A Year of Momentum: Triumphs, Trials, and Emotional Resilience in Investing 🚀

Three years ago, I came across the exciting world of momentum investing 📈. It began as a casual exploration—playing with strategies on Smallcase and testing index funds like the Nifty 200 Momentum 30. I was hooked, fascinated by the idea that stocks on an upward swing could lead me to profits.I always wondered how people made these statergies.

🔥 The Spark That Changed Everything

In October-November 2023, everything changed , I came across this book call Quantitative Momentum: A Practitioner’s Guide to Building a Momentum-Based Stock Selection System by Wesley R. Gray and Jack R. Vogel¹. That book lit a fire in me 💡, pulling me into a deep dive of white papers from Alpha Architect² and Rajan Raju³. Each resource stoked my curiosity and sharpened my focus.

🛠️ Building the Strategy

Teaming up with my techie friend Masquer Shajjad, we embarked on creating something unique. After:

• Countless revisions,
• Endless tweaks to parameters,
• And a lot backtests and code changes,

We finalized our strategy by February 2024. Backtests and paper trades on a 15-stock portfolio (from the Nifty 150 universe) showed promising results—almost too good to believe. But paper profits ≠ real markets.

🎲 Taking the Plunge

On April 1, 2024, we pooled our money and launched the strategy live for a one-year trial.

🌬️ Smooth Sailing… Until the Storm

The first few months were a bullish breeze and felt it too good to be true. We rode the wave with confidence. But the real test? Surviving a market downturn.

By late October, the tide began to turn with bearish phase. This was the time we exited few positions and moved to cash for a while. By February, it felt like wading through quicksand.

🌈 The Silver Lining

March brought a decend rebound—a much-needed breather. with a decent year close. Looking back, I’m grateful for:

• The highs ☀️ (validating our system),
• And the lows ⛈️ (stress-testing our resolve).

Both made us stronger.

The Blueprint of Our Strategy 🛠️

Here’s the breakdown of how we did it:

1. Stock Selection: Our script picked 10 stocks from the Nifty 100 and 5 from the Midcap 50—15 total from the Nifty 150—based on momentum signals 📊.
2. Rebalancing: We refreshed the portfolio regularly, swapping out laggards for new winners 🔄.
3. Exits: When the signals turned red 🚨, we pulled out and shifted cash to debt funds 💼.
4. Re-entry: Once we got the green light 🟢, we jumped back into stocks.

It sounds straightforward, but the execution? That was a mental marathon 🧠.

The Emotional Rollercoaster 🎢

Warren Buffett once said, “Emotional stability always beats intelligence in investing.” This year, I lived that truth. Managing my emotions was the toughest part. I’d get ahead of myself—jumping into trades too soon, chasing hunches instead of sticking to the plan. Those mistakes hurt 💔. Without them, our returns could’ve been much more. But each slip-up taught me patience, discipline, and the value of waiting when I wanted to leap.

The dips in October and February were brutal. Seeing the portfolio shrink felt like a personal blow 👊. Yet, following the system—exiting on time, holding off until the right moment—kept us in the game. Thriving in a bull market is easy; surviving the bears 🐻 is where you prove yourself.

The Finish Line: Results That Shine ✨

On March 28, 2025, with the trading year done, I checked our Zerodha screenshot. The numbers made me grin 😊:

• Nifty 50: 4.69% for FY 2024-2025.
• Our Momentum Portfolio: 18.67%.

We didn’t just edge out the benchmark—we smashed it 🎯. We even outperformed active and passive mutual funds like the Quant Momentum Fund and the Nifty 200 and 30 Momentum Funds. This was more than a win; it was a victory lap 🏆. A year of hard work, doubt, and grit had paid off big.

A Journey to Celebrate 🎉

This chapter of my stock market adventure has been incredibly rewarding. Beyond the 18.67% return, it’s given me confidence in a system I built from scratch and a solid plan for deploying cash when I’m between ideas. The emotional ups and downs—thrills in the peaks, stress in the valleys—taught me lessons no book could match. It’s a milestone I’ll cherish, filled with pride and a sigh of relief.

As I write this, I see it’s not the end—it’s a launchpad. I’m ready to tweak, adapt, and ride the next wave, hopefully with a calmer heart this time ❤️.

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