“…The slow one now

Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past

The order is
Rapidly fadin’.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin’…”

In this context I am referring to the financial markets and the economy which is seeing a continuity of reversal of fortunes of different asset classes. Oil prices have more than doubled in the past three years, while in the past year the dollar has depreciated rapidly against most currencies, the maximum being against the euro at 15%, while against the rupee the dollar lost 6% of its value. In this time, precious metals have gained significantly–23% for gold, 20% for silver.

The point is that because of the dollar depreciating, and as we have tied our currency to the US dollar, we in India are also ‘importing’ the inflation inherent in the depreciating dollar.

The US pays the world in billions of US dollars daily for goods, commodities, services, which buy less and less when translated into the appreciated local currencies. World goods, services, commodities price this into their financials raising their prices accordingly adding to the inflation.

The USA has the planetary solar plexus physical health, and the equivalent of the liver emotional health chakras of the planet. These chakras are linked to the greed instinct. Americans have been living on borrowings and free credit policies beyond all reasons now. Finally, the greed factor has created some serious indigestion and breakdown in the US economy which has spread to the world economy.

This is because these chakras are closely tied to anything that affects the global health of the world including economic health. Make no mistake, what happens in the US affects the world much more deeply than is admitted by our economists and government.

The planetary solar plexus health chakra is currently submerged somewhere in the Florida keys and New Orleans area and its firey nature dampened.
***Calling all Karmic Healers***: Healing is specialy needed in these areas please! The special planetary healing candle for the sun and Sunday would help for changing any similar situations in your life. (See the section further below ‘Boosting your planets with more candle-power’.)

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As the times they are a-changin’, you can add positive karma-changing sound power to your day by playing these special audio downloads.
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As recommended in December last year (and since then), I continue to advise more caution for those who are investing in the stock markets. My best recommendation is still to be in cash–fixed deposits at banks, or short-term money market mutual funds–the ‘slow ones’ of the past in returns, but safer. If in doubt, stick to bank deposits.

The best portfolio to develop now would be cash, precious metals (bullion, ETF’s), and some stocks of market sectors that are quite beaten down but have a sound business basis. I say ‘develop’ because I know many of you would be holding stocks bought at December highs. You could continue to hold sound stocks and wait for a revival which could take as long as 9 months to a year. In any event this is a good time to buy for the long-term investor.

Cash-precious metals-stocks could be accumulated in the ratio of 50-30-20 or 40-40-20 for the next 4 to 9 months for investors having a time horizon of a year or more. A useful principle for successful investing is to look at areas that are unpopular currently.

The schizophrenic stock market

The hypothesis that the ‘markets are efficient’ is a bit of a myth. If they were so efficient at factoring in all the positive and negative realities, it would be difficult to profit in double digits from the markets in the long term as the pricing spreads would not yield sufficient profits.

In reality, the stock market has a multiple personality disorder or perhaps schizophrenia. Traders in it simultaneously think they should sell out at a particular price because the stock is overpriced, while others are willing to pay the extra price thinking they got a good deal.

All the best investors have this one common strategy stated in different words, but the essence is the same–‘buy when everyone is fearful, and sell when everyone is greedy for more.’ Of course, you must also do your homework for what to buy!

********* ARBITRAGE FUNDS *********

Note: In the last issue I had mentioned Arbitrage liquid funds as being a good option to benefit from market differences in prices. This is no longer valid because of the change in the way the security transaction tax applies to arbitrage. Arbitrage funds will now be unlikely to match even the equivalent of post-tax bank fixed deposit returns.
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New publishing schedule

A final note–Our publishing schedule changes from this issue. We now publish monthly instead of fortnightly because of time constraints. Since I add pages frequently to the website my time is necessarily divided between the e-zine and the site, and a monthly schedule here seems more suitable right now. So do check out the site frequently for new material.

I shall be adding an RSS feed that you could subscribe to which will automatically update you on changes to the site.

So you will hear from me next month and soon whenever the site is updated. In the meanwhile…

Be with the KQ Force!

Nalin K. Nirula