Imagine sitting in a restaurant with a menu so vast, it feels like a novel. Each page is filled with detailed dishes, descriptions, ingredients, and chef recommendations. Instead of making your choice easier, the flood of information leaves you confused and indecisive.

That’s exactly how many mutual fund investors feel today, overwhelmed by too much data. Charts, rankings, volatility measures, past returns, holdings breakdowns, there’s plenty of information but not enough clarity. In the end, investors end up making a decision on just the past performance of the fund.

Recognizing this challenge, Share.Market has introduced CRISP. It is a first-of-its-kind tool that helps you evaluate Mutual Funds holistically.

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What is CRISP and How Does It Work?

CRISP is a data-driven framework built for today’s investor, one who wants to make informed choices without the hassle of doing extensive research. CRISP stands for:

  • C – Consistency of Performance
  • R – Risk vs Peers
  • ISP – Investment Style of Portfolio

It distills complex data into a simple visual rating system, helping you answer the key questions:

Is this fund reliable? Is its risk level acceptable? Does its strategy align with my goals?

Let’s break it down.

(C) Consistency of Performance

Consistency doesn’t mean a fund always tops the charts, it means it performs reliably over time, especially compared to most of its peers.

CRISP evaluates this using rolling 1-year returns over a 5-year time period. Each fund’s performance is compared to peers across multiple 1-year windows and ranked. The final consistency ratings are based on how it ranks amongst its peers.

  • Top One-Third – High on Consistency
  • Bottom One-Third  – Low on Consistency
  • Remaining  – Medium on Consistency

This helps investors avoid the mistake of selecting a fund based on just one great year and instead focus on funds that show long-term dependability.

(R) Risk vs Peers

All investing involves risk but how do you know if a fund’s risk level is right for you?

CRISP measures a fund’s volatility using its standard deviation of 1-year rolling returns (over 5 years) and compares it with others in the same category. Based on this, the fund’s risk is labeled as:

  • Acceptable – In line with category expectations
  • Too High – Significantly more volatile, i.e. if it is an outlier, compared to peers

This helps investors quickly understand whether a fund’s risk is within a comfortable range, allowing them to avoid funds whose returns are highly volatile compared to peers in a given fund category.

(ISP) Investment Style of Portfolio

Every fund follows a strategy, its own personality. Some focus on stable, well-managed companies (Quality), some hunt for undervalued stocks (Value), while others ride the wave of winners (Momentum). Many times fund managers can follow a combination of these styles.

CRISP identifies the dominant investment style(s) of each fund by analyzing its monthly portfolios over the last 5 years and evaluating exposure to these factors.

This is particularly helpful if:

  • You want to diversify your portfolio across different styles, given that different investment styles tend to do well during different cycles of the market
  • You believe a particular investment style (e.g., value) is likely to perform well
  • You want your portfolio to match your market outlook or personal preference

The Investment Style tag shown in CRISP helps you build a strategy-aligned portfolio without needing to painstakingly analyze and interpret raw holdings or factor exposures manually.

More Than Just Metrics – Why CRISP Matters

What makes CRISP powerful is that it turns a complex, cluttered investing experience into a guided, simplified journey. Instead of digging through countless metrics, you get:

  • A clear summary of fund performance (not just returns)
  • A quick view of comparative risk
  • A snapshot of how the fund actually invests

This approach reduces “analysis paralysis” as well over-reliance on single metric like past performance and gives you clarity and confidence in your mutual fund selections.

How to Use CRISP: Bottom-Up vs Top-Down Approach

CRISP is built to support different types of investors, whether you start with a fund in mind or are just beginning your search.

Bottom-Up Approach

If you’ve already shortlisted a fund, use CRISP to analyze that specific fund:

  • Check its Consistency rating to assess reliability
  • Understand its Risk relative to peers
  • Identify its Investment Style to see if it fits your choice of portfolio strategy

This method is ideal for investors validating a choice or narrowing down options from a list.

Top-Down Approach

If you’re starting with a goal or fund category in mind (e.g., large-cap, CRISP can guide you in discovering suitable funds:

  • Filter funds based on the investment style you prefer.
  • From that style, pick funds with High Consistency and Acceptable Risk

This lets you build a curated, diversified portfolio that aligns with both your investment style and your financial goals.

Who is CRISP For?

Whether you’re just beginning your investment journey or you’re an experienced investor looking to fine-tune your portfolio, CRISP makes mutual fund selection easier and smarter

No matter your level of experience, CRISP helps you move from confusion to clarity.

Investing shouldn’t feel like decoding a complex manual. With CRISP, the experience is transformed from the overwhelming world of mutual fund selection into an intuitive experience.

Just like a thoughtfully curated menu that highlights the chef’s best, CRISP presents the right information at the right time, helping you choose not just any fund, but the right one for your goals.

Start using CRISP today and invest with insight, not just instinct.