2016 the year in review

If I could, I would love to remember 2016 second by second, but with a limited memory capacity I can afford only the highlights. A very important year with some very valuable lessons. Let's go through some of them

There never will be a perfect world

Forget perfect, the world is only getting more & more volatile and unpredictable ... more imperfect. So stop waiting for that perfect day. Do what you want to do .. do it today. If you want to go somewhere, learn something, do something .. do it today. If you want to invest in stock markets (many friends keep asking me when is the right time to start), start today.

Bulls make money, bears make money but pigs always get slaughtered

Many people who were left out of the stock market were extremely burnt up about people making easy money in stock market. They were really happy when the stock market crashed and jumped in to catch the missed bus. What happened after that is what is called "pigs always get slaughtered". Stock market suffered major crashes throughout the year causing great pain and suffering to loyal stock market investors & traders but what happened with the pigs is that when they got the opportunity to enter the stock market, they had no clue where to put their money. Most ended up with wrong investments at wrong prices. The bulls & bears knew exactly where to put the money, but had little left. Still they recovered with the market. What we learn? Be with the market, not outside hoping for it to crash one day. Don't celebrate misery of others or try to take advantage of it. Never run out of cash reserves.

life goes on

People of Syria must have thought that the war is never going to end, but it did after almost 6 years it did. People thought that Brexit would shake the world out of order, but practically nothing happened. demonetisation came out of nowhere in India. What followed was several days, weeks and months of chaos & confusion and yet life goes on.

truth triumphs eventually

the obama's & clinton's of the world learnt it the hard way. Their fake speeches on values & integrity didn't work with public this time as they were shown the middle finger and thrown out of power for their criminal, corrupt and mentally insane actions and mindless abuse of power.& position. The world instantly became a much better place when hillary lost the presidential election to Trump this year not once but thrice (count, recount, electoral)!

don't ignore the small one's

Julian Assange changed the direction of US presidential elections. Zika virus from mosquitoes shook Brazil. Syria won the Aleppo battle against half the world's most advanced armies. 100 & 10 Rs note survived while the 500 & 1000 Rs notes perished. Small IPO's created spectacular wealth while the Reliance, HDFC, L&T struggled to close the year in green.

change volatility is the only constant
yes the markets fell, but before you could catch the fall they spiked back up. yes the markets spiked but before you could book out, they fell again. This is the new normal and you will have to adopt to it to survive & thrive. Learn to live in the now .. don't plan your year in advance, you have no clue what's coming. The only thing you can bank upon is that nothing will be permanent so always keep your next moves ready.

In short

Believe everything, trust no one.  (Agent Mulder, X files)