Expectation is the root cause of all heartache. Shakespeare’s words ring true timelessly. We almost always have trouble managing expectations. So, we fault our kids who scored ninety percent because their class mates scored more. We deride performance when we feel that someone else has done better. We don’t measure…
Talking to HNI’s and investors gives one a clear sense of their despair that is set to turn into extreme anger. In the past few years, every asset class has failed them. First, it was equity. Then, gold failed. Now, it is the turn of debt funds. So, the bank…
The TCS results firmly re-established the Tech space as a defensive that the markets could depend upon. With INFY, HDFC, HDFC Bank, HUL, ITC and TCS forming the formidable frontline, we see the indices getting the requisite resilience. What does this mean to sentiment? If we see positive news flows…
There are times when the markets reward excellence and punish under performance. The economy will usually be buoyant at such times. There are also times when the markets look for consistency and pay a premium even for consistency. These are times when finding consistent performers are truly a challenge for…
2008-2013. Indian investors have burnt themselves at almost every asset class they invested. We say almost because the carnage in real estate is waiting to happen. The impact is class-neutral and everybody has taken a knock. The HNI has virtually walked away from risk staking to the secure confines of…
Conventional thinking says that the markets should go up when the Central bank, RBI drops interest rates. This belief stems from the ripple effect that a rate cut will have by making loans cheaper, leave more money in borrower’s hands and help companies generate more profits. But, the recent rate…
A weak rupee brought back fears of a widening CAD and high inflation. That virtually sealed hopes of a rate cut in June. RBI’s hawkish stance further toned down investor expectations on a rate cut. The markets turned soft through the week factoring in the fiscal worries, economic expectations and…
Equity aversion has been a natural option for investors who punted on sunrise sectors in 2008 and got badly burnt. The irony is that they chose to wait for their investment errors of 2008 to correct. The wait has hurt them terminally and there is little hope of recouping their…
Quick edit: Investment cycles are usually long and boring. Parallels to a long running soap opera aren’t out of place. One sees daily troubles unfold and engage unusual mind space of watchers. Most investors are too lost in the daily action and get bedeviled in a sea of detail. The…
The week that was has served an important pointer. The story certainly got tough for the risk averse investor. The fall in inflation triggered a sharp fall in bond yields. This effectively closed the option of investing in bonds as most of the gains already seem to be in the…
The favorite pastime that most investors indulge in – index gazing. Investors spend months watching one number for that elusive signal. Often, years pass by simply watching the Index and staying gloriously inactive. The idea of one number guiding decision making is irresistible to the investor who is struggling to…
Quick Edit: ‘The beast isn’t tamed yet’. The RBI governor said this in his own, long, pedantic style. The beast clearly is inflation. The markets didn’t get what it wanted. Rates wouldn’t go down too fast, too soon. Hardly surprising, isn’t it? The central bank makes decisions based on empirical evidence.…