Butchery. Savage Massacre. And today, raw Blood on the Streets.

Charles Dickens starts A Tale of Two Cities with. 'It was the Best of times. It was the Worst of times.' He was certainly not referring to India 2006.

Sensex crashed a mind-numbing nerve-rattling stomach-wrenching 887 pts in preclose trade to create the biggest fall in the 130 years history of Indian stock markets.

Nothing expresses it better than this Live Mkt Data, I captured on my laptop. ALL Nifty in Red!
Biggest Fall

Rediff lists the 10 biggest falls in the history of Sensex. I have some interesting observations,

  1. Todays fall eclipsed the previous record fall of 507 pts by a big margin. Then it was a huge Eleven Thousand Crore Harshad-Mehta scam, the biggest till then. This time its a host of international factors – the commodities bubble, the pressure on Fed rates, rising crude, and currency manipulations.
  2. Of the 10 biggest falls, three (yes, that's right, THREE) have taken place in last one month! The biggest today, and the 4th biggest just 3 days back. We are surely living in the most turbulent era of Indian mkts. Read Charles Dickens quoted in the start of this post. You know what I mean. If we have seen the pink of Hedge Funds flocking to India like never before, we must suffer the blue as well.
  3. And now, the most startling observation. April and May are omnious. Nine of the ten falls occurred in these months. Actually all 10, if you notice that Mar 31st, 1997 was just a day before April. What's with Indian May and April?

I was listening to Fanaa all day long, as I witnessed history unfold before my eyes. And I think I can hear the Market singing to us,

Ye jo iraadey bata doon tumko,.. sharmaa hi jaaogi tum.
Dhadkaney jo suna doon tumko,.. ghabra hi jaaogi tum.


Btw, does that last line means its NOT over, yet.

My Personal Call –

What did I do today? Over the last few days I've particularily been very active in Derivatives. And it led me to building my biggest position till date on Tuesday. So, did I pare it today? No, I have further increased it. Its a big call. I'm generally a very confident, clear-thinking level-headed investor.

Now, if things move in favor, I'll shoot through the roof. No, make that 'I will go through the stratosphere'. If not, you can fish me out alongside Titanic or somewhere near Maraina's Trench.

Btw, Do Do Do positively grab a print edition of Indian Express and TOI tomorrow morning. Even if you have no interest in stock markets at all, you can save them as a collectible or even gift it to me later. :)

NSE alone has Thirty One Lakh Crore of public money at stake with it. I wonder how much of it went 'fanaa' today? Waiting for the EOD stats to come out. Till yesterday, Fanaa was about Aamir and Kajol. Today, its about my romance with the markets.

Subhaan Alaa.. subhaan allaah..
Sharmo haya key pardey gira key.. karni hain humko khata..
Jid hain ab to khud ko mitaana,.. hona hain tummein fanaa..

Humming along..

Update: If you haven't yet tuned into Chand Sifarish from Fanaa, its time to do so. The post makes more sense after you have listened to the song :) Plus, its an absolutely wonderful song.