There is a huge mafia out there pretending to create above market returns for all of us! They go by various names – fund manager, portfolio manager, equity analysts etc. If all of us get better than average returns, will the average itself not have gone up?

So there are a few things you should do to keep your sanity when there is so much of noise in the market. Keep still. Continue your SIPs. Keep your asset allocation. Yester night on a “business” channel I heard an analyst say “shift to cash, so that you can sleep peacefully”. “Cash is king” is another fond statement. The problem is many of them do not know whether we are in a bear market or in a bull market. Actually it does not matter.

In a bear market (let us say a market which is slowing down) if you do reallocate your portfolio, you should be buying MORE equity, not less.

So what to do now? Three simple steps:

a. Look at your asset allocation: if it was done right, you might need to buy more equity, not sell.

b. Continue your SIPs. Stopping investing because the market has fallen is not very sensible.

c. Stop watching television except for the gags.

d. Stop reading panic articles