SIP
Market basicsSystematic Investment Plan — a fixed amount invested automatically at fixed intervals.
In plain terms
Its real benefit is behavioural: the money goes in before you can talk yourself out of it.
1492 terms
Glossary
Every term is defined twice: once the way a filing would put it, and once the way somebody would explain it to you across a table. The second one is usually the one that sticks.
Showing 16 terms
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Step-up SIP
Market basicsA SIP that increases automatically each year, usually with income.
In plain terms
One checkbox at setup that can roughly double a twenty-year corpus. Almost nobody enables it.
Standing instruction
Market basicsAlso called: NACH mandate
A recurring automated debit from a bank account — an EMI, a SIP, an insurance premium or a utility mandate.
In plain terms
The point of automating them was to stop thinking about them, which is why they all fail together on their scheduled dates when an account freezes. Knowing which run from which account is a twenty-minute exercise you cannot do in a hurry.
Automation
Risk & psychologyRemoving recurring decisions by scheduling them in advance.
In plain terms
An auto-debit SIP survives the frightening months you would otherwise have skipped.
Commitment device
Risk & psychologyAn arrangement made in advance that constrains your later self.
In plain terms
An auto-debit SIP and a fixed rebalancing date need no willpower, which is why they survive decades.
Consistency
Risk & psychologyContinuing a plan through conditions that make you want to stop.
In plain terms
A SIP stopped during a fall removes exactly the instalments that would have bought most cheaply.
Cost of delay
Risk & psychologyThe compounding lost by postponing a decision.
In plain terms
Invisible, which is why it is tolerated. Two years of a ₹20,000 SIP not started is roughly ₹35 lakh of final corpus over twenty years.
DII
Market basicsDomestic Institutional Investor — Indian mutual funds, insurers, pension funds and banks.
In plain terms
Funded by monthly SIP flows, which has made them the shock absorber against FII selling.
Discretionary spending
Market basicsSpending you could stop without disrupting the household.
In plain terms
The bucket that should absorb variation. If the SIP is absorbing it instead, the structure is the wrong way round.
Habit formation
Risk & psychologyBuilding a behaviour into a routine so it no longer requires a decision.
In plain terms
The reason a small automated SIP beats a large intended one. The mechanism is the asset; the amount grows later.
Inoperative PAN
Regulation & taxA PAN that has ceased to function for most purposes, most commonly because it has not been linked to Aadhaar.
In plain terms
It does not announce itself. It surfaces as a KYC record on hold and a SIP that quietly stops, and relinking carries a ₹1,000 fee and takes a few working days to reflect before anything can be resubmitted.
P&L statement
Regulation & taxA broker report of realised and unrealised gains, split by holding period.
In plain terms
Use this at filing time, not the app dashboard. Every SIP instalment is its own purchase.
Pre-commitment
Risk & psychologyDeciding and binding yourself to an action before the moment it must be taken.
In plain terms
Automated SIPs, a two-week cooling-off rule, a hard position cap. It removes the need to decide well while afraid.
Rupee cost averaging
Market basicsInvesting a fixed amount regularly, buying more units when prices are low.
In plain terms
True, and modest. The real benefit of a SIP is removing twelve decisions a year.
Triangle
Technical analysisA consolidation whose highs and lows converge — ascending with a flat top, descending with a flat bottom, or symmetrical with both sides closing in.
In plain terms
It should resolve in its final third. One that drifts all the way to the apex has dissipated its energy, and the eventual break is far less reliable.
XIRR
Market basicsThe annualised return on cash flows that went in at different times.
In plain terms
The only honest measure of a SIP. Your app’s absolute return is not comparable to an index’s annual return.