How to build a resilient wealth portfolio in turbulent markets

There’s a tendency to think of volatility as something unusual—a phase that will pass. But if you step back, volatility isn’t the exception. It’s the system. The last few years—oil spikes, rate shocks, geopolitical tensions—haven’t changed markets, they’ve just made this reality harder to ignore. 

So the real question isn’t how to avoid turbulence. It’s how to build portfolios that can live through it. 

One thing that’s become very clear in India is how the nature of capital itself is changing. You now have about ₹30,000 crore of SIP money, on an average, coming into the markets every month, almost like a steady heartbeat. At the same time, global capital has become far more tactical—moving quickly in and out depending on macro signals. That creates an unusual dynamic. On one side, you have patient domestic money. On the other, highly reactive global flows. 

If a portfolio is built for only one of those realities, it will eventually get tested. 

A lot of portfolios fail not because they are wrong, but because they are built for a single outcome—usually growth. But markets don’t operate in one regime. Sometimes growth is strong, sometimes liquidity tightens, sometimes inflation becomes the dominant force. A resilient portfolio has to be able to function across all of these, not just one. 

In practice, that means thinking less in terms of asset classes and more in terms of roles. 

Take a ₹5-crore portfolio. Roughly half of it will sit in equities, because over long periods, that’s still where wealth gets created. But within equities, the focus has to shift—away from momentum and towards businesses that can hold up when the cost of capital rises. 

Then there’s a layer that often gets underappreciated—stability. Not exciting, but essential. With bond yields in the range of 6.5-6.8%, fixed income today does something very important. It gives the portfolio breathing room. When markets correct, this is the part that keeps investors from making reactive decisions. 

And then there’s the third layer—what I’d call optionality. This is where most portfolios either do too much or too little. A 10-15% allocation to global or emerging opportunities isn’t about chasing the next big thing. It’s about staying open to change without putting the entire portfolio at risk. 

India VIX

You can see the nervousness in markets right now through volatility indicators. The India VIX has jumped sharply—moving from the usual 12-15 range to closer to 20-24, and in some sessions rising more than 50% in just a couple of days. Globally, the VIX is also elevated, hovering around the high-20s. What this really tells you is that markets are no longer pricing in a smooth path—they’re bracing for uncertainty. 

A big part of that is the geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. When there’s even a hint of disruption around critical routes like the Strait of Hormuz, oil prices react immediately—and once crude moves above $100-110, it starts feeding into everything from inflation to interest rate expectations. That’s when volatility spikes—not just because of what has happened, but because of what could happen next. 

Interestingly, global wealth managers aren’t panicking in this environment—they’re adjusting. You’re seeing a shift towards shorter-duration fixed income, a bit more cash on the sidelines, and a clear move away from crowded or thematic bets. The focus becomes less about chasing returns and more about managing downside. 

Managing portfolio

What’s also worth acknowledging is that liquidity is becoming a much bigger variable than most investors realise. Right now, banks themselves are borrowing at over 7% in short-term markets, which tells you something about the cost of money in the system. When liquidity tightens, it doesn’t just affect markets—it affects behaviour. And that’s usually where the real damage happens. 

Because in the end, portfolios don’t break because of drawdowns. They break because of how people respond to them. 

A 10-15% correction in equities is not unusual. What is unusual is how quickly investors tend to react—either pulling out or over-rotating into whatever is working at the moment. You can already see this in the surge of thematic investing, where capital tends to move towards narratives just as they peak. 

That’s why structure matters. If each part of the portfolio has a clear role, you don’t need to rethink everything every time markets move. 

Looking ahead, the market is unlikely to move in one broad direction. It’s going to be more fragmented—some sectors doing well, others correcting, global shifts playing out unevenly. That makes allocation decisions more important than ever. 

Resilience, then, isn’t about predicting what happens next. It’s about making sure that whatever happens next doesn’t derail the portfolio. 

And more importantly, it allows you to stay invested long enough for compounding to actually do its job. 

(The author is Founder & Group CEO, Atom Privé Financial Services. Views are personal.)