New to investing? Bet only a small part of your surplus directly in stocks

The bulk of your money should be invested via mutual funds and low-cost passive funds

Neha Gupta, 29, a resident of Udhampur, has been active in the stock markets for the past six months. “The lockdown has given me time to read up on companies, do proper evaluation, and then invest,” she says. Gupta goes through the annual reports of companies, reads highlights of their annual general meetings, and assesses their valuations before investing. Being risk averse, she has stuck to large-cap names and mostly put her money on market leaders in various sectors in these volatile times. She has also diversified into sovereign gold bonds to hedge her portfolio.

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