The Million Dollar Question - Is This The Right Time To Invest?

Vikaas is an industry veteran with over two decades of experience. In the course of his career, he has held several influential and senior management positions across marquee financial service organizations. He has a broad range of interests across functions like sales, distribution, marketing, Investment banking, product, and customer service. Vikaas was the CEO of Edelweiss Asset Management Ltd, successfully turning around the business culminating in the acquisition of JP Morgan MF and was also the Global CEO of Enam Asset Management Ltd, where he oversaw both global and domestic side of the business. He has also worked with Birla Sun Life International AMC Ltd., and ING Investment Management (India) Ltd. His industry affiliations include a seat at the Mutual Fund Advisory Committee (MFAC), a special committee of industry professionals selected by SEBI to advise them on governing the MF industry and he was also on the board of the Association of Mutual Funds of India (AMFI), heading the ETF and indexing committee, which submitted the first white paper on ETFs to SEBI.

- Vikaas M Sachdeva (Chief Executive Officer, Emkay Investment Managers Ltd.)

During my interaction with investors and distributors alike, there has been this question which keeps coming around…..what is actually driving the markets up, and should one invest now? Among these are people who have always believed in the “Buy and hold” maxim, whereas there are some who argue for a changing dynamic wherein it makes sense to “Follow the trend”.

To start with, a quick recap of the current environment we live in - we are in a “growth famine, liquidity flooded” paradigm currently. Globally, central banks have infused over $3 trillion, and counting, into the system through various measures. Most of them have been with the primary aim of ensuring livelihood and status quo.