Ionic Wealth

Everyone expects gold to rally during a war. So why has it been correcting this time? This question has come up frequently over the past few weeks, and the answer is more nuanced than it first appears. When a crisis first hits, the instinct across markets is to sell what you can, not what you want to. Gold, being one of the most liquid assets globally, often gets caught in this initial wave of forced selling. Investors liquidate gold positions to meet margin calls, cover losses elsewhere, or simply raise cash. This is not the same as gold losing its safe-haven status. It is a liquidity event, and the distinction matters. Looking at the gold/silver ratio over the past five decades reveals a recurring pattern. During periods of acute stress, silver tends to fall harder than gold (given its higher industrial demand exposure and thinner liquidity), pushing the ratio higher. The ratio currently sits at levels that have historically signalled relative value in silver, but the timing of mean reversion remains uncertain in a volatile environment. What has historically caused gold to give up its gains more permanently? Our research points to one consistent scenario: Fed tightening. That was the story in the early 1980s under Volcker, and again briefly in 2013 and 2015. Currently, that scenario does not appear to be on the horizon. The structural drivers, including continued central bank accumulation and elevated geopolitical uncertainty, appear to remain supportive. And while gold has typically corrected during past crises, those corrections have also historically tended to reverse once the acute liquidity phase passes. For new precious metals positions, an 85:15 allocation between gold and silver, built in a staggered manner, could be a reasonable framework in the current environment. Gold's relative stability during risk-off episodes may warrant the higher weight, while a smaller silver allocation allows for participation if industrial demand and sentiment recover. Read more in our April Asset X report: https://lnkd.in/dxz7JcuW

Ionic Wealth has crossed ₹100 Bn in AUM in under two years. Wealth creation in India is accelerating at an unprecedented pace across diverse cohorts, powered by entrepreneurship, innovation, and ESOP-led gains. The shift is creating real demand for domain expertise at scale and our omnichannel model is built precisely to meet it. Two years in, the model has become a proven engine. A snapshot of where we are: -₹100.83 billion in AUM, with 22.7% Q-o-Q growth -1900+ clients across 10 cities, with the HNI base increasingly coming from non-metros (currently over 45%) -A trusted global gateway, expanding to include EM and Macro Funds -UHNI as our flywheel, driving entry into new markets and deeper team capacity Our digital layer remains a moat. We continue to scale innovation and enhance AI-driven capabilities that turn Relationship Managers into Super RMs, while elevating the experience for self-navigated investors. As we clock new milestones, we remain committed to redefining wealth management through technology, insight, and trust. #Growth #Cofounders #WealthCreationJourney

We’re thrilled to welcome an exceptional addition to the UHNI team at Ionic Wealth, Delhi NCR.   A team of professionals who have spent their careers earning the trust of India's most discerning families, and who now bring that same depth, discretion, and conviction to everything we're building here. This is what ‘right people at the right place’ looks like.   We can’t wait to kickstart this exciting journey with you. Ionic Wealth is proud to have you on board! Rohit Suri | DEEPIKA BHATIA DUREJA | Dev Rastogi | Jaspreet Singh Dang | Nishant Bhatia | Payal Bhatia | Pranav Bagla | Siddharth Chauhan | Ujjwal Bajaj | Anannya Chakraborty | Meetu Sharma | Manan Jairath   #IonicWealth #Delhi #UHNI #WealthManagement #TeamIonic

How Some NRIs Can Legally Reduce Taxes on Mutual Fund Gains! When you sell your mutual fund investments above their cost price, you have to part with a portion of your profits in the form of capital gains tax. That pinch in your pocket hurts! It’s like getting the keys to your first home, only to realise that you have to cough up a significant amount in brokerage fees. But there’s a catch. Non-resident Indians (NRIs) from countries like the United Arab Emirates, Mauritius, and Singapore, among other eligible nations, can avoid this capital gains tax. Many non-residents don’t even know this option exists, let alone how powerful it can be. If your ₹40 lakh investment in mutual funds grows to ₹1 crore over five years, you will incur a capital gains tax of approximately ₹7.5 lakh. So, what you actually take home after tax is ₹92.5 lakh, not ₹1 crore. However, NRIs from certain countries can take home the full ₹1 crore. Read: https://lnkd.in/dB4ne2tQ HARDIK MEHTA | Shobhit Mathur | Sashind Ningthoukhongjam

How Some NRIs Can Legally Reduce Taxes on Mutual Fund Gains! When you sell your mutual fund investments above their cost price, you have to part with a portion of your profits in the form of capital gains tax. That pinch in your pocket hurts! It’s like getting the keys to your first home, only to realise that you have to cough up a significant amount in brokerage fees. But there’s a catch. Non-resident Indians (NRIs) from countries like the United Arab Emirates, Mauritius, and Singapore, among other eligible nations, can avoid this capital gains tax. Many non-residents don’t even know this option exists, let alone how powerful it can be. If your ₹40 lakh investment in mutual funds grows to ₹1 crore over five years, you will incur a capital gains tax of approximately ₹7.5 lakh. So, what you actually take home after tax is ₹92.5 lakh, not ₹1 crore. However, NRIs from certain countries can take home the full ₹1 crore. Read: https://lnkd.in/dB4ne2tQ HARDIK MEHTA | Shobhit Mathur | Sashind Ningthoukhongjam

The world is shifting and geopolitics is increasingly reshaping portfolios. From oil breaching $100 and escalating Middle East tensions to tightening global liquidity, RBI rate hikes, and China’s slowdown - what does this mean for your portfolio? Most investors are asking the right questions. Few are getting real answers. That's exactly why we created Vantage Point by Ionic Circle - an exclusive, expert-led summit built to connect the dots between geopolitical disruption, market signals and portfolio strategy. On 17th April at Taj, Santacruz, Mumbai, a select few will gain access to leading voices who decode the world and help you position your wealth for it. As a discerning investor who acts on insight, not impulse - this room was designed for you. Register using the link: https://lnkd.in/d-puXqC9 Sreemoy Talukdar | Jigar Mistry | Srikanth Subramanian | Harsh Gupta Madhusudan, CFA | Ankita Pathak | Gaurav Aggarwal

When RSUs and ESOPs are part of your compensation, your employer's share feel earned. But the market doesn't care how the stock got into your portfolio. BlackRock studied Russell 3000 stocks over 36 years. 43% suffered permanent losses of 50% or more. Not bad companies. Just companies that ran into something nobody saw coming. And when that company is also your employer — your salary, bonus, career growth, and investments all move in the same direction, at the same time, for the same reasons. That's not just concentration. That's correlated concentration. The fix isn't to avoid employer equity. It's to manage it with a framework: → Set a ceiling (e.g. 30% of your portfolio) → Sell on a schedule, not on conviction → Plan your exit windows before the IPO The difficult part? You might have to act against a position that's working. Every instinct says hold. The math says diversify. More often than not, the math is right. *** A note from the Ionic team Do you know someone who holds foreign ESOPs or RSUs? We're trying to better understand their experience — how they handle taxes, reporting, and the weight of having a large chunk of their portfolio in a single foreign stock. If this sounds like someone in your network (or yourself), we'd appreciate you sharing this form with them. It will take 45 seconds: https://lnkd.in/dSzqig-s Full story link in the comments section

1.25 billion barrels: the number that explains why Chinese equities have held up better than almost every other market during this crisis. That's China's estimated emergency oil reserve. For context, the entire IEA (which includes the US, Japan, Germany, France, and others) holds about 1.2 billion barrels in government stockpiles. China alone matches that. Why does this matter right now? The Middle East conflict has created an energy shock that is rippling through global markets. Countries with high oil import dependence and limited reserves are seeing the worst of it. India imports roughly 50% of its crude from the Middle East, with about 2.6 million barrels per day transiting the Strait of Hormuz. Korea and Taiwan, both manufacturing-heavy and energy-import-dependent, have seen their equity markets correct sharply. China's position is structurally different. Its reserves provide a buffer measured in months, not weeks. Combined with resilient corporate earnings (2027 EPS growth expectations at 11.8%) and relatively contained PE compression (just 5.3% since the conflict began), Chinese equities have emerged as a relative bright spot. This doesn't mean China is without risk. Policy uncertainty, property sector headwinds, and the broader geopolitical landscape remain relevant. But from a pure energy-shock insulation standpoint, the data is striking. For global equity allocations, this is a useful lens. Not every EM economy carries the same vulnerability to an oil supply disruption, and that differentiation could matter significantly if the conflict extends beyond the current timeline. Read more in our April Asset X report.

The AI vs. software debate is far more nuanced than it first appears. We recently hosted Antoine Chkaiban from New Street Research to explore how the AI industry is evolving and what it truly means for software companies. “It’s not that AI is replacing software overnight. Rather, it is steadily capturing a larger share of incremental growth,” Chkaiban noted. Watch the full webinar replay here: https://lnkd.in/d_YS-mbP

We just changed our fixed income positioning. Here's why. In our March Asset X report, we had highlighted a 75:25 mix between medium-term (3-5Y) and long-duration (30Y+) bonds for new positions.  This month, we've moved to 85:15. The shift isn't dramatic on the surface, but the reasoning behind it is worth unpacking. Since the onset of the Middle East conflict, India's yield curve has hardened. The 30Y yield has moved from 7.34% to 7.74% in a single month. That reflects a market recalibrating for a world where rate cuts may not arrive on schedule, where oil-driven inflation could push CPI well above the RBI's comfort zone, and where fiscal and balance of payments risks are building. The transmission data tells its own story. Against a cumulative 125 bps of easing between Feb 2025 and Mar 2026, the weighted average lending rate has come down by only 89 bps. Deposit rates have moved by 97 bps. The pass-through is incomplete, and with macro risks intensifying, the window for further easing could narrow. So why not move entirely to the short end? Because long-end yields at 7.74% are genuinely attractive. The correction has created value. But elevated macro risks warrant selectivity, not aggression. An 85:15 tilt allows portfolios to potentially benefit from continued RBI liquidity support on the front end while participating in long-duration value where the risk-reward may look reasonable. The full analysis is in our April Asset X report: https://lnkd.in/dxz7JcuW