Tweet Buster: Bet on out-of-favour ideas; Ian Cassel’s investing gems

NEW DELHI: As news related to a spike in Covid cases in parts of India and US bond yields kept stocks traders on their toes, Sensex ended the week with a gain of 386 points, or 0.78 per cent, but away from its all-time high touched almost a month ago. With five IPOs hitting Dalal Street this week, investors would be busy dealing with the mad rush.

In this edition of Tweet Buster, we bring you a handpicked collection of investing gems, strategies and market gyaan — all in 240 characters.

Popularity vs performance
PMS fund manager Basant Maheshwari said the more popular a stock is, the less likely it is going to move. “When I held Pantaloon between 2003-08 and Page between 2009-15 (both up 40x for me) not a single analyst recommended it on TV – the only discussion was how much it has moved. Consensus is the enemy of superior performance.”

Out-of-favour ideas
iThought founder Shyam Sekhar gave out an idea to make higher returns — buy out-of-favour ideas which can deliver outlier performance. “You can always go wrong in this. But, when you go right, you will beat the returns of any portfolio of well-discovered popular stocks. The battle will be won hands down.”

Cash or bonds?
Kalpen Parekh, President at DSP Mutual Fund, said when interest rates rise, it may be a better idea to stay in cash than investing in 5-year bonds because the steepness of yield curve is unusually high. “Cash earns only 3% while Bonds earn ~ 6%. So invest in 5 year bonds & hedge via swaps. Cost of swap partly gets absorbed via earnings of cash.”

Asset allocation strategy
Parekh said since August 2020, the Indian stock market has delivered a gain of 37 per cent while gold is down 20 per cent. “Asset allocation : when some part of portfolio doesn’t work.”

Can you pass this test?
Radhika Gupta, MD and CEO, Edelweiss Asset Management, said the best way to understand whether an investment is suitable for you: check the period of its worst returns, and ask yourself, “How would I react if I earned this?”

Bad news first
Gupta said listening to “Bad news first” is a good practice in business and life. “Hearing about risks before return is the same in money.”

China +1 theme
Smallcap hunter Arun Mukherjee said he is getting more convinced about the China +1 theme. “It’s way beyond what one can fathom. Don’t miss this opportunity to pocket the beneficiaries. Next 10 years this theme can create gigantic wealth creation for the investors.”

Gems from Ian Cassel
This microcap hunter is out with a series of tweets on finding multi-baggers and the importance of controlling emotions while investing.