Market crash: How people are planning to cope

In times of market uncertainties, we asked our readers to share their investment stories with us on the moneycontrol message board. Here are some stories.

Laksh says: I entered the stock market last year in April. At that time, I had a thumb rule: Whenever I get 25 per cent profit on any particular stock, I would book profit. Later, I would enter the same stock either at high/low price depending on the market. This lasted till November and then I changed track and decided to hold onto my stocks for longer time.

In January, my investments were diminishing at a relatively faster rate. That’s when I opted for getting a personal loan to average my losses.

When Sensex touched 14000, I sold all my investments in a single day. I didn’t think about booking losses. That one whimsical instant, I had wiped out all the profits made in the past one year and I booked a 10 per cent net loss.

Recently, I have begun investing again when Sensex hit 10000 points. This time, I selected stocks with P/E value of 5, current market price less than or around the book value, with at least 4 per cent dividend yield and also company CAGR (compounded annual growth rate) of at least 20 per cent. These stocks are falling but I decided not to average in the falling market.

Lessons I learnt:

1. Never average your losses when market is falling.

2. One has to justify the value of share while buying the share, ie, try avoiding those common stocks whose price is very high because everyone wants to have it in their portfolio).

PAGE_BREAK

My losses since January 2008 were

January Loss: Rs 118,205

February Loss: Rs 13,233

March Loss: Rs 68,353.29

April Profit: Rs 39,519

May Loss: Rs 37,439

June Loss: Rs 102,509

July Profit: Rs 31,590

August Profit Rs 2,001

September Loss: Rs 75,996

October Loss: Rs 57,657

What I plan to do: I am waiting in the hope that the good days will be back again.

marketman says: In January I booked 50 per cent profit. But since February 2008, my portfolio value has halved. During this time, I have recovered only 25 per cent of my losses. It is not easy to get profits on a regular basis in stock markets.

Everyone's under pressure -- investors, corporate honchos -- during this recession time. Nobody is exempted during these market falls despite their experience. Many veteran investors have lost much in recent falls.

My opinion: The bull and bear phases are normal in stock markets just like day and nights. So, investors will have to be well prepared before coming to invest here.