Lighten up equity portfolio

Keep cash in hand to ensure that you have the ability to invest heavily if the market does lose steam in April and May

The randomness of stock market returns can be illustrated by long time-series. In the 20 years since January 1999, the Nifty had seven years of net losses. It also had three big years when it gained over 50 per cent. In 10 years, it gained, with annual returns somewhere between 1-15 per cent. In January 1999, the Nifty was at trading around 900. It is now in the 10,750 range. This means the compounded return for this period is around 13.25 per cent.  

The compounded annual rate of growth, or CAGR is more than acceptable since the real returns would have