BEHAVIOUR WILL DEFINE WEALTH IN 2026, NOT MARKETS

How Sachin Tendulkar decision helped him?

Sachin Ten­dulkar, argu­ably the greatest bats­man of all time, hit a rough patch in 2003-04. He was repeatedly get­ting out to deliv­er­ies out­side the off stump, espe­cially while play­ing the cover drive, his sig­na­ture and most flu­ent stroke.

After 13 innings without a cen­tury, he made a con­scious and counter-intu­it­ive decision in the Sydney Test of 2004: he would not play the cover drive at all. The res­ult was an unbeaten and mas­ter­ful 241 against a for­mid­able Aus­tralian attack. His abil­ity to sup­press instinct for nearly ten hours reflec­ted immense clar­ity, dis­cip­line, and men­tal forti­tude.

Equity market 2026

The equity mar­kets in 2026 may test investors in a sim­ilar way. When instinct drives us toward quick, impuls­ive reac­tions, it is beha­vi­oural dis­cip­line, steady restraint, and clar­ity of pur­pose that will truly determ­ine out­comes.

Mar­kets may remain act­ive and even unpre­dict­able, but investor reac­tions will mat­ter more. The past year made it clear that we are now oper­at­ing in a sharply polar­ised global envir­on­ment, one act­ively reshap­ing policies, fluc­tu­at­ing flows, cur­ren­cies, and com­mod­it­ies.

For the first time, global reserves in gold have sur­passed reserves in the US dol­lar, mark­ing a sig­ni­fic­ant struc­tural shift in how nations per­ceive secur­ity and long-term value.

At a time when gold has clearly out­per­formed broad equity returns over a 10-year hori­zon, it is worth con­sid­er­ing whether we should con­tinue to view it solely as a tra­di­tional hedge.

Mean­while, new pub­lic issues have largely emerged from the mid- and small-cap seg­ments. Alloc­at­ing dis­pro­por­tion­ately to large caps may there­fore res­ult in a port­fo­lio that fails to accur­ately rep­res­ent the true breadth and depth of the evolving mar­kets. Interest rates too remain higher than in the pre-Covid period, sug­gest­ing that the tra­di­tional approach to long-term debt invest­ing now needs care­ful re-exam­in­a­tion.

Yet cor­por­ate earn­ings, spend­ing pat­terns, and capex have not shown any mean­ing­ful devi­ation, mak­ing it dif­fi­cult to pin­point the next clear trig­ger for equity mar­kets.

How wealth and a strong portfolio created?

95% of wealth is cre­ated through asset alloc­a­tion, and only 5% through mar­ket move­ments, while 95% of con­ver­sa­tions tend to focus on the lat­ter. The investor who con­sciously shifts this nar­rat­ive toward asset alloc­a­tion and risk bal­ance will be bet­ter posi­tioned to cre­ate a stronger and more resi­li­ent port­fo­lio.

Port­fo­lios of the past may not be the port­fo­lios of the future, and revis­it­ing the under­ly­ing assump­tions is there­fore essen­tial in nav­ig­at­ing an evolving land­scape. Inter­est­ingly, the inher­ent beha­vi­oural tend­ency of Indian house­holds to hold gold has helped them cre­ate steady wealth over time, offer­ing a clear example of how con­sist­ent beha­viour com­pounds quietly but mean­ing­fully.

In a chan­ging global order, asset alloc­a­tion is still the key to build­ing most of your wealth

To act or not to act

Accord­ing to AMFI ana­lysis, nearly four in ten Indian investors do not stay inves­ted in equit­ies for more than 24 months, often exit­ing before com­pound­ing has any real chance to work. Two years is too short a hori­zon for wealth cre­ation in equit­ies. Emo­tional responses driven by news flow, tem­por­ary price move­ments, or fear of loss often inter­rupt long-term poten­tial.

In invest­ing, per­sever­ance and patience are not pass­ive traits; they are act­ive decisions. Just as Ten­dulkar chose not to play the cover drive, investors some­times need to choose not to react to every move­ment. The dis­cip­line of stay­ing the course can be more power­ful than the soph­ist­ic­a­tion of any strategy.

Sys­tem­atic invest­ing, thought­ful asset alloc­a­tion, peri­odic rebal­an­cing, and stay­ing aligned with one’s fin­an­cial goals remain crit­ical. Mar­ket cycles can change every year, some­times every quarter. But clar­ity of beha­viour is what com­pounds.

In 2026, the most valu­able asset may not be an asset class it may be investor beha­viour. As India deep­ens its fin­an­cial par­ti­cip­a­tion, the next phase of matur­ity will be shaped not just by access and aware­ness but by beha­viour how investors respond, absorb, and stay com­mit­ted through chan­ging mar­ket con­di­tions.

And some­times, as Ten­dulkar showed us in Sydney, the best shot you play is the one you don’t.

Conclusion

In 2026, investor behaviour will be more crucial than market movements in determining wealth creation. While markets may remain active and unpredictable, disciplined behaviour, restraint, and clarity of purpose will be key. Asset allocation, risk balance, and a focus on long-term goals will be essential for building a resilient portfolio.

Courtesy to Swarup Anand Mohanty, Vice Chairman and CEO, Mirae Asset Investment Managers (India), for where I have extracted the content of this article and found to be relevant.