Your Armchair Strategy.

(From Business Today (India))

Byline: Narendra Nathan

Take a deep breath. Fasten your seatbelts. Hold tight. Steel your gut. Try not to yell too hard. By the sound of investment pros, venturing alone onto the stock market is not very different from going on a multiple loop rollercoaster called something like 'Hellmountain Jack'. The bravehearts who've actually done it might even tell you that this metaphor is not inaccurate. In fact, they might even suggest more hair-raising names to describe the experience.

Do yourself a favour. Ignore them for a moment, and take a good look at the armchair featured across the page. It is a better description of your stockmarket experience-if you follow this recommendation closely.

Self Conviction

The big reason for letting professionals manage your investments is that you have neither the time nor the resources to do a good job. The jargon does not seem very inviting either. Moreover, do you have the inclination to monitor your picks' progress?

But then, there's no easy way out, no matter which route you take. As the saying goes, a lazy investor (in terms of mental faculties, that is) is no investor. "You have to regularly monitor your mutual fund investments also," says Ambreesh Baliga, Vice President at Karvy Stock Broking. No fund manager will ever tell you when to time your exit from the mutual fund; this is a decision you must take yourself.