Have you been shopping at the “End of Season Sale” in the stock markets?
A bumper sale has been on for the past three to four months on the BSE and NSE. Many of my good friends fished out their shopping bags some time ago, seeing frontline stocks go cheaper by 25-40 per cent. What happened? Well the sale has got even better ! Now these stocks are 60-90 per cent cheaper from their all time highs. Now they can shop some more.
Oops, am I rubbing salt on many a open wounds. But does anyone out there really expect sympathy if they treat investing in stocks no better than shopping at a sale?
My friends, you bought those shares only because you thought you were getting them CHEAP. Not because you saw strength in the businesses or liked the fundamentals of the company. In fact you did no research at all.
And now you’re burying your head like an ostrich defending your action – “Hey, equity is for the long term and I will make money sooner or later in these stocks.” Sooner or later? Is that how you build wealth? You’re still not willing to examine what you’ve bought? How expensive you have bought these businesses and what the future holds for them in the changed economic scenario? You’re NOT willing to cut your losses and switch to sound investments.
Loss aversion – this is the single biggest mental block in the minds of retail investors who dabble in stocks.
I may sound all knowledgeable and wise today, but honestly, it’s taken two meltdowns in the Indian stock markets and big losses for me to get rid of the same block.
In the early nineties, as a novice and a very small investor I lost all the money my husband and I had carefully saved for his MBA, only because I bought stocks on tips and then refused to book losses, knowing jolly well that I was sitting on duds. I repeated it again in the year 2000. Bought when everyone was buying…on recommendations from well meaning brokers, friends, anyone and everyone. And lost most of it.
Burnt badly twice, I now follow two simple rules:
(1) I don’t invest in businesses I don’t understand.
(2) I sell, even at a loss if I see a Company’s prospect changing from positive to negative. This time I sold my entire stock portfolio three months ago. I saw external factors changing and no positive triggers for the stock markets for the next year or so. My home loan on the other hand was getting expensive. So I sold and repaid my home loan. It was a weighed out and calculated bet. And it paid off.
So have I got it right, finally? I don’t know. But I do know for sure. I will not go shopping for stocks in a sale.
Investing is a serious business. I work hard to earn and save. I will not gamble. And neither should you my friends. The sale could be on for some time, tempting you.....