About Markets

By Ramesh Akkineni
A Letter to my Investors

 in short term no one knows whether the market will go up or down before it happens. if they did they would be very rich and enjoying their life in some islands. if i decide to keep cash and sell off stocks it will be because i can't find some attractive use of money in some stock. if the markets go down every ones portfolio will be priced lower. it may happen this year or next year or later. when the market is down 20% in an year, the portfolio will also be down. then don't ask me why i didnt sell the portfolio before the market went down. no one can time the market. if the stocks become cheaper it will be advantage for us as we can buy more stocks with same money. and stocks will become cheaper some year in next decade. i dont know exactly which year.

so how can you measure the performance of an investment manager? by seeing his record over a period of 3-5 years. any lesser time will be useless in measuring his performance. so check the portfolio after 3-5 years and then you can say something.

if you want to check the portfolio daily, be sure that it is only for entertainment. seeing the portfolio daily doesnt make it grow faster. and it may slow its growth if you reduce the time available to the investment manager for research by talking to him daily about markets.

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