Last Updated: Mar 21, 2024 Value Broking 9 Mins 2.1K

The share market provides various kinds of opportunities to investors as well as short-term traders. Everyone investing in the share market is trying to be the next Warren Buffet. They want to be the champions of investing wherein they would make tons of money from the share market investments. People spend hours researching a diamond mine that can give them huge returns on their investments. However, there are multiple factors that come into play to make this happen. One must understand that risk management in the stock market is not as easy as it looks. Your returns in the stock market can be unlimited if you manage to find the right stock at the time. 

There is a high possibility that you could lose everything you made in a fraction of a second if you do not employ risk management in the stock market. All the wealth you created could simply vanish in a moment. You could also face severe losses, making you shell out even more money than what you would expect. Hence, risk management in the stock market is as necessary as it is oxygen for us to survive on this planet. You may have this question in mind “What is risk management in the stock market?” Therefore, let us today discuss this vital aspect of risk management in the stock market in detail. Risk management in the share market means considering the risk available in the stock market and managing things so that the investor does not experience losses or at least face minimal losses.

How to Plan Your Trades?

Before making any decisions, it is very important to plan your trades properly. It applies to all types of investments and investors, whether they are long-term investors or short-term traders. Moreover, it is very risky for any investor to dive into the stock market without a proper risk management plan.

Also, it is understandable that analysing so much data so quickly and making the right decisions isn’t easy. However, it will be easier to decrease the instability if you have an appropriate plan. In the share market, you can stick to your risk management plan. Here is how to plan a trade:

Step 1: Define Your Objective
If you’re new to trading, the first thing to do is to determine your financial objectives, risk tolerance, and time horizon. For your trading plan to be successful, you need to define these things clearly.

Step 2: Choose Your Trading Style
It’s important to identify your trading style. Additionally, your trading style should reflect your personality and preferences. Your trading plan could include day trading, swing trading, position trading or long-term investing.

Step 3: Create A Detailed Strategy
Outline the strategy for how you will approach the market. Moreover, create criteria for selecting trades. You can use technical indicators, fundamental analysis, or both. Additionally, specify entry and exit tactics, risk management techniques, and position sizing rules when building the strategy.

Step 4: Set Realistic Expectations
Trading involves inherent risks and isn’t guaranteed to make you rich. Thus, set realistic expectations for returns and recognise that losses are possible. Also, avoid chasing quick profits or risking too much on one trade or position.

Step 5: Analysis Of The Market
Market analysis is key to identifying trade opportunities. Check charts, market trends, news and economic indicators. 

Step 6: Risk Management Rule Development
To protect capital, risk management strategies need to be implemented. For each trade, allocate a certain percentage of your portfolio, and don’t exceed that amount. Ideally, this amount should equal the amount you’re willing to lose per trade. Make sure you set clear take-profit targets and use stop-loss orders to limit losses.

Step 7: Trade Management Plan
Decide how you’re going to manage open positions. Knowing when to adjust stop-loss orders, take partial profits, and exit the trade is important.

Step 8: Maintaining Trading Discipline 
Stick to your trading plan once you have written it down. Also, be careful not to abandon your trading plan impulsively because the market evokes an emotional response in you. Thus, be disciplined and consistent when executing the trade.

Step 9: Monitoring And Trade Evaluation
Keeping a detailed record of your trading activity is crucial. This record should include the points at which you entered and exited trades. Additionally, include the reasons behind your decision to take each trade, and the outcomes you experienced. To become a good trader, you must review and evaluate trade frequently. 

Step 10: Continuous Education
Stay in touch with the latest market developments, follow economic news updates, and continuously educate yourself about new trading strategies and techniques. Read books, attend seminars and webinars. Also, follow reputable financial sources, and interact with experienced traders to enhance your knowledge and skills.

What Are The Types Of Risk Management?

For risk management in the stock exchange, you must know the different types of risks associated with the stock market. These risks are – 

Systematic Risk

Systematic risk is associated with a few sectors or the entire market as a whole. There are a lot of factors that govern the trends of various assets in the share market. Variations in the market take place due to sudden and unprecedented circumstances like an economic crisis, social unrest, politics, etc. There is a lot of turmoil during such an event and this generates a lot of confusion. A large number of investors end up selling a majority of the shares they hold in order to avoid losses. This turmoil is however not a permanent feature. After a period of chaos, there will finally be stability in the prices of the securities. The securities will witness fewer price fluctuations. 

This period of chaos can last for a small duration or a bit longer depending on the factors leading to this disruption. After this, the prices will eventually even out as investors gain more information about the situation. As an investor, you can have an edge over the rest by staying up to date with all the news that’s happening. An excellent way to combat systematic risk would be to diversify your portfolio. If you have a faint idea that a sector would crash, you can take a short position and profit from the turmoil.

Unsystematic Risk

Unsystematic risk is where a company fails to get the projected yields, complete its objectives, etc. It leads to investors selling their shares. As a trigger to sell generally becomes a trend it reduces the price of the company. If one performs a thorough analysis of the company, one can stay away from such kinds of risks. It would include a complete financial assessment, thorough checking of the historical performance, knowing their vision and prospects, etc. This risk is difficult to predict as unforeseen circumstances like a disaster could affect the projected yields of a company. However, a diversified investment portfolio can help combat the element of uncertainty in an effective way. This is so since you will not be putting all your eggs into one basket. 

Investing in multiple companies is always a better idea. It is usually not seen that all the assets perform badly at the same time. If you hold the shares of companies dealing with a variety of sectors in the market can neutralize the risks to a large extent. The risks associated with different kinds of securities also vary. You can invest in various kinds of assets to avoid taking huge risks. All the assets provide returns based on their inherent characteristics. Some of them may do better while others are struggling at the same time. If you diversify your portfolio there are increased chances the overall returns from your investments may still meet your goals. 

Short Term Trading

Short-term trading is very risky. You can never gauge where the price will go. Investors’ sentiments heavily factor in short-term trading. The price will increase if more investors want shares compared to the seller. The prices will go down if there are more sellers than buyers. Intraday trading is a type of short-term trading. Investors use specific values that act as support and resistance, on which they base their trades. Technical analysis is very important in carrying out such trades.

It’s better to prepare oneself with risk management in the money market rather than facing losses. It’s important to understand these risks and be able to combat them.

Functions of Risk Management

  • It is essential to have risk management in the money market. One must note that it’s impossible to eliminate risk. However, risk management does this to achieve the following purposes.
  • Risk Management does help in reducing our losses, increasing our chances to gain high profits.
  • Risk management provides a better chance to gain high returns to relatively lower risk.
  • Risk management uses strategies, giving you knowledge of when to enter and exit a trade.
  • Risk management ensures diversification across various assets lowering risk.

What Are The Risk Management Strategies In Stock Market?

  • Here are a few strategies you can follow for risk management. 
  • Buying during the bear market and selling at the top of a bull market
  • Diversifying investments in various sectors and companies of the same sector.
  • Using stop-loss to avoid incurring huge losses in your investments
  • Investing in companies that cater to essential services which as less affected by market fluctuations
  • Hedging with the help of derivatives to combat changes in prices
  • Investing in blue-chip stocks are large companies and are comparatively stable to their massive turnover.
  • Pair trading is also a good strategy. You can exercise it by buying stocks of one company and short selling stocks of a different company of the same sector to mitigate price fluctuation.

Understanding Support and Resistance

Support and resistance are two essential values that investors use to trade. These indicators are useful in risk management. It’s quite a big way. They’re values beyond which prices have a difficult time breaking. It’s judged based on historical performance. A support line is when the prices won’t go lower than the given price. Resistance is a value that the prices have a tough time going above. They’re used as a reference to make trades to book profits or reduce losses. There are various tools that you can use to make this assessment.

Conclusion

Risk management in the money market is crucial. One must ensure to use to reduce the losses one can face. Without risk management, you might make huge profits, but you might bleed out this money so quickly that you might not know how it happened.