Sunil Subramanian, CEO, Sundaram NSE -0.48 % Mutual Fund, is an astute observer of the stock market. He also never shy of voicing his opinions, sometimes contrarian views, about the market. He says he gained his composure and calmness only in the last two decades after he joined the mutual fund industry. “Joining Sundaram MF 17 years ago gave a direct exposure to the theory and practice behind stock market investing. Since ..
My journey in the financial markets started during the eighties when I was a banking professional with SBI NSE -0.71 % with very limited knowledge of the equity markets. I started to invest through the employee quota in State Bank NSE -0.71 % , select stocks, ELSS MFs and long term SIPs in mutual funds in my children’s names.
My early years were largely driven by the IPO boom of the eighties and nineties as well as random investments made on the basis of tips from stock brokers.
The first thing I learnt was that ‘knowing when to sell’ was as important as ‘knowing when to buy’
Yes, the first bad phase of the market saw me lock up all my dud securities in the safe deposit locker. I navigated it by restricting my investment portfolio only to SIPs and it took quite some time for me to re-enter the stock market!!
I developed calmness only over the years through repeated mistakes. But joining Sundaram MF 17 years ago gave a direct exposure to the theory and practice behind stock market investing. Since then I have been a calm investor. What made me lose my nerve in the beginning was the illogical (to me!) movement of stock prices – sometime good news was followed by a price fall!!
What is different ? Unlike before 2006, today FPIs are dominating the market and our market has become coupled to the world markets because of this. Hence Liquidity has became an equally important factor along with fundamentals.
If there is one thing that you would want young investors to learn from your experience, what would it be?
Systematic allocation, buy whenever there is fear prevailing, set price/value targets for each high risk-reward investment – whether direct equities or sectoral MFs – and ruthlessly book profits when those targets are reached.
Source Name:-Economic Times