Seeking Alpha by Adding Beta

It has been while since I wrote my blog. Got busy ! Now that April has wrapped up and May is about to start, time to be cautious. Markets has been on a tear crossing 12800 (DOW), Nasdaq is at 10 year high. So is it time to "Sell in May and Enjoy the gains in Summer Time ? " I think so. Best period for stock markets (Nov to Apr) ended today. There may be another 5% upside remaining for 2011 and most likely this would come towards end of year. In between there are quite a few headwinds markets are facing. Here are few of them to list: Noise around US debt limit. In two weeks, Congress needs to act on raising debt limit and given drama around budget, there would be quite a bit of drama before debt limit is raised. Markets don't like drama ! Talks of Greek debt restructuring ! Greek debt is trading at yields not seen even during last May when Greece was about to default. End of QE II - while Fed had given better news than markets were expecting, QEII is ending in June....

Apr 2, 2011 would be an historic day for for India. It comes very close to other historic days in modern India's history. After all on this day, India won Cricket World Cup 2011 after 28 years - first time they won in 1983. That win changed cricket in India as well as in cricket world. On Apr 2 around 11 pm IST, another such historic moment came when India's captain MS Dhoni hit a big SIX and won world cup for India (against SriLanka). That was ultimate moment for 1.2 billion Indians across the world. This must be biggest sporting celebration in world EVER. Even Soccer World Cup win would not create such a celebration (till either China or India start winning it:-) In India, Cricket is more than religion, culture or anything we can think about. It cuts across all levels of religion, state, caste, economic status, culture, where they reside (India or abroad) and binds 1.2 billion people. None other can unite Indians the way cricket does. That's why Apr 2nd win was such a...