Benchmark indices ended Friday’s volatile session with marginal gains, lifted by HDFC twins and bank stocks amid weakness in pharma counters.
The S&P BSE Sensex rose 86 points, or 0.2 per cent, to 39,616, with IndusInd Bank, Bajaj Finance, Mahindra & Mahindra, State Bank of India, and ICICI Bank being the top gainers. Only 12 of the 30 BSE constituents ended the day in the green.
The broader Nifty50 index added 27 points, or 0.23 per cent, to 11,871. About 1058 shares advanced, 1390 shares declined, and 146 shares remained unchanged on the NSE.
The Nifty sectoral indices traded mixed, with Nifty Fin Service index gaining the most 0.9 per cent, while the Nifty Pharma index slipped the most 1.2 per cent.
In the broader markets, the S&P BSE MidCap index dipped 25 points, or 0.17 per cent, to 14,906, while the S&P BSE SmallCap index was down 16 points , or 0.1 per cent, to 14,657.
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Having interviewed many of the greatest ever traders over many years in his Market Wizard series, many of whom expressed the important role personality plays in trading, Jack Schwager dedicated an entire chapter to the subject in his latest offering ‘The Little Book Of Market Wizards’, and even went so far as to say “if you get nothing else out of reading this book than the one following principle, it will still have been a very worthwhile endeavour: Successful traders find a methodology that fits their personality.”
To illustrate his point he contrasted the frenetic style of Paul Tudor Jones with that of the studious Gil Blake, but perhaps the simple yet profound contribution from Colm O’Shea was what stood out the most, as Schwager surmised here:-
“Traders must find a methodology that fits their own beliefs and talents. A sound methodology that is very successful for one trader can be a poor fit and a losing strategy for another trader. Colm O’Shea, one of the global macro managers I interviewed, lucidly expressed this concept in answer to the question of whether trading skill could be taught: ‘If I try to teach you what I do, you will fail because you are not me. If you hang around me, you will observe what I do, and you may pick up some good habits. But there are a lot of things you will want to do differently. A good friend of mine, who sat next to me for several years, is now managing lots of money at another hedge fund and doing very well. But he is not the same as me. What he learned was not to become me. He became something else. He became him.’”
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If you have been day trading with price action and volume – two of our favourite tools – then the Money Flow Index (MFI) indicator would not feel alien to you. Once you move pass the fancy name, the money flow technical indicator essentially acts as a momentum oscillator that calculates the volume and price data in order to measure buying and selling pressure.
By calculating the indexed value based on the stock price and volume of the number of bars specified in the money flow index settings, it plots a line on the chart that oscillates between the 0 and 100 level.
Figure 1: Money Flow Index of CTRP Fluctuating Between the 0 and 100 Levels
When a stock’s price rises, the money flow index also rises and is a sign of increased buying pressure. Conversely, if the stock price drops, the Money Flow Index will also decline and is a sign of selling pressure. Therefore, you can easily predict the directional momentum in the market by keeping an eye on the money flow index.
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After reclaiming the crucial 40,000 and 12,000 levels, respectively in the early deals, the benchmark indices S&P BSE Sensex and Nifty50 index turned volatile in the afternoon session.
The S&P BSE Sensex ended at 39,714, down 118 points while the broader Nifty50 index settled at 11,923, down 23 points.
The S&P BSE Sensex was trading 132 points or 0.33 per cent lower at 39,700 levels while the NSE’s Nifty50 index was quoting 33 points or 0.28 per cent lower at 11,913 levels. Nifty Bank saw a swing of 1,200 points during the session. Volatility index India VIX was trading over 4 per cent higher at 16.24.
Sectorally, barring IT and FMCG counters, all the indices were trading in the red with the Nifty PSU Bank index taking the hardest knock, followed by media and realty stocks. The Nifty PSU Bank index was trading nearly 2 per cent lower at 3,232.50 levels.
In the broader market, the S&P BSE MidCap index was trading flat at 15,070 levels while the S&P BSE SmallCap index was ruling at 14,876, down 88 points or 0.59 per cent.
Putting rest to all speculation, the President of India on Friday released the portfolio details of new Cabinet, a day after Narendra Modi took oath as the country’s 16th Prime Minister. There were expectations that Amit Shah, a seasoned stock broker and a key architect of NDA’s victory for the second consecutive time will be handed over reigns of the Finance Ministry. This is after Arun Jaitley expressed his desire to stay away from any role in the new government citing health reasons. However, Nirmala Sitharaman has been appointed the new Finance Minister, while Amit Shah will handle the Home Ministry. Smriti Irani, who was expected to be awarded handsomely for defeating Rahul Gandhi in Amethi, has been made the Minister of Women and Child Development and Minister of Textiles.
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Let me tell you the story of two investors, neither of whom knew each other, but whose paths crossed in an interesting way.
Grace Groner was orphaned at age 12. She never married. She never had kids. She never drove a car. She lived most of her life alone in a one-bedroom house and worked her whole career as a secretary. She was, by all accounts, a lovely lady. But she lived a humble and quiet life. That made the $7 million she left to charity after her death in 2010 at age 100 all the more confusing. People who knew her asked: Where did Grace get all that money?
But there was no secret. There was no inheritance. Grace took humble savings from a meagre salary and enjoyed eighty years of hands-off compounding in the stock market. That was it.
Weeks after Grace died, an unrelated investing story hit the news.
Richard Fuscone, former vice chairman of Merrill Lynch’s Latin America division, declared personal bankruptcy, fighting off foreclosure on two homes, one of which was nearly 20,000 square feet and had a $66,000 a month mortgage. Fuscone was the opposite of Grace Groner; educated at Harvard and University of Chicago, he became so successful in the investment industry that he retired in his 40s to “pursue personal and charitable interests.” But heavy borrowing and illiquid investments did him in. The same year Grace Goner left a veritable fortune to charity, Richard stood before a bankruptcy judge and declared: “I have been devastated by the financial crisis … The only source of liquidity is whatever my wife is able to sell in terms of personal furnishings.”
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Because financial matters are rarely covered during high school, many people don’t understand the stock market or how to invest their money properly.
This means that they are more vulnerable to investment scams. With the growth of the internet, and the current frothy state of global markets, these investment scams are unfortunately all too common.
So here are a list of 20 common traps that all traders and investors need to be aware of:
1) Ponzi Schemes
Ponzi schemes involve a cycle of using new investors money to fund the returns of existing investors.
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The benchmark indices ending Friday’s session at record closing highs, after investors’ optimism was boosted by Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA’s) return to power the previous day. While the gains were across the board, bank stocks and financials made the highest contribution to the indices’ rise.
The S&P BSE Sensex ended the day 623 points, or 1.6 per cent, higher at 39,435, with ICICI Bank, Larsen & Toubro, Bharti Airtel, Vedanta, and Tata Motors leading the list of gainers. Oout of the 30 BSE constituents, only Hindustan Unilever and NTPC ended the day in the red.
The broader Nifty50 index rose 187 points to settle at 11,844. About 1823 shares advanced, while 676 declined, and 150 shares remained unchanged on the NSE.
This was the benchmark indices’ biggest weekly gain in 2019.
India VIX, a measure of volatility in Nifty, slipped 40 per cent in the last two days, registering its biggest 2-day fall in five years.
In the broader market, the S&P BSE MidCap index jumped 295 points, or 2 per cent, to hover at 14,945 levels, while the S&P BSE SmallCap closed at 14,670 levels, up 347 points, or 2.4 per cent.
All the Nifty sectoral indices ended the day with gains, with Nifty PSU Bank gaining the maximum 5.6 per cent, while Nifty Realty also rose 4.4 per cent.
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William J. O’Neil is one of the greatest stock traders of our time, achieving a return of 5000% over a 25 year period.
He uses a trading strategy called CANSLIM, which combines fundamental analysis, technical analysis, risk management and timing.
You can learn this exact trading strategy in his best selling book, How To Make Money In Stocks: A Winning System in Good Times and Bad.
His financial successes led him to:
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All greed starts with an innocent idea: that you are right, deserve to be right, or are owed something for your efforts. It’s a reasonable feeling.
But economies have three superpowers: competition, adaptation, and social comparison.
Competition means life is hard. Business is hard. Investing is hard. Not everyone gets a prize, even if they think they’re right and deserving.
Adaptation means even those who get prizes get used to them quickly. So the bar of adequate rewards move perpetually higher.
Comparison means every prize is measured only relative to those earned by other people who appear to be trying as hard as you.
And economies crave productivity. Getting more for doing less. It’s a universal and relentless force.
The feeling that you deserve a prize, even when success is hard, content is fleeting, and rewards are measured relative to others, combined with an economy that constantly wants more prizes for doing less, is the early seed of greed. It fuels both the push for more (great) and the lack of satisfaction when you get more (potentially dangerous).
Once people get a taste of reward – especially an above-average one – delusion can creep in. Sometimes it’s luck misidentified as skill. Or an inflated sense of the value you produce. Or overconfidence in your ability to find another reward.
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Sensex and Nifty surged on the final day of a volatile week on Friday with both the benchmark indices gaining over a per cent each ahead of exit polls outcome on Monday.
Kotak Mahindra, ICICI Bank, HDFC twins, and ITC were the biggest contributors in Sensex’s march to the north.
The benchmark Sensex zoomed almost 1.5 per cent, up 537 points, to close at 37,931, with Bajaj Finance, Hero MotoCorp, Maruti Suzuki India, Kotak Bank, and Bajaj Auto registering the biggest gains. Market breadth remained in favour of buyers with the advance-decline ratio at 3:2.
The broader Nifty50 also surged 1.33 per cent, or 150 points, to end the day at 11,407. About 1,029 stocks advanced and 723 shares declined on National Stock Exchange.
Among sectoral indices, only three indices remained in the red, with Nifty Media gaining the highest 3.53 per cent. Nifty Bank, Nifty Auto, Nifty Finance Service, Nifty FMCG and Nifty Private Bank all rose more than 2 per cent.
In the broader market, the S&P BSE MidCap gained 153 points, or 1.08 per cent, at 14,308.36, while the S&P BSE SmallCap also rose 70 points, or 0.51 per cent, at 13,887.
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