We witnessed these levels in the market exactly 2 years ago. Feels like it happened few months back.
It made many traders bankrupt , It made many Investors panic and sell their shares which they held for years at peanuts. It was not just a normal crash. It involved health crisis. There was utmost chaos everywhere. We literally were part of the history.
What do you remember about this memorable day ? Would love to hear your story (which many of us might be sharing with our grand children ) and how it changed you as a trader and I daresay, as a person ?
"There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen "–Vladimir Lenin.
What I experienced in that one month - It was a once in a lifetime learning :
My main funda of trading has always been risk reward based trading. So, when nifty was at 11000 odd levels at the beginning of march, already crashing 10% (I just like many others thought - Okay, we are coming to that 10600-300 zone , which was the zone from which markets zoomed due to corporate tax cut news) - it was all good , I bought at that zone (stocks, index n what not) , what happened after that, we all know
After losing more than 70% of my account and trying to figure out what the hell was happening (nifty fell more than 30% !! ), I realized its time to stop bulshitting my account and focused on that one trade which is going to change my trading journey. I took CIpla 400 CE at 4-5 rs and sold it above 50++ ( this was after researching for days to know which stock may see quick reversal if mrkts bounced back). I fortunately recovered my losses and gained more after that. But what I experienced in march , that taught me more stuff about mrkt than my 5 year (at that tym) experience.
That damned day! I did panic, sold off most of my holdings to save my capital. We always think it is not okay to panic when you are thinking for the long term, but in such situations, it’s very difficult to not look at your position and panic. When you see the portfolio you built in bits and pieces over the years go down in just one moment. But, the learning that happened after that and due to that was immense. I now follow one motto, not to look at the prices every day for the stocks held over the longest term. Following the stoic path which says only worry about the things that are under your control and this helps me to be at peace in the market.
This may be common, but i got reliance at 1000 odd price
On 20th March 2020, there was some news of closing down the exchanges but then around the closing time, we heard some statements from the MH government that closure of exchange is not on the table (even though I think MH govt doesn’t have the authority to close the exchanges even if it wishes to).
Markets were rallying and the futures came into a premium and I felt that the bottom has been made and likely we open and drive above 9000 on Monday. What really happened, was that we hit lower circuit and more. I was long on futures, unhedged and took a real beating that day. My stock portfolio was already in tatters and similar to @Prakashsingh , I had started buying ETFs from 11000 odd levels.
The volatility fell after that and I made some recoveries through short volatility strategies and managed to end the trading account in green for the year. The investment account was in deep red as with everyone else.
The thing that I learnt was that - nothing is impossible in the markets. Next month Crude oil futures went into the negative and those who were long had their settlement happen at -2850 or so per barrel. Now, some Russian ministers are calling for $300 and $500 price per barrel on oil and I wouldn’t say it’s completely impossible.
Risk management is very under-rated and should be a top priority for any trader.
This is the day I added 75percent of my funds. But I should admit I was very scared. I added only blue chips like hdfc, hdfc bank, infy, tcs, sbi, RIL.
Post this crash, I started buying up all government-listed companies.
My logic was that with such turmoil, the government will push PSU’s to pay out handsome dividends. Also, I was buying PSU’s at dirt cheap prices. I also bought more every day (only if the PSU is trading is red for that day) if it was green for a particular day I would not add any more.
My Zerodha account was only holding PSU’s at one point of time.
However, when the markets dipped, I had accumulated many bluechips and NIFTY/BANKBEES. Not sure if many would agree, but buying ETFs was a good decision
Its the safest bet I see in equities. Once market hit 17k in the previous rally (August 2021) I didn’t add any stock to my portfolio. I have been accumulating niftybees since then. I block my weekly profit from fno by buying niftybees on Thursdays. I don’t really about to bother about the fundamentals of the company.
Agree and learned. I do keep accumulating bees but have no particular straight way like you do. One of the safest bets in Equity over the course of years. Think, I’d also now plan and have some investments periodically into it without investing lumpsum at one shot.
The main reason why I do this is because I don’t wanna increase my trading capital. By accumulating niftybees I can sell calls lets says 5 percent higher on weekly basis and get nominal return on this. So this will be an additional return over and above nifty returns.
