Simple or not?

There are mutual fund investors who want it simple, very simple. And then there are those who want to understand every nuance of funds. The heart of Value Research lies in simplicity - that has been my strong preference ever since we started. However, sometimes, we must bow to the needs (and demands) of those readers who want to go deep into the complex stuff. This issue's cover story is something like that. Yet, as a lifelong devotee of simplicity in investing, I decided to break with its content and write this page as an antidote to complexity. The entire (and I do mean entire) point of preferring simplicity is to make things understandable. Can we effectively use something we don't fully understand? Using products without knowing their strengths and limitations is risky, whether it's a car, gadget or phone. The same applies to financial products, if not more. Yet when making purchases, including financial ones, we often fall for