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Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Marico targets kids with new sub-brand under Parachute

Marico is extending its largest selling hair oil Parachute to the kids segment. After creating Sparsh for babies last year, it has now extended Parachute as a shampoo, cream gel and a non-sticky oil under a new sub brand — STAR*Z — to cater to kids between 5 and 12 years of age.

Mr Saugata Gupta, CEO, Marico Consumer Products, said: “The new sub brand — STAR*Z — under Parachute Advansed is not exactly meant for babies.”

Targeting a different age group with its new offering, Marico is currently test marketing the products under a prototyping approach in certain markets before launching it at a national level. Bringing in the ‘goodness of coconut’ in its new range, Parachute Advansed Star*Z non-sticky hair oil is priced at Rs 29 for 100 ml while the shampoo is priced at Rs 54 for 100 ml.

In fact, all the products under the Parachute Star* Z franchise are fortified with ‘protein vitamin shakti’, according to the company. Even Sparsh products come with the promise of the ‘long lasting goodness’ of Parachute. However, Marico has decided to segment its offerings under Sparsh and Parachute advansed Star*Z to cater to different categories of consumers.

“Sparsh is catering to babies and has products such as massage oils and soaps under it unlike the new Parachute Advansed Star* Z brand which is meant for kids who are above five,” says an official from Marico. “This is not a full-scale launch of Parachute Advansed Star*Z and we are test marketing the products,” emphasises the official.

Industry observers feel that most baby care brands have been struggling in the market with J&J’s dominance and this includes Marico’s Sparsh brand as well.

As Mr Bipin Vengsarkar, Executive Director, JL Morison, says: “Most of the new entrants, including our own brand of Baby Dreams, have been finding it difficult in this market and it is J&J which continues to dominate this market. Today, Marico’s baby care brand, Sparsh, has not been able to make a mark in this segment and even Wipro is concentrating on its diaper brand more than its baby care range.”

Source - Hindu BusinessLine

Posted by Srivatsan at 6:11 PM

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Understanding Short Term Trading

Before I begin, this blog is not for intraday traders. My definition of short term implies duration of around 2 to 3 months.

Short Term stock picking is no rocket science, but rather a visual interpretation of technical charts. A basic moving average on a time frame chart will show the direction of the securities movement.

Moving averages is a mathematical results calculated by averaging a number of past data points. Moving averages (MA) in it's basic form is calculated by taking the arithmetic mean of a given set of values on a rolling window of timeframe. Once the value of MA has been calculated, they are plotted onto a chart and then connected to create a moving average line. Typical moving averages used for short term trading are 50 MA and 100 MA.

Types of Moving Averages

1) Simple Moving Average (SMA)

SMA is calculated by taking the arithmetic mean of a given set of values on a rolling window of timeframe. The usefulness of the SMA is limited because each point in the data series is weighted the same, regardless of where it occurs in the sequence. Critics argue that the most recent data is more significant than the older data and should have a greater influence on the final result.

2) Exponential Moving Average (EMA)

EMA overcomes the limits of SMA, where more weight is given to the recent prices in an attempt to make it more responsive to new information. When calculating the first point of the EMA, we may notice that there is no value available to use as the previous EMA. This small problem can be solved by starting the calculation with a simple moving average and continuing on with calculating the EMA.

The primary functions of a moving average is to identify trends and reversals, measure the strength of an asset's momentum and determine potential areas where an asset will find support or resistance. Moving averages are lagging indicator, which means they do not predict new trend, but confirm trends once they have been established.

A stock is deemed to be in an uptrend when the price is above a moving average and the average is sloping upward. Conversely, a trader will use a price below a downward sloping average to confirm a downtrend. Many traders will only consider holding a long position in an asset when the price is trading above a moving average.

In general, short-term momentum can be gauged by looking at moving averages that focus on time periods of 50 days or less. Looking at moving averages that are created with a period of 50 to 100 days is generally regarded as a good measure of medium-term momentum. Finally, any moving average that uses 100 days or more in the calculation can be used as a measure of long-term momentum.

Support, resistence and stoploss can be infered by referring the closet MA below or above the market price. The other factor that is used in short term momentum is the trading volume. The moving averages along with the trading volume can provide a better insight to short term movement.

Markets are moved by their largest participants - I believe this is the single most important principle in short-term trading. Accordingly, I track the presence of large traders by determining how much volume is in the market and how that compares to average. Because volume correlates very highly with volatility, the market's relative volume helps you determine the amount of movement likely at any given time frame--and it helps you handicap the odds of trending vs. remaining slow and range bound.