Here is a brief commentary of my actions during this market meltdown and the following meltup. For the first half of 2020, my portfolio is down by -9.53% against a nifty return of -13.8%. This is not something I am particularly proud of. The outperformance has mainly come from my pharma basket, PI industries and the new positions bought in March (details are posted in the thread above).
My reasonably large bet on pharma which made my portfolio lag in the past couple of years has started paying off . I am happy on that front. However, I also made a few blunders in March.
During the market fall, I sold out Reliance Industries at ~900. I first bought my reliance shares in February 2018 because I knew that Jio and Retail will be value unlockers in a 5 year timeframe. However, corporate governance always made me doubt my decision to hold Reliance and I finally craved into my fears at an inopportune time. This is my second biggest investing mistake so far, the other one was selling Bajaj Finserv at 4200 in 2017 and using the proceeds to buy Lupin at 1400. Bajaj went on to double from that level and Lupin halved, that was quite a nasty experience! I have been incredibly lucky to match nifty returns in the last two years despite making such horrific errors (also lost quite a bit of money in Zee and Shemaroo in the past 2 years).
Overall, I sold Reliance (6%), Mahindra Logistics (2%) and used the proceeds along with the 5% cash to buy biocon (2%), Balkrishna (2%; which was later sold because of sharp rerating), Maithan alloys (1%), Ashok Leyland (1%), Avanti (2%), INOX (1%), Wonderla (2%), NALCO (1%), 1% addition to Real-estate positions (Ashiana and Kolte).
In essence, I added to the deep cyclical part of my portfolio which might look stupid right now (eg: CV player, INOX, metal & real-estate companies, etc.) but these might play out when we go back to an economic expansion. I have started these positions at a small position size because I plan to add to it if my thesis turns out to be right.