I had bought 1000 Nifties at 4000 after Rakesh Jhunjhunwala and Basant Maheshwari very convincing declared on the TV screens that Nifty after having fallen from 6k to 4k can not go any further.
I bought 1000 Nifties at price 4000.
The share market kept slipping and I kept pouring more and more money to meet the margin requirements.
On 24th October 2008, the Nifty had fallen by 400 massive points (more than 13% in a day!) but had recovered the same day. I was going out of money having borne a 10-12 lakh rupee loss already. This money was against selling the shares in the portfolio which already were beaten down massively. A 35 lakh portfolio had already reduced to a 7-10 lakh portfolio.
On 27th Oct 08, the Nifty which was at 2900 in the previous session was seen at 2250! In just one day.
I now lost my courage.
5-7 lakh further loss in a day was there... The entire portfolio was going to be wiped out.
I sold those Nifties that day.
My portfolio also was reduced to about 2 lakh to meet the margin requirements.
Later that day the it recovered to around 2500 but no money and courage was left with me.
Whatever I got from my father in inheritance till that day, was lost.
One of my friends survived that harakiri and successfully recovered the losses in due course of time.
That day I sold the Nifties which I had been nurturing for long keeping in mind the long term returns.
If that day was not there in my destiny, I would have had around 1 crore+ in that portfolio, which was turned into a 2 lakh one that day.
We may say I lost one crore that day. It changed my life.
I stopped share market tracking and never looked back at that demat account for the next 12 years, till today. It has almost zero money. Had to leave my job and join a coaching to be able to earn more money.. we may say I became a teacher due to that day.. my dive into the social sector got delayed.. still am waiting for that... I became less confident about myself.. had to compromise in a lot of situations in life..
People share their successes but it is really difficult to write about your failures.
In the hindsight I feel that me being an extremely introvert person and especially at that time was the prime factor for me not be not able to show courage and wisdom in those moments.
My upbringing had lot to do in how my personality was shaped, and I lacked courage and clarity of thought to be able to deal with that situation. I lacked talking to people about that and sharing these difficult situations with them. Had I shared this situation with people, I would have dealt with it in a much better way. I lacked people with whom I could have shared my problems.
Courage and wisdom are two very rare qualities in a person. The real test appears in a situation like that emerged on 27th Octobet 2008. I lost money, got my life changed but I need to learn from it. Having an insight what makes a person fail and working for its remedy can create wonders for the person and the society.
