Among all professions, the divide between preaching and practising is the greatest in journalism. It’s not because we are experts at living a life of double standards; it’s the demand of our profession. We are not supposed to be investors in stocks we recommend. We are supposed to disclose our investments and go out of the way to prove that we are neutral, credible and above board. And why not? If what we preach is right, readers who follow our advice will be able to lead a better life. If we get it wrong they will lose money, and we will lose credibility —fatal for a publication.
There is a problem with this hypothesis. It confuses neutrality with accuracy. It is easier to be neutral than accurate, and being neutral is often not really relevant. Not for the increasingly demanding and intelligent readers who e-mail us regularly. They demand ratings and studies that bring out the best of saving instruments across investment classes—something that helps them separate the wheat from the chaff. Fulfilling this demand requires expertise and extraordinary boldness. Expertise is pivotal because vague personal finance is worth nothing at all. Driven by this assumption, starting this issue, we have decided to take the bull by the horns—quite literally.
In collaboration with our stock market expert Dipen Sheth, who was aided by our sounding board for all things technical and complicated, Devangshu Datta, we have developed two model portfolios of stocks that have wealth creation potential. We would like to think of them as mock equity mutual funds, which will be tracked, updated and revised regularly in MONEY TODAY. In developing these two portfolios we have learnt some finer skills of intelligent investing—all passed on to you. These two funds will also become the pivots for developing bigger stories, like this issue’s cover package. It tells you how to pick relatively “safe” stocks in any market condition and how you can benefit from volatility.
Combing the principles of good journalism and intelligent investing, we are not guaranteeing any returns or soliciting investment. We are just making sure that we offer you specific and relevant advice that is thorough, transparent, auditable, engaging and across technology platforms. In return, we request you to be frank in your assessment of our work—tell us if and what you gained and better still share your own stock portfolio with us. We would he happy to evaluate it and add our two bits of advice.
-Rohit Saran
