Sensex, brokers sprint ahead, bruise Monkeys along the way

Sigh. It was fun while it lasted.

Our experiment to find out whether investors needed just plain old-fashioned luck or the help of experts to succeed in the stock markets seems to be increasingly going the way of the experts.

[caption id=“attachment_141012” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Will Lady Luck come back and smile on the Monkeys again soon? Fingers crossed! Flickr/CreativeCommons”] [/caption]

The Monkey portfolios, consisting of two sets of 10 randomly selected stocks and representing the ’luck’ part of the experiment, had dominated for weeks before finally ceding ground to the brokers’ portfolio, which represents the ’experts'.

For the several hundreds of fans of the Monkey portfolios, it’s becoming a bit painful to watch.

The week ending 25 November was no different. The brokers’ picks ( view table ) - a portfolio of 10 stocks picked by 10 brokerages - leapt in front of the competition as it lost just 2.1 percent against the benchmark indices’ losses of 4-4.1 percent.

Monkey portfolio 1 (view table ) - a collection of 10 randomly selected stocks from the BSE 100 -came next, losing 2.5 percent for the week. Thank goodness for that - at least it trumped the indices!

However, Monkey portfolio 2 ( view table )- a collection of 10 randomly selected stocks from the BSE 500 – posted a shocking 7.2 percent drop in its portfolio, coming in last among rivals.

That’s the good news.

The bad news is that for the 14 weeks since inception (19 August), the Monkeys were soundly defeated by the Nifty, Sensex and the experts’ portfolio.

For this period, the Sensex and Nifty raced ahead of the pack, losing just 2.8 percent. Following them was the brokers’ portfolio, which was down 3.5 percent ( see table) . The biggest losers were Coal India, down a huge 22 percent, and Bhel, down 20 percent.

Monkey portfolio 1 limped in next, nursing a 5.3 percent loss ( see table ). The biggest loser was Adani Enterprises, which shed a jaw-dropping 40 percent, followed by Siemens, which gave up 20 percent.

Monkey portfolio 2, meanwhile, lost - brace yourself - a whopping 11 percent, taking the portfolio below the Rs 9,00,000 mark for the first time ( see table ). The biggest losers were KSK Ventures, which plunged 45 percent, and VIP Industries, which sank 30 percent. Another big disappointment was JSW Energy, which tumbled 24 percent.

From what we know about them, the Monkeys will not be bothered too much by these results, given their happy-go-lucky temperament. But their performance is certain to disappoint fans.

Will Lady Luck come back and smile on the Monkeys again soon? Fingers crossed!