The MF Terminal Blog

Plain-English notes on relative strength, regime analysis, honest backtesting and reading mutual-fund data - from the team building the terminal.

Daily-updated fund rankings

Not articles - living pages, recomputed from NAV data every day. See all rankings →

Guides & explainers

• Best Fund for Investment: The Framework We Use to Judge 8,000 Schemes
  Horizon decides the asset class, category sets the ceiling, four numbers pick the fund, the job picks the structure. The complete data framework, with every deep dive linked.
• Best Funds for Retirement: Building and Spending a Corpus, by the Numbers
  Retirement is two investment problems wearing one name. The accumulation engine, the five-year glide path, and the withdrawal categories whose worst year was still positive.
• NPS vs Mutual Funds for Retirement: An Honest, Number-by-Number Comparison
  Tax wedge vs equity ceiling, lock-in vs liquidity, annuity vs SWP - the structural comparison with mutual fund data on the table and no product to sell.
• Best Funds for a Long Term SIP: The 10-Year Evidence
  Rs 12 lakh of instalments became Rs 30-39 lakh in the top tier - through 34-39% falls. The decade-long SIP data, the back-loaded compounding math, and the annual review that keeps it alive.
• Best Fund for Lumpsum Investment: Deploying a Windfall Without Regret
  One entry date changes everything: immediate vs STP vs waiting, with rolling-window data; index core, resilient active and hybrid cushion routes; and a worked Rs 30 lakh plan.
• Best Silver Funds in India: The Complete Data After a 97% Year
  Every silver ETF FoF ranked with returns, costs and drawdowns; silver vs gold in numbers; and what a -39% fall inside the best year on record should tell an allocation.
• Best Funds for SWP: Monthly Income Without Breaking the Corpus
  Sequence risk, the withdrawal rate the data supports, the hybrid categories whose worst year was still positive, and the two-bucket structure that keeps an SWP alive through crashes.
• Best Fund for SIP: How to Actually Choose One (Data, Not Listicles)
  What a SIP mechanically rewards, the 10-year XIRR evidence from real NAV history, and the four filters - consistency, drawdown, quality, cost - that separate SIP funds from brochures.
• What Is RS Rating for Mutual Funds? The Complete Plain-English Guide
  RS scores a fund's recent momentum against its peers, 1 to 99. The exact formula with a worked example, category vs market RS, the RS line and 52-week highs, honest pitfalls, and how to use it with King Score.
• What Is King Score? The 0 to 100 Fund Quality Rating, Explained
  King Score rates a mutual fund's long-term quality from 0 to 100 against its own category. The exact formula, a tale of two funds, reading bands, King vs star ratings, and a practical workflow.
• SIP vs Lumpsum: Which Is Better? The Honest, Data-First Answer
  Lumpsum usually wins on paper, SIP wins in real life. The math of both, rupee examples, when each one actually wins, the STP middle path, and how to decide in four questions.
• Direct vs Regular Mutual Funds: The 1% That Compounds Into Lakhs
  Same fund, same manager, different price tag. How trail commissions work, what the gap costs over 20 years in rupees, how to check which you own, and what to weigh before switching.
• Mutual Funds vs FD: Where Should Your Money Actually Sit?
  Not rivals - tools for different jobs. The honest head-to-head on returns, safety, tax and inflation, with a job-by-job answer for emergency funds, 3-year money and 10-year money.
• What Is Drawdown? The Most Honest Risk Number a Fund Has
  The fall from peak to bottom, in rupees. Why drawdown beats volatility, the cruel arithmetic of recovery, category-by-category expectations, and how to use it before investing.
• Our Methodology: How Every Number Is Calculated
  How every number on MF Terminal is computed: RS Rating, King Score, drawdowns, rolling returns, SIP XIRR, overlap and backtests. The exact formulas, data sources and honest limitations.