Showing posts with label concentrating risks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label concentrating risks. Show all posts

Sunday 28 March 2010

Risk in Stock Market – Stock Market Risk Management


Risk in the stock market is everywhere. Investing in the stock market is fraught with worry, for good reason. If you lose half of your investment, you must double your return to just breakeven. Warren Buffett, considered by many to be the world’s greatest investor, states his first rule of investing is “do not lose money.” Unfortunately, the risk in the stock market of losing your money is always a possibility. However, without taking some risk there is no reward. Therefore, successful investors employ stock market risk management strategies to minimize their losses. Managing risk in stock market starts with identifying the type of risk and taking action to mitigate the impact of the risk on your investment portfolio.
Risk in the stock market comes in many forms and each can lead to a loss. The most common is the overall trend of the market. Approximately 60 % of the move of an individual stock is attributed to the trend of the stock market. If the stock market is rising, it takes with it most of the other stocks, though not in equal amounts. When the stock market falls, stocks sink with it.
Another big risk in stock market lies with owning an individual stock. While owning the stock of a company can offer greater rewards, it also entails the risk that something might go wrong that can cut the price of the company’s shares in half. It might be news that sales have suddenly fallen due to a new competitor, or a product liability issue has arisen. For whatever the reason, individual stocks are subject to risk associated to them alone.
While there are other risks in the stock market, these encompass the vast majority of the ones you will encounter. Fortunately, investors can employ several strategies as a part of their stock market risk management program.

Sunday 22 November 2009

Responding to risks: Concentrating risks

Concentrating risks is the opposite of diversifying - it means deliberately 'putting all your eggs in one basket'.  The effect is opposite too:  it increases the severity of potential impacts, but reduces management overheads, variables, unknown factors and dependencies.

An example of concentrating risk would be assigning a single person to a project full time, rather than assigning a small team part time. 
The time and cost of running the project might well be reduced, and the project might well be reduced, and the project may be run in a more coherent way, but there is a risk that the key individual will move on, damaging the chances of delivery.

The equivalent in financial terms is investing heavily in one or two stocks or products that you believe are sound, rather than spreading risk around because you are less sure of your market knowledge.

Concentrating risk depends for its success on the skill and knowledge of decision makers.  With fewer chances to correct mistakes, people need to get it right first time.