First-time investors should tweak their portfolio, reassess stocks

Yes, there will be mistakes. But more often than not, there is enough time to recover if the companies are sound

Sharook Sayeed, 26, a final-year MBA student at Christ University, opened an account with Zerodha last September. His fledgling portfolio holds six stocks. Currently, only two of them are trading above his purchase price, while the rest are all in the negative zone. Some have even hit 52-week lows. Faced with his first equity-market downturn, Sayeed is worried but says he will weather it by holding on to his portfolio for the long term.

According to data from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), 40 lakh demat accounts were opened in 2018, the highest in a decade. When