Every quarter, when big investors' holdings become public, searches spike for the Vijay Kedia portfolio, the Rakesh Jhunjhunwala portfolio, the Ashish Kacholia portfolio and the Mukul Agarwal portfolio. The appeal is obvious: if a proven investor owns a stock, why not simply copy them? This "coat-tailing" feels like a shortcut to their judgement. It is far riskier than it looks. This article explains why, and what is genuinely worth borrowing from great investors. It is educational and does not recommend any stock or imply any endorsement by these investors.
The information you see is old
Public disclosures show holdings as of a past date — often weeks or months old by the time you read them. A large investor may have already trimmed or exited a position you are about to buy at a higher price. You are copying a snapshot, not a live decision.
You see the what, never the why or the when
- No thesis. A disclosure lists a stock and a stake. It does not tell you why they bought, what price they consider fair, or what would make them sell.
- No position sizing. A name that is a tiny, speculative sliver for them might become a dangerously large bet for you if you put serious money into it.
- No exit. When they sell — and they do — you will not get a notification. You are left holding something whose rationale you never knew.
Survivorship and scale
You hear about these investors because they succeeded; the many who copied similar-looking small-caps and lost are invisible. Large investors also operate with research teams, access and holding power that a retail investor copying one line of a disclosure simply does not have. The surface looks copyable; the substance isn't.
What is actually worth borrowing
The useful lesson from durable investors is not their stock list — it is their behaviour: patience, position discipline, a written reason for every holding, and the willingness to sell when the thesis breaks. Those you can genuinely adopt. A stock ticker copied without them is just a bet dressed up as conviction.
This is why a transparent, rule-based process beats coat-tailing: you know your own entry, your size and your exit, because the rules are yours and visible. That is how our Model Portfolio is run — every entry and exit on record, sized and diversified by rule. For the mechanics, see position sizing and diversification; for why chasing the next big winner misleads, see what makes a multibagger stock.
Admiring great investors is healthy; blindly copying a stale list of their holdings is not. Borrow their discipline, not their disclosures. You can follow a rule-based method on a free trial.
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