Feng Shui helps you even if the market is down!

Whenever one person suffers losses, someone else benefits...

Lets first talk of the period when the bulls ruled...

It is an ironic story of Michael, a stock broker. Whenever he bought a share, it started sliding, and whenever he sold a certain stock, its price would rise! This went on for a whole year in the rising stock market!

"It would be hilarious, if it wasn't for the huge amount of money that I have lost," said the stockbroker. "The total is huge." Michael called on my landline, recounting his woes in one long litany. "It is as if the gods are angry with me."

His last question was: "Could Feng Shui change my luck in the stock market?"

He rattled off the names of the stocks that had `betrayed` him.

"Would you describe your business as a gamble?" I asked him.

"Well... there is certainly an element of luck involved but I would not describe it as gambling. I would call it informed speculation." He explained, "My judgment has not been wrong. Whatever I bought has gone up, but only after I offloaded it!"

Avoiding the trap of `speculation v/s gambling`, I asked him the usual questions.

His element turned out to be Wood, which also is the element of this trade.

Have you been occupying the same office or have you had to change the office, or your desk's position?

"I used to operate from my home computer but about a year back, I moved into the office of a friend. He too is in the same trade. In fact, I was his sub-broker till the concept was abolished. I am, on paper, working for him. As the market has been going up I was making good money from brokerage, but like most of us do, I have also invested my earnings in the market, hoping to make a killing." Michael told me.

It turned out that he was sitting facing his Total Loss direction, with a huge beam above him and his business was in the name of his wife, whose birth element was metal, and worse, the money corner of his cubic was incomplete.

The reign of the Bears

Even when the markets have collapsed and when 21000 seems like a vague, unbelievable dreamlike figure, Feng Shui is rescuing people in the stock market. It is interesting to see someone grinning from ear to ear because he made a fortune!

Bulls make money. So do the Bears.

Last month, Ritesh was worried after his stocks had fallen to a third of their peak prices and he decided to take a chance and make money from the Bear market. He has been buying put options of major stocks like Reliance Industries and Tata Steel and selling them at much larger gains when the prices of these stocks fall. A put option gives a person the right, but not the obligation, to sell a stock at a pre-determined price. Ritesh bought a Rs. 1110 put option of Reliance Industries at Rs 10 and in a few days, he was able to sell it for Rs. 26. Due to Reliance Industries dipping considerably, people scrambled to buy the put options, fearing a further fall. Ritesh has been short selling stocks of various blue chip companies and then covering up when they reach lower levels. He has also invested in some stocks and has been selling covered call options which are out-of-the-money. This gets him a return on his stocks without parting with them because the options are never exercised and Ritesh keeps the premium.

The secret is in the painting of the Bear. The term has its origin in "Bearskin jobbers". They used to sell bearskins which they didn't possess. The term was later applied to short-sellers and speculators who sold shares they didn't own. Bears are people who sell stocks predicting that the stock price would fall.

And during the bullish phase, I suggested placing the painting- I painted a replica of the Bull -guiding about the placement. In recent months I have often painted the Bear and guided clients about the placement.

It is not only the painting, but everything else that has to be just right Feng Shui, if you want to make money even in this market. Whether you trade at BSE or NSE in India, or at NYSE, NASDAQ and DOW JONES or for that matter in Singapore, France, UK or Japan, you have to ensure that the placement of the broker terminal or computer or laptop in the office, door direction and everything is just right Feng Shui.

There are specific guidelines for the computer too.

Note: The right of privacy is sacred for me. The names of the people mentioned in the diary are usually changed to protect the identity of my clients. The real names are mentioned with the consent of people mentioned.The picture accompanying the article is only for representational purpose.

Write to Mohan Deep