The starter pick is not the highest CAGR. It is the deepest hole you would still keep adding the SIP into.
Three strategies, three drawdowns, the same starting capital. The brochure ranks by return. The bank account ranks by what you actually held through. The gap between the two is the behaviour tax.
Five year backtest . same Rs 10 lakh book . NSE BhavCopy 22 May 2026
Strategy
CAGR
Max DD
DD in rupees
SmallcapStrategy 08 . pure equity
41.03pct
-22.35pct
-2.24L
LargeMid Multi AssetStrategy 10 . eq 80 debt 10 gold 10
37.12pct
-17.61pct
-1.76L
Nifty 50 TRIBenchmark
10.44pct
-16.92pct
-1.69L
Three strategies sorted by headline CAGR. Two of them sit inside the 17 percent drawdown band, one sits at 22 percent. The starter question is not which row earned the most. It is which rupee number on the third column you can sit through for the better part of a year and still SIP on the first of next month.
The behaviour tax . why realised CAGR lags the brochure
2.9pp
Annual gap . average equity fund investor vs the fund . Dalbar QAIB 30Y US
Investors who cancelled SIPs during the worst quarter and re entered after the recovery underperformed the funds they were holding by roughly three percentage points a year for thirty years. The realised CAGR is whatever you actually stayed invested through.
-15pct
Revealed panic threshold in equity loss scenarios. Roszkowski and Davey 2010 plus subsequent behavioural finance lit. Half of the stated tolerance.
~50pct
AMFI SIP discontinuation ratio spikes well above base rate during equity drawdowns. The SIP that gets cancelled at minus 15 earns the drawdown without the recovery.
The brochure prints the strategy CAGR. Your statement prints the realised CAGR. The gap between the two is the drawdown you sold into. The risk profile exists to keep that gap small by matching the strategy to a hole you would still SIP through.
Strategy data . RupeeCase platform 5Y backtest 23 Apr 2021 to 27 Apr 2026 on the Strategy 08 Smallcap and Strategy 10 LargeMid Multi Asset cards. Nifty 50 TRI same window. Dalbar 33rd Quantitative Analysis of Investor Behavior, US 30Y to 2023, average equity fund investor 6.81 pct vs S&P 500 9.65 pct, gap 2.84 pp. Indian behaviour gap directionally similar per Anagol Cole Sarkar 2017 and AMFI monthly SIP closure ratios in stress months. Past performance . backtest only . not a guarantee.