Most people prefer to buy ETFs as they are literally buying the market and can sleep over it. Works if you don’t think there is a time value for money. This works when there is a secular boom in the markets.
That, as we found last Samvat day is not at all true. We saw a deep correction and also a steep climb. The ETF may have made just above FD interest rates, but was that commensurate with the risks of the market? What if the money was needed in Feb/Mar this year (2016)? That was the pits for stocks. FDs would have given much more let alone protect the capital!
Given the upheavals in a closely inter-connected world, the passive days for invest and forget are behind us and while some periods will help this style of investing, most times it will fetch poor-to-bad returns.
The stock-picker’s time in the sun has come.
I’ll be focussing mostly on stocks in this Samvat 2073.
Posts will typically be for medium to long term investments, though that would be entirely decided by the stock markets (Technicals).
I’ll also write less and share charts that speak for them selves.
Happy Diwali folks!