Dhoni is Indias Cricket Captain who won many trophies World Cup, T20 World cup, ICC Champions Trophy and Recent Tri Series Trophy to name a few. As an investor, we can learn many things from MSD. But here I list few of them. If you have seen the above matches, you can easily know what I am talking about. Even if you dont love cricket and Dhoni, still you can learn things here. Because finally what you need is the learning and not the illustration.
Managing Team is like Managing a Portfolio..
India won many important matches as stated above under the captaincy of MSD. If you see all those matches, it is not only because of batsmen or only because of bowlers we won the match. In some matches, bowlers fail to work and the opening batting pair would have contributed for the victory. In some matches, only few batsmen would have got double digit score and then the bowlers will do their work perfectly to win that match. Which means it is not one side effort that wins a match.
As an investor, you must diversify your portfolio throughout all the asset classes like Gold, Equity, Mutual Funds, Real estate, Bank Deposit, etc., so that if one of the asset is not doing well another will help you. If you invest all your hard earned money in a single asset class, and if it fails, you will be in trouble.
Choose it Right..
Dhoni have found more talented players to Indian team like Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, Shikar Dhawan. He does experiment with them like Rohit and Shikar (Right and Left) Opening pair and so on. Which means once you found out right person you can do anything with it. You need do use them at their best.
Once you find a good performing fund or a share, you can stay invested in it. Even though the value reduces at times, it doesnt mean the fund is not doing well. If you stay invested, you will earn better. But finding a right product is not that easy. You need the help of a financial planner to find the best product for you.
Stay cool it Pays..
While winning T20 World Cup Final, MSD used Joginder Sharma in the last over. In ICC Champions Trophy Final, he used Ishant Sharma in 17th Over (Actually 50 overs Match was reduced to 20 overs due to rain) both this decision looks odd at that time. Because, in the first case, Harbhajan has 1 over left and Joginder is not as experienced as Harbhajan. In the second case, Ishant was giving more runs when compared to other bowlers. But both of them helped India to win the trophy. Even though Ishant gave more runs and Joginder is inexperienced, MSD used them and Won the match. He didnt change the bowler at that crucial moment. When 17th over was given to Ishant, generally fans would have thought that India will lose the match. Even commentator was asking Whats going on in Dhonis mind? but he took 2 wickets continuously which leads to victory.
Once you find the best financial product for you or once you select a good mutual fund scheme or a share, you can start and keep on investing in it. When market falls by 200 points, you cannot expect your share to move up by say Rs. 10. Market fluctuations will be reflected in your investments, it is not right decision to sell a product when market is crashed. Instead, wait patiently for the market to bounce back you will get better returns because you have invested in a performing product. Stay Cool it Pays..
If nothing works..
Sometimes everyone will fail and as a Captain, you need to stand alone and win the match. World cup final and Tri series final are good example for this. In both the matches Dhoni performed well to win the match. He was awarded Man of the Match in both the matches. So if nothing works you need to work.
Investors have specific Goals to achieve. But the returns from the investment depend on many factors like Political, Economical and so on. You and the company or fund manager of the company you have invested are not responsible for a loss that happens due to these factors. As an investor, you need to review your portfolio once in 6 months or 1 Year. You need to make necessary changes to achieve your goal. You can seek help of your financial planner to do these changes. Only if you do this you can achieve your goals at ease.
Even though there are many other factors involved both in winning a game and stock market investment, these are the basic things without which it is difficult to Win the match and investment. So follow this and see the change.
The author is Arul Prakash B, a PGDM (Finance). He isthe Founder of Pushpak Financial Planners (http://pushpakfinancialplanners.weebly.com) firm that offers Personal Financial Planning. He can be reached at pushpakfinancialplanners@gmail.com