Playing the Game....

1990 Got addicted to Stock market game called StokMark on the BBC Micro computer.

1994 Harshad Mehta Era Invested and followed the markets like hell, was in 10th Std invested uncles 40k, ran a small fund in school, lost most of it primarily in ITC Agro, spent 2 years kinda repaying it.

1999-2000Â Ketan Parekh Boom Din't participate in the Rally, watched the game from the boundary & besides had no money to invest.

2003 Rally with no name, Lets call it the Rakesh Jhunjhunwala Era or India Shining Rally. Started investing when the Index was at 3000, was part of the Dot Com Burst invested mostly in Penny stocks & Financial Technology (@20) , Index fell to 2500...Lost a bit initially

2004 Did some Program Trading with a Friend at a Stock Broker, did volumes of 4 cr.. due to some wrong calculations and bugs lost around 50k

2005 Cleared entire portfolio at 6000, 7000, 9000..before every minor correction, Got lucky with Financial Technology, Sold it & invested in Real Estate just before the Property Rally.

2006 Moved all investment to Commodities, Lost 1.5 lakhs moved back to Stocks when index was at 9000.

2007 Removed a big chunk in 2007 for wedding and repaying of Credit cards.

2008 Didn't sell portfolio when the index hit 21000, moved to a new job, sold some stock to pay credit card debts, continue to hold most of it ( Compulink, Forbes & Mcdowells), Portfolio down by half.

I think I can wait for a year or two :)

I still think Equities are still the best & fastest legally one can make large sums money and aim at fulfilling their dreams quickly , this is primarily what drives millions in India to invest inspite of the dangers and risks both known and unknown...

Today people might say WTF, but when a few people start investing and a few matkas happen , the Mania will start all over again with a new idea, new names , new strategy, new players etc etc ..

Like the Old Lady of BoriBunder says "What a Game, Majaa aaya na"