3 valuable investment lessons from Sandeep Tandon of Quant Mutual Fund

Investing is not all about connecting some data points and deciding the future based on history. Sandeep Tandon, CIO & Founder, Quant Mutual Fund informs about how combining multiple data points into a particular thesis to understand stock market movement may not be helpful in all cases. 

This explains why the fund house relies on a multi-dimensional research approach and laid down the basis of the VLRT framework that explains the exemplary success of this fund house to date. The VLRT concept translates to making use of essential concepts such as Valuation Analytics, Liquidity Analytics, Risk Appetite and Time to chart out the future course of the fund house’s movement.

Sandeep is not new to the complexities of stock market investing. He has more than 23 years of investment experience in the financial services sector. His previous stint as the Vice President of the equity derivatives desk at ICICI Securities and as the head of the asset management department of the IDBI Asset Management (now Principal Asset Management) helped sharpen his understanding and acumen of stocks and equity-related instruments.

Sandeep has made 23 investments, the latest being Series C-Progcap on Oct 17, 2022, when Progcap raised ₹4B.

Make up your mind

The stock market is all about mind games. You must be adept enough to take a contrarian call when the market is titillating between extreme fear and greed. There is no way when the market will hit bottom or gauge the extent of extremities that the market can go to. However, if you can develop the art of traversing the market between its highs and lows, chances are that you will traverse it quite well.

Mistakes in investing

A biased attitude will always ring in mistakes in investing and subsequent losses. How often do we stick to an opinion against or in favour of a trade based on tips or social media influence? New-age technologies often cause us to believe in aspects that fundamental analysis of stocks defy. Too much noise or chaos surrounding companies, especially, new technology companies have caused many people to heavily invest in them. This inordinately large exposure to these companies can be attributed to the stories or narratives floated in the stock market. 

There were lessons learned the hard way as investors realized the need to analyse in detail before forming an opinion about any particular stock. Mistakes like these form the basis of creating a data-driven investment framework as opposed to rampant investments based on instinct.

Avoid the frenzy

So much one can learn from previous experiences. A classic example is the euphoria that gripped the market in early 1992 when Harshad Mehta was at its peak. Investors who sold their stocks in time earned profits while others incurred heavy losses. Such experiences give a lot of insights into how the stock market works. Your exit strategy is as important as when you enter the market.

The market is open to everybody. Just look out for the occasional pitfalls and stick to your conviction while investing to ensure continued participation in the market.