Time to Invest in Stocks & Equities?

With equity markets descending from their record highs, several investors want to know if this is the right time to invest in equities. More importantly, they would like to know if markets have bottomed out.

As regards the former, it can be safely stated that the markets are attractively poised in terms of valuations. So does that mean investors across the board should get invested in equities? Not really. Only investors who can take on the risk associated with an equity investment should consider getting invested. Also, investors should be willing to stay invested for the long haul (at least 3-5 years).

Then again, investors must honestly evaluate if they are competent enough to directly invest in equities. If not, they would be better off opting for the mutual funds route and thus bank on the expertise of the fund manager and the fund house. As for the question about markets having bottomed out, to be honest, we are not equipped to predict when that will happen.

However, for serious long-term investors, we believe that is an irrelevant parameter.