Masterclass Case Study: Institutional Investor Behavior During the 2020 Crash

A masterclass case study for serious independent investors, HNIs and portfolio managers in training that retells the 2020 crash from the institutional side of the trade. Between February and March 2020 foreign portfolio investors pulled money out of Indian equities and bonds at a pace never seen before, while domestic mutual funds, LIC and other DIIs, carried by steady SIP inflows, bought much of what they sold. This course explains who these institutions are and how to read their footprints in NSDL, NSE and AMFI data, then follows them week by week through the sell-off: the global dash for cash, forced selling by leveraged and passive funds, the DII buying that cushioned the fall, and the scramble for hedges as India VIX hit record highs. It covers the bond market freeze, the Franklin Templeton debt fund wind-up and how RBI liquidity measures changed institutional behaviour. It then tracks the recovery: who bought the bottom, the wave of QIPs, rights issues and block deals, the great handover in which FPIs returned in record size while mutual funds faced redemptions, and the sector rotation inside institutional portfolios. It closes with how to use institutional flow data without being fooled by it, the behavioural gap between forced sellers and patient capital, and a capstone in which you write your own crisis playbook. Educational content only, not investment advice.