Time for PC to run on MS-Word

With the global financial crisis slowing spreading its claws across India, the government which till now was flaying India’s exponential growth story has been forced to rethink its policies.

But what a great time for India to have a crisis like this!!! Phew... you must be wondering how that could be true. But I mean it. In fact, with Manmohan Singh at the helm of affairs, India couldn’t have asked for a better timing to deal with this crisis. Manmohan Singh’s antics back in 1991 are still not forgotten. With a foreign exchange reserve just enough to meet India’s import needs for another week, the good doctor had swung into action and had introduced what is now known as the economic reforms era. And the results are there for everyone to see.

Now with another crisis looming large over the head and with the doctor along with his old and trusted team of P Chidambaram and Montek Singh Ahluwalia back at the helm, they shouldn’t find themselves in an unfamiliar situation. Given the huge similarities between the 1991 era and today’s situation, I wonder whether they are nostalgic at times... recalling their past days.

With its honeymoon with the US and the 123 behind the back, the government should now try to get the economy back on track. In spite of the current scenario, it’s basically a US crisis which is spilling over to other parts of the world. And this has led to the recent market meltdown (where are those decoupling stories I had been hearing of, its back to the same old days of waiting for global market cues every morning and promptly falling in line). We are still a very stable economy in ourselves. Hence the FM who is dying a hundred deaths every time the Sensex slips should focus more on getting the fundamentals right. Oops... they are already right, he needs to make it stronger.

Or rather it’s time for P Chidambaram (PC) to lay back a bit and let Manmohan Singh (MS) call the shots in the finance ministry... (For those wondering how the title of the post fitted in, I hope I have cleared your doubts now). After all, isn’t this the ideal time for the ‘Economic Reforms Part – II’ to be unleashed. And who’s better than the doctor himself to get his hands on it. Manmohan Singh, with his hands tied by the Left for the major part of his rule, would like to take some positives back home. And here’s a golden chance awaiting him!!! Its time which will tell whether he is successful in his second innings. Till then, Indians are keeping their fingers crossed. For now, we can only hope that he starts on the path already traversed by him in 1991.

My dalliances with Day Trading

After being bored of delivery-trading, I decided to try something new. The discovery of day-trading and futures & options had led my enthu level sky-rocketing to dizzying heights. As such, I began to explore these two new segments. I am still trying to get a grip good enough to trade in the F&O segment. But day-trading turned out to be much easier.

As a rookie in this segment, I started out cautiously. When inflation started its upward journey, I would keep all my margin money unblocked on the day the inflation figures were announced. Knowing the direction in which inflation was headed, it was pretty easy to figure out the direction in which the market would move the next day. Given that inflation was a sensitive issue at that time, the markets reacted sharply to it. Hence I would pick up a stock from the real estate or the financial sector (as these gave the sharpest reaction), specially a stock with a high beta-value. At the time of squaring off my position, I invariably walked out with huge money. This continued for four straight weeks until the tide reversed and left me wounded. However, my previous outings were enough to cushion this impact and I still left with a pretty decent amount.

Another time when day-trading can be very useful is during the last hour of the market. On the days when the market has received a good drubbing, people will be buying shares during the last hour to square of their short positions. This leads to a slight recovery in the market. Again, the direction of movement during the last hour is known which can be easily used for our advantage. 

These days I always look for opportunities where predicting the direction of the market is easy. And I use these cues to great effect with day-trading.

Day-trading is generally compared with guessing. But I feel its intelligent-guessing that matters and makes a difference. If done properly, there’s much more money to be made in it than the delivery based trading. Retail investors only have to move out from their shell and discover it.

P.S: Shorting is fraught with great risks. It’s up to you to decide whether you are willing to take the plunge. 

Visit my profile at http://www.khelostocks.com/showTraderPortfolio.html?clientID=47664