The Unpredictable Nature Of Markets Brings Into Play The Art Of Equity Investing

Human beings have a peculiar habit of categorizing anything and everything around them.

- Ashok T Kanawala

This makes the oft-heard debate about categorization of a stream/ field of work as an art or science anything but surprising. While science is more fact-driven and objective, art involves subjectivity.

Like countless other domains, equity investing has not escaped this debate of ‘Art or Science’. However, we would be barking up the wrong tree by trying to classify equity investing as either an Art or a Science. Equity Investing, like photography for instance, is not solely science or art. It is both. Application of quantitative research, financial models etc. gives investing a truly scientific flavour. However, use of financial models in investing is similar to that of navigation tools in driving a car. They may tell you the suggested route from Point A to Point B, however, they may not reveal critical information about quality of road, accidents along the route, difficulty of terrain etc.