What a title! What is exactly called a click bait….this title was just for pulling you here. Actually the markets fell about 1100 points and recovered 900 points….and this is what finally the picture looked like:

Yesterday (21 Sep 2018) The S&P BSE Sensex  closed 279 points lower at 36, 841 while the Nifty50 ended 91 points down at 11,143 on Friday. For the week, Sensex has lost 1,249 points, or 3.2 percent, while Nifty lost nearly 400 points, or 3.2 percent, for the week ended September 21.

Read my lips: 1100 points did not happen when the market was at 3300. It happened when the market is at 37000. Now look at it as a percentage. It is just 3%. Maybe it would recover too in the next couple of weeks. Or as is wont we will say that “markets will be volatile in an election year”. Markets are volatile. Period. It does not need a reason to be volatile.

Sadly over the weekend you will hear stories like…”how the promoters of DHFL got poorer by  x ’00 crores. Or how all the investors have got poorer by few lakh crores,….etc. Financial porn as they say.

NOBODY EVER KNOWS WHY THE MARKET FELL OR WHY IT RECOVERED….but we will all HAVE TO TALK like experts and tell you the following reasons:

  • Sonia Gandhi was unwell and may not head UPA 3
  • this is an election year and nobody wants to commit money for investing
  • ILFS is a big major crisis and NaMo has not issued a statement about that
  • I had gone to meet friends and did not know till 12 what had happened in the market
  • DSP Mutual Fund sold Dhfl bonds for improving its liquidity
  • Dhfl management did not clarify what was going to happen at 9.30 am
  • Some Nbfc downgrades are expected
  • Because of what subramoney posted on 20/sep about interest rates
  • Namo may not win the 2019 elections
  • Technically market has hit the 200 dma from the top and the market is weak
  • YOU did not buy anything yesterday.

You can take your pick of course.

At least 10 people called me up and asked me “OMG the market has fallen 1100 points what to do”. I had not switched on to the market till I got the panic call attacks. Then I got a little busy and I spoke to my broker friend only at about 3pm (Omg!). He had bought some BFSI shares for me (I hate being called up by Sebi, so cannot mention names). I also bought some good engineering companies (which I was lucky enough to sell last week about 20% higher!). These are good shares in my portfolio and thanks to this nonsense fall of 1100 points I got a chance to buy those shares. So thank you Mr. Market. Immaterial of what happens to the BFSI sector these engineering shares are a good buy at the price I bought, right?

Also I bought some sales/service oriented BFSI and I do not think that banking services are going out of fashion in a hurry. Sure these are not mouthwatering levels, but I know that with continuing SIP inflows, these shares would be on the radar of most of the fund managers. If these shares go up 20% in the next week/month I would happily exit. If it goes down, I will happily hold it for a few decades.

Frankly I know that as the only way to react to panic attacks. Please choose what to do.

I an tell you that when you are walking in a forest and you see a tiger, you should remain calm. I know I have been walking the jungles for 40 years..and can remain calm. I cannot FORCE you to remain calm. It’s your choice. There is enough porn already to excite you. The Mass media will scare you…I am writing this at 4am so I have no clue what will be their headlines…lemme guess:

  • It was the MOST volatile day in equity markets
  • Investors got poorer by X crores
  • Dhfl…has a crises….(management has clarified very well that they do not have a problem, but so what…headline looks good
  • Dhfl market cap cut by HALF yesterday…
  • Banks, Real estate companies lead the CRASH in D-street yesterday
  • FII selling in bond market makes markets jittery
  • Markets PLUNGE 1100 points before recovering 900 (net 279 looks so small and boring)
  • Will SIP money stop coming in from next month?

Please comment…on the headline after you read the pink papers…they need click baits too….so what if it is just a guess? Funnily there is a saying “The less you know…the more you believe”. None of us know why the market fell, so we will believe all that we read. Enjoy.

PS: by the way the market has had a bull run from 2009 to 2018 and nobody knows why. We never ask reasons if a thing happens for a long time. We assume it is our right to get a decent average return with insignificant standard deviation – AFTERALL it has done that for 9 years (in our head that is an awesome pattern!!). We need jerks to show that we are riding a fast vehicle on uneven terrain.

  1. I see.. does it mean that a layman long term investor like me should also explore the options for hedging ?
    Or is it that this is just one of those black swan events unlikely to occur normally?

  2. my two cents.
    options have expiry…so for long term investor, you would need to roll over every few months…it will be like insurance..you keep paying something for the hedge….unless you have good skill, it may be too tricky. normally i think this may be used by hedge funds and investors for whom small movements matter as they buy/sell in huge volumes. Subra sir, pl correct me if my understanding is not true.

  3. my guess is only thing a long term investor can do is to diversify and limit high exposure to individual stocks.
    out of say 25 stocks, if one stock behaves like this once in a blue moon then it doesn’t cause much damage to entire portfolio

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