{"id":2046,"date":"2021-07-10T13:25:27","date_gmt":"2021-07-10T13:25:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.assetmultiplier.co.in\/blog\/?p=2046"},"modified":"2021-07-10T13:25:27","modified_gmt":"2021-07-10T13:25:27","slug":"2021-returns-in-the-first-half","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.assetmultiplier.co.in\/blog\/2021\/07\/10\/2021-returns-in-the-first-half\/","title":{"rendered":"2021 : Returns in the first half"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Jon writes on his blog that for the most part, markets in 2021 have shown continued improvement on last year. In fact, the worst place to have money so far this year is cash.\u00a0The U.S. and the broader international and emerging market indexes are positive year to date.<\/p>\n<p>Investing in a world where everything seems to be working out \u2014 except \u201csafe\u201d bonds and cash \u2014 it can be tempting to tweak your portfolio. Why not move that money earning nothing into something much better? After the last six months, and the six months prior to that, Jon bets a lot of people are thinking exactly that. When thoughts like that pop into your head it\u2019s always worth asking yourself a few questions.<\/p>\n<p>First, am I taking enough risk to meet my goals? Building a portfolio is not an exact science. Uncertainty around the future makes that impossible. But it\u2019s certainly plausible that some investors are taking less risk than they can handle. If you have less money in stocks than you\u2019re comfortable with, can handle more risk and volatility, then maybe a change is warranted.<\/p>\n<p>However, the alternative should also be considered. If you have more money in stocks than you\u2019re comfortable with, reducing your exposure might be warranted. Successful investing has never been about getting the highest return\u00a0<em>this year<\/em>. It\u2019s about getting the best long-term return at risk you\u2019re comfortable taking.<\/p>\n<p>Second, am I making changes because I feel like I\u2019m missing out? FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) sucks. It gets a lot of investors into trouble. Frankly, the returns other people and\/or asset classes are earning in the market are irrelevant to what you\u2019re trying to accomplish. If your portfolio is sound and doing what it\u2019s set out to do, whatever is going on outside of that is a distraction. Ignore it. Far too many investors shoot themselves in the foot trying to chase returns.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, it\u2019s always good to ask what if I\u2019m wrong? The correct answer is you lose money. Are you comfortable with that potential outcome? A sound portfolio is built with this question in mind. It also happens to be the last question anyone asks when markets are rising and everyone\u2019s optimistic and appears to be making money. Much like today!<\/p>\n<p>The heightened speculation that emerged in 2020, spilt into this year, and is ongoing. There are a lot of \u201cbrilliant\u201d investors around more than willing to show off their quarterly gains. It\u2019ll be interesting to see how long that lasts.<\/p>\n<p>Jon concludes that when everyone\u2019s optimistic and few think they can lose money, getting rich quick becomes the strategy du jour. Many will eventually figure out it has one tremendous downside. You lose everything. Until then hopes and dreams are driving pockets of the market for now.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>For Indian Investors, it is perhaps time to look beyond the local market<\/p>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"189\">Asset Class % Total returns<\/td>\n<td width=\"142\">Q1<\/td>\n<td width=\"120\">Q2<\/td>\n<td width=\"150\">1H 2021<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"189\">India<\/td>\n<td width=\"142\">5.18<\/td>\n<td width=\"120\">7.01<\/td>\n<td width=\"150\">12.55<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"189\">S&amp;P 500 US<\/td>\n<td width=\"142\">6.17<\/td>\n<td width=\"120\">8.55<\/td>\n<td width=\"150\">15.25<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"189\">US IT sector<\/td>\n<td width=\"142\">1.97<\/td>\n<td width=\"120\">11.56<\/td>\n<td width=\"150\">13.76<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"189\">US Financials<\/td>\n<td width=\"142\">15.99<\/td>\n<td width=\"120\">8.36<\/td>\n<td width=\"150\">25.69<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"189\">US Healthcare<\/td>\n<td width=\"142\">3.18<\/td>\n<td width=\"120\">8.4<\/td>\n<td width=\"150\">11.85<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Based on MSCI Index Dollar returns<\/p>\n<p>Source: https:\/\/novelinvestor.com\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jon writes on his blog that for the most part, markets in 2021 have shown continued improvement on last year. In fact, the worst place to have money so far this year is cash.\u00a0The U.S. and the broader international and emerging market indexes are positive year to date. Investing in a world where everything seems [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[74],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.assetmultiplier.co.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2046"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.assetmultiplier.co.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.assetmultiplier.co.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.assetmultiplier.co.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.assetmultiplier.co.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2046"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.assetmultiplier.co.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2046\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2047,"href":"https:\/\/www.assetmultiplier.co.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2046\/revisions\/2047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.assetmultiplier.co.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.assetmultiplier.co.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.assetmultiplier.co.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}