MFIC Methodology

Data sources

NAVs and the scheme list

AMFI's daily NAV file (portal.amfiindia.com/spages/NAVAll.txt), read several times a day by the MFIC data job. Full NAV histories are back-filled once from mfapi.in (AMFI-derived) and then extended daily from AMFI.

Industry figures, category AUM and flows

AMFI's monthly report (AUM, folios, net inflows, number of schemes, SIP inflows), read automatically each month.

New Fund Offers

AMFI's New Fund Offer data (open, forthcoming and recently closed NFOs).

Benchmarks

For rolling, risk and calendar-year comparisons, which need daily index values, MFIC uses proxies: licensed total-return index series are not connected. Each category is compared with the NAV of the longest-running Direct index fund tracking its broad index (for example a Nifty 50 index fund for Large Cap). These proxies are after the index fund's own costs and are price-return. Point-to-point comparisons with each scheme's official benchmark TRI use AMFI's published figures.

Expense ratios (TER)

From AMFI's TER data (amfiindia.com, “TER of MF Schemes”): daily Regular and Direct TER with base expense ratio, brokerage, transaction costs and statutory levies. Read a few pages per data run; the current month is re-read weekly and the last 12 months are kept as change points. Matched to AMFI NAV lines by normalised scheme name.

AUM, riskometer and official benchmark

From AMFI's Fund Performance data (amfiindia.com): daily AUM of each scheme (all plans), riskometer of the scheme and its benchmark, the official benchmark (total return index) with its 1, 3, 5 and 10-year returns, and AMFI-published returns and information ratios of each plan. Read daily (AMFI publishes with a one to two day lag). MFIC shows these next to its own NAV-based figures and cross-checks its 3-year returns against AMFI's on the Data & Sources page.

Fund managers, exit load and scheme facts

From each scheme's Scheme Summary Document (SEBI's standard format, published via AMFI at portal.amfiindia.com), with AMFI's Scheme Details as a fallback: current fund managers and the dates they started, exit load, objective, stated asset allocation, benchmark tiers, minimum amounts, riskometer at launch and now, and links to the scheme documents. Re-read monthly; manager changes are recorded from October 2026. Matched to NAV lines by ISIN, AMFI code or name.

Not connected

Monthly portfolio holdings (sectors, market cap, overlap) and fund-manager or riskometer history before October 2026. MFIC shows “Data unavailable” instead of estimating.

Calculations

Returns

Point-to-point on the growth option's NAV, using the latest NAV on or before the start date. Up to 1 year: absolute return. Longer: CAGR = (NAV_end/NAV_start)^(1/years) − 1.

Rolling returns

One window per business day; CAGR over the preceding 1, 3 or 5 years; reported as median, minimum, maximum, spread, % positive and % ahead of the benchmark proxy over the same dates.

Risk ratios

From the last 36 month-end NAVs (37 needed). Volatility = stdev(monthly) × √12. Sharpe, Sortino, alpha and Treynor use a risk-free assumption of 6.5% a year. Beta, alpha, tracking error, information ratio, R² and capture ratios are against the benchmark proxy over the same months.

Category consistency

From completed month-end NAVs over the last 10 years: at each month-end, each scheme's 3-year (and 5-year) CAGR is compared with the median of all schemes in the same category and plan that had one, including schemes that later closed. Reported as % of months above the median, in the top quartile and in the top half. 7-year rolling CAGR (median, minimum, % positive) uses the same month-end values.

Drawdowns

From daily NAVs: maximum (full history, last 5 and 10 years), current, number of falls deeper than 5%, recovery days of the worst fall. Calmar (5Y) = 5Y CAGR ÷ 5Y maximum drawdown.

SIPs

Instalments on the same day each month at that day's NAV (or the previous NAV date); XIRR on actual dates; repeated for every start month.

Category statistics

Medians and percentiles over schemes in the same SEBI category and plan that have the metric; schemes lacking enough history are excluded, never estimated. Quartiles are oriented so Q1 is the most favourable quarter for that metric.

Data quality

Non-positive NAVs are rejected; the latest NAV date is capped at today; one-day jumps beyond category-specific limits are re-checked against mfapi.in and corrected or flagged; unit splits are adjusted; every run is logged and visible on the Data & Sources page.

Missing values

Shown as “n/a”, “Insufficient history” or “Data unavailable” — never as zero.

Metric guides