Decoding Personal Finance

DECODING THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 DRIVEN FREE FALLING MARKETS The global economy has suffered a significant slowdown as it witnesses the like of something never seen before. As the world scuttles towards new measures to safeguard against COVID -19, there is a widespread downslide on the stock markets leaving global investors uncertain about the market situation. The global economy is projected to grow at 3.5% in 2019 and 3.6% in 2020, 0.2 and 0.1 percentage point below the last October projections. In a scenario where sentiment is negative and uncertainty drives the market, it is common to see investors panicking and wanting to opt out of their equity investments. Investors typically look for investment options that will earn them the maximum return with the least amount of risk. However, this is a paradox! It would be worthwhile for investors to remember that high returns always come with high risk. A Frequently asked question in this scenario is ‘could we have done something be

"Investor wealth eroded by Rs. 11.42 lakh Crore!" An 'Eye Ball' catching headline that has most people worried about notional losses on their Investments and left them wondering about the best course of action in these circumstances. Most people would be swinging between any of the following reactions: "Hey the markets are volatile and it's better to stay away till the dust of volatility settles down, so let me redeem my investments and stop my losses!" or "Hey the markets are down! let me buy some fresh stock to average out my portfolio!" As each one of us becomes a self designated expert on the market dynamics and gets into  discussions on "what happened and for how long this will take to recover", it might be worthwhile to ponder over the reasons behind this. Though the markets are temperamental and have no particular reason to go up or down, a few factors that caused this carnage would be WHO(World Health