an asset, could be a liability to another person. As mentioned before, anything you own that earns is an asset; otherwise, it is a liability.

4. Oftentimes, we stick to the conventional way of doing business: “This is the way it is done here.” For all we know, the conventional way might not be the best way. Look at it another way, the unconventional way. It could save money, and money saved is money made.

5. High emotions (fear included) can sometimes suppress financial knowledge. Do not let your financial ability submit to your emotions. Overcoming emotions is, per se, part of the learning process. Similarly, making financial decisions without proper training on finances is disastrous.

Gain more financial ability is simply having more options for opportunities that come your way. In the same manner, a higher level of knowledge can help you spot opportunities other people don’t see. What you can’t see with your eyes, you might see with your mind.

Money comes and goes. But unlike money (although this is what we’re aiming for), financial knowledge stays. The nourishment it needs to stay keen is to keep it accurate and up-to-date.

If you feel like you’re being pushed around, stay smart, exercise self-discipline, and keep updated. Be alert and look out for “double standard” information (information that requires double checking). It is better to reconfirm than be sorry later.

The basics of financial knowledge should have been taught in school; but it hardly did, and it looks like it hardly will. This explains why the poor and middle class comprise the majority of the populace with its gap from the rich ever widening.

If a person winds up with a lot of cash without financial ability, this person is bound to find his/her money gone soon. We’ve heard of athletes who earned millions during their prime and movie stars who amassed untold fortunes only to grow old broke.

Having financial knowledge is truly vital to maintain and grow your wealth.

If you are looking for answers to massively increase your income and become a Millionaire with proven strategy. Then you will not want to leave without checking this out. If you’re looking to secure your financial success, I urge you to check this out.

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If you have begun to research investing, then it is a sign that you are interested in taking full responsibility for your financial state in general. The first step in doing so is to examine your financial status in four different categories: income, expenses, assets, and liabilities.

Income and expenses are pretty straightforward. Income is the money that is coming into your account, and expenses are the money that is going out. If you are responsibly budgeting, then you have more income than expenses, allowing you to invest the excess. However, many of us in this day and age are living beyond our means, using credit as a way of making up the difference between what we spend and what we earn. For many people, this means that investing is difficult due to irresponsible spending habits.

Assets are those items or funds that you own. These could be funds that you have invested, or property that you own. You should be aware that some assets are actually likely to depreciate in value, such as cars. And that if you are making payments on your car, you will not get all of that money back if you were to sell it. However, your home is hopefully an asset that is appreciating, or growing in value. In this case, you can count the equity in your home as an asset. In contrast, liabilities are those amounts that you owe, including the debt that you have. The total of your assets, minus the total amount of liabilities that you owe, gives you a picture of your net worth. For many of us, it is shocking to realize that our net worth may actually be a negative number, simply due to the amount of financial liabilities that we have incurred.

So one of the easiest ways to invest, at least if you are just beginning, is to simply invest in your financial health by paying off your debt. For example, start by looking at the bills that you are paying on a monthly basis. Are any of them credit cards of payment plans of some kind? What are the percentage rates that you are paying on those debts? If you were to sit down and calculate the total amount of interest that you are paying in a month, you may be shocked to learn the amount of money that you are actually throwing away by carrying that debt. To stop throwing that money away, concentrate on paying down the debt.

While making minimum payments is the requirement of the credit company, it is also their way of keeping your account open by encouraging you to pay a smaller amount than you could. The longer you carry a balance, the more money that they make. So start by identifying which accounts have the highest interest rates (or have the largest balances and so are costing your more in finance charges), and pay as much as possible on that account while continuing to pay the minimum amount on your other accounts. When you have paid off that debt, move to the account with the next highest interest rate and do the same. Eventually, you will have decreased your liabilities greatly, and can then focus on investing in ways that will add to your assets as well.

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