Media: Can you really learn from them?
After a particular stage in life you get skeptical about what you read. In the financial services industry, reading an article is important, but reading the byline is perhaps more important. Also knowing why he/she is saying and the tone in which they are saying is also very important.
I am not even talking about controversial topics. I had a lot of time on Saturday, 20th August, 2011 and saw a lot of the pink and not so pink papers. Most of them were screaming ‘Investors have lost 9k crore in the last week’ and there was one which said ‘the government and Mr. Ratan Tata are the biggest losers in the market down turn’,….then there was one which said ‘there is a lot of blood letting…and more will come’…you get the drift, do you not?
Well like I said..none of them were saying buy of course.
With headlines like this, do you expect people to go and buy….or do you expect them to sell?
In 2014 doing a story ‘if you had invested in Aug 2008 you would have got 33%p.a. return’ is easy…but scaring the people in 2011 is what they are doing.
To me it makes NO DIFFERENCE…no diff at all…media is entertainment..but the bechara aam aadmi..SELLS.
You should read the ‘Mint’..article by Vikas Mohan (No end of fall in sight)..and you can feel the shrill of the IBN group!
Then he quotes Dev Kapadia who says ‘Margin calls are being triggered….’
Then Vijay Bhambani says ‘Markets will reach 4500-4600 over some weeks’. Then Punita Kumar-Sinha (for the more info seeking people please check who is she) of Blackstone Asia Advisors Llc, says ‘There is a lot of Panic selling….’
Amazing, if you are an aam investor…tell me how will be your mood if you read this article and in 10 minutes your ‘advisor’ tells you..’keep your SIP going’…it requires a brave man.
How did I feel after reading it? amused..I went on to read a nice article in Business Standard by Rama Bijapurkar.
Sreedhar
Subra sir, now I am buying niftybees (actually sipping) without complicating stuff! Similarly, without trying to time markets I am also buying wherever I can see value (likes of Voltas seem very cheap to me). Time will tell whether my calls were right 🙂
Jsan
Well said Subra sir. People think Market is easy way to make money but Instead, its easy way to lose money and Smart way to make money. Patience always pays.
Sreekant
“Profit is the difference between perception and reality” – anonymous. Is perception too different from the reality now?
“The stock market requires great conviction, as surely as it victimises the unconvinced,” – Peter Lynch. No amount of goading is going to help somebody succeed in the market. The conviction has to come from within.
anon
In 2008,I remember being as nervous as driving on saki naka road at peak time. But gritted teeth and kept going.
Likewise this time too. Only thing is I made some lumpsum inv into the big 2 MF right on the day the world ended, so I guess this is another kind of guts. Or foolhardiness.