markets
Retail Arrives Last
The rule
By the time a boom is front-page news, the smart money is already selling to the crowd rushing in.
Where it flips
Overused, this makes you refuse every rising stock and sit out real multi-year trends, out of fear of being 'the last crowd'. The fix: judge by your own reason for owning it and the price you paid, not just by how popular it has become. A good business bought sensibly can still be held even when others are excited.
A rally starts quietly with people who know something. It spreads to big institutions. And it reaches newspapers, TV, and your neighbour only near the top. The small investor who buys because everyone is talking about it is often buying the very shares the early holders want to offload. The last big crowd to enter gives the cash for the smart money to exit. If the excitement reached you through general talk rather than your own reading, assume you are late, not early.
A worked example
Aarvi hears about a soaring smallcap from her cousin and a TV panel in the same week and buys ₹2 lakh worth. Within two months it halves, as the early buyers who started the frenzy quietly book their profits. [illustrative]
How to spot it
- ·Everyone around you suddenly owns it
- ·You heard of it from TV or WhatsApp, not your own study
- ·The story is about how much it has already risen
Santosh Nair · Bulls, Bears and Other Beasts