In past cycles, operators took vulgar companies and made them look good.

Now, they take good companies and make them trade at vulgar valuations.

That is the difference.

Bull runs in small caps are usually fast and furious, and the cycle repeats itself every 3-4 years. Every time, retail is sold stories of business turnaround and stock charts look fantastic for meteoric wealth creation. For the class of 2020-21, here's a couple of past stars.

These small cap stocks with 30-40 crore market cap went up 23X and 11x in a span of 24 months between April 16 and April 18. The story looked great then, but subsequently once liquidity and interest disappeared, the prices went right back to where they came from.

When in the thick of the action, it can be difficult to keep a level mindset. To keep the narrative believable, these companies are able to massage their top-line and bottom-line for a short period of time to show an imminent turnaround. Note the trends in these financials.

The company usually exhausts its ability to massage the financial statements very soon and the business health plummets dramatically. One collapsed so dramatically it has been selling fixed assets. The other one is Uniply Industries - a simple search on Twitter will suffice.

Newer small cap investors may be subscribed to many Twitter handles, Telegram channels, groups and even premium advisory services. Don't take anybody's word for the narrative being sold to you. On-the-ground-research and scuttlebutt can be plain fiction.

One oft- used , but rather silly, quote used by many is "Time in Mkt is more important than Timing the Mkt".
In reality, Time in the Market is profitable ONLY when your ( broad sector & theme) Timing of the Market right.

You need both. Period.

Always read the oldest 10-K you can find on a company

Reading the oldest 10-K will give you added perspective on the business and it'll get you thinking about how the business has changed over time/how it will change in the future

Guy in 1989: "Wow, those Nifty Fifty investors were so stupid."
Same guy in 1999: "Yes, a 250 P/E makes sense for Cisco."

Guy in 2011: "Wow, those tech bubble investors were so stupid."
Same guy in 2021: "Yes, 25x sales and a 450 P/E makes sense for a car company."

Good time to buy is when a theme or segment is ignored by the market and not when it is popular.

When you buy what is popular when it is popular, need to forego returns for few years.