Everybody these days is obsessed with speed. Today you can get your cab, groceries, maids and food within 10 minutes. Our bank accounts open instantly and UPI payments happen in milliseconds. This speed has also crept into our investing behaviour — from long term to short term to F&O. But speed has a dark side most people ignore: the extra bit of performance almost always comes with disproportionately higher risk.
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The IPL Strike Rate Analogy
We looked at the top 10 scorers of IPL 2025 and 2024 and found 17 unique names. Plotting their IPL career average against career strike rate reveals a clear pattern: beyond a certain strike rate, the average runs scored per innings falls drastically.
| Career Strike Rate | Playing Style | Avg Runs/Innings | Dismissal Risk | Key Players |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| **110–125** | Anchor | 40–45 | Low | — |
| **135–140** | Balanced Aggressor | 35–45 | Moderate | Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill |
| **140–150** | Aggressive | 25–35 | High | Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav |
| **150–160** | Power Hitter | 25–30 | Very High | Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jos Buttler |
| **160+** | Reckless Slogger | 17–25 | Extreme | Abhishek Sharma, Sunil Narine |
A batter striking at 132 (Virat Kohli's career IPL profile) averages close to 40 per innings. A batter at 163 (Abhishek Sharma) sees the average drop to 27. These ultra-aggressors score around 25% faster per ball but score roughly 30% fewer runs per innings.
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Driving on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway
Consider your travel on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway (~100 km). The faster you go, the less time you actually save for every unit of extra risk you take.
| Speed (km/h) | Time Taken (min) | Time Saved | Risk Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| **60** | 100 | — | Low |
| **80** | 75 | 25 min | Moderate |
| **100** | 60 | 15 min | Elevated |
| **120** | 50 | 10 min | High |
| **140** | 43 | 7 min | Extreme |
At 140 km/h, you save only 7 additional minutes, but even a small pothole can become a life-threatening event. The reward shrinks, but the risk explodes.
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Your Investing Portfolio Works the Same Way
Most investors choose excessive equity due to their obsession with CAGR, ignoring volatility — which determines how frequently their portfolio will crash and how long they'll stay invested. Our analysis of a Hybrid fund composed of Nifty 500 and 5-Year G-Sec indices, rebalanced yearly, showed the following over 23 years (Jan 2003 – Dec 2025):
| Scenario | Equity % | Debt % | CAGR | Volatility | Return Increase | Risk Increase |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| **A** | 50% | 50% | 13.14% | 10.27% | 0% | 0% |
| **B** | 60% | 40% | 13.97% | 12.19% | 6.3% | 18.7% |
| **C** | 70% | 30% | 14.69% | 14.16% | 11.8% | 37.9% |
| **D** | 80% | 20% | 15.29% | 16.20% | 16.4% | 57.8% |
| **E** | 90% | 10% | 15.75% | 18.36% | 19.9% | 78.8% |
| **F** | 100% | 0% | 16.06% | 20.65% | 22.2% | 101.1% |
Moving from a 50:50 portfolio to 100% equity improves CAGR from 13.14% to 16.06% — a 22% improvement — while volatility jumps from 10.27% to 20.65% — a 101% increase. The risk rose roughly 4.5 times faster than the returns.
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The Lesson for Investing
Whether it is the expressway, the IPL pitch, or the stock market, the pattern is identical. There is a sweet spot of speed; beyond it, every additional unit of returns comes with a wildly disproportionate amount of risk.
Ultra-aggressive portfolios might make one richer, but they also come with bigger drawdowns, more panic, and a much higher chance of exiting at the worst possible moment.
*"Do not trade a lifetime of compounding for 7 minutes of speed."*
Paras Singhal
Co-founder, Aureva Wealth
This article is published for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute personalised financial or investment advice. Past performance is not indicative of future market results. Readers are advised to consult a SEBI-registered financial adviser before making any investment decisions.