Financial Markets Meltdown – How to Handle?

US markets fell 28% in the last 3 weeks. Falls this sharp have happened only 4 times in history as per my Analysis of 100 yr of S&P Data: Great Depression:1929, Black Monday:1987, Tech-crash:2001 & housing market crash: 2008. Data tells me that the volatility will be very high in the next few months & we can expect not more than 5-10% returns in the next 6 months. Further, historically these kind of sharp falls have given very high returns over the course of next 2-3 years. As Indian markets are not insulated and shall be driven by global events, I am advising my clients on the course of action strictly based on their Asset Allocation. As an illustration 1. If their Asset Allocation to equity is very high, I am asking them to weather the storm for next few months and deploy fresh capital into High Quality Debt Funds only. 2. If their Asset Allocation to equity is low & if they want to take advantage of this fall to increase it, I am asking them to consider purchase in a staggered fashion & not in one go. Markets will do whatever they want to do, no one can really predict that with certainly. However, we can use this fall to our advantage to set our Asset Allocation right and restructure our investments.

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