Long or Short

Warning: This post is fairly explicit in nature and may not be suitable for audiences of all ages. If my less than eighteen year old cousins are snooping around my blog, here is the link for Pogo TV.

I was demolished by the recent fall in the India equity markets. While personally I had very little exposure I saw my dear friends and colleagues shelving their early retirement plans.

And then it occurred to me. There must some aspect of human behavior that explains the markets.

Reasons why the stock markets are a lot like sex:

1. The longer you hold on, the better your returns.
2. Nobody likes it if it remains flat. Everybody is happy when it goes up. But what goes up needs to come down.
3. If it’s your first time, you are bound to lose. .
4. Its important to wait for the right time to get in and get out
5. Getting emotional is not a good option.
6. Its important of have a portfolio and churn it frequently.
7. If it’s an IPO, it’s always oversubscribed (primary market is difficult to enter, while secondary markets, they are all over the place. And yeah, primary markets can be very pricey!)
8. You can take a lot of risk before marriage. After marriage, stick to fixed deposits.
9. You need two people to complete the transaction (ok, I know there are exceptions)
10. If someone mentions greed, sex definitely follows next.

Reasons why the stock markets are not lot like sex:

1. While in the stock market you can either go long or short, I don’t think going short is a good option in sex
2. In the markets, 12600 is a good time to get out. In sex it’s a good time to get in!
3. In the markets if you get out early, you will definitely repent. While in sex, your partner will repent
4. While trading during the office hours is fairly acceptable, sex during office hours? Well, it depends!
5. While the market reaches its peak intra-day, with sex, it’s most after-hours.