Read time 5 minutes
Value is often hidden where the world refuses to look. In markets, it’s the neglected sectors. In medicine, it’s the rare diseases that affect only a handful of people.
In a small clinic in India, a young man waits years for a diagnosis of a disease so rare that even specialists struggle to name it. His journey is one of scarcity, resilience, and innovation, the qualities that investors seek daily in global markets.
What if the lessons hidden in his struggle could reveal a new way to think about risk and reward?
When My Life Turned Without Warning
There are moments when the world tilts, and everything I thought I knew about control, risk, and certainty dissolved.
For me, that moment arrived in 2015.
I believed I was stepping away from the relentless rhythm of my work life. It was a temporary pause to breathe after years of chasing deals, reading markets, and thriving in volatility. I thought I understood unpredictability.
But then came the diagnosis…
Isaacs’ Syndrome. It is a rare neurological condition where muscles refuse to rest, twitching as though they’ve forgotten silence.
Can you imagine your body becoming a restless stock ticker, never pausing, never closing?
Before I could even grasp that, another shadow crept in: Lyme disease. A master of disguise, it hides in tissues, evades detection, and mimics other illnesses for years. A phantom market crash I never saw coming.
Then Glaucoma threatened my vision. Membranous Glomerulonephritis is an autoimmune kidney condition. Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), Diabetes, Frozen Shoulder, Eczema and Blood Pressure issues.
My body was soon a replica of volatile markets, and I was both the investor and the asset.
From Trading to Hospital Floor
In banking, I thrived on complexity, markets were storms, and I had learned to navigate both.
But rare diseases?… They rewrote the rules.
- Data was scarce
- Timelines were non-predictable
- The market, I mean my body, was volatile in ways no hedge could protect
- Diagnostic Uncertainty
- No Standard Playbook
Yet…
As I lay in hospital beds and sat in waiting rooms, I realised something startling:
My skills, which I had sharpened in finance, were not useless here: They were my survival tools
- I tried making the most of my limited resources and made decisions
- I started to manage uncertainty and track symptoms like market trends
- I weighed treatments like investment risks
- I structured and mobilised my funds through investments and insurance policies
- I diversified my approach with medicine, nutrition, therapy, and lifestyle
Slowly, I began to see patterns. The same mindset that drives financial resilience could also drive personal resilience.
The Hidden Alpha of Rare Diseases
In finance, Alpha is the edge, the return beyond the market average. It’s what every investor hunts for. In my health journey, I discovered a parallel: the hidden alpha of rare diseases.
Rare diseases are known to live in overlooked data, unusual methods, and the strength built through uncertainty.
1. Trial-and-Error Treatments
- In finance, risk-taking can generate alpha.
- In rare diseases, the absence of protocols meant my treatments were often experimental.
- Each attempt carried uncertainty, but also the possibility of uncovering something that worked.
- The courage of patients and families is something that drives progress.
2. Patient-led Discoveries
- Investors gain alpha by spotting patterns others ignore.
- Families and patient groups often refuse to accept vague diagnoses.
- Their persistence pushes science forward, creating discoveries that formal systems missed.
3. Technology as a Multiplier
- AI, genomics, and digital registries act like data in finance. It can uncover hidden signals that traditional methods miss. These tools accelerate diagnosis and treatment discoveries as well.
4. Small Numbers, Big Impact
- In finance, niche opportunities can lead to outperformance.
- In health, the smallest patient populations often unlock the biggest revolutions. Examples like gene therapy, precision medicine, and CRISPR.
- Rare diseases become the testing ground for innovations that later benefit millions.
Why Investors Should Pay Attention
Here’s where my two worlds collide.
Investors chase the obvious: blue-chip stocks, predictable markets, safe bets.
But…
Disruption rarely comes from the obvious. It comes from the edges.
- 1) Biotech firms working on rare diseases may look risky. But their discoveries can become billion-dollar blockbusters.
- 2) Data analytics companies specialise in tiny and complex datasets. These rare-disease registries are pioneering methods that are bringing ripples across industries.
- 3) Telemedicine, genetic testing, and AI diagnostics were once niche tools for rare patients. Now, they are reshaping mainstream healthcare.
I think the next great wave of value creation may rise not from the giants, but from the overlooked.
The Patient’s Comeback Mindset
I believe that for patients like me, comeback is not about returning to a desk. It’s about reclaiming agency.
After facing multiple diagnoses, I learned:
| Quality | Investor Perspective | Patient Perspective |
| Adaptability | Adjusts strategies when conditions change, without abandoning core principles. | Learns to adapt lifestyle, expectations, and coping mechanisms with each new diagnosis. |
| Long-term Vision | Sees beyond short-term losses, focusing on compounding growth over decades. | Understands that healing and adaptation are ongoing processes, not overnight fixes. |
| Patience | Waits through market downturns, trusting in long-term value rather than chasing quick wins. | Endures long diagnostic journeys, often waiting years for clarity or effective treatment. |
| Resilience | Stays calm during volatility, resisting panic selling when markets crash. | Faces repeated disappointments from misdiagnoses or failed treatments, yet continues seeking answers. |
| Discipline | Follows a consistent plan, avoiding impulsive decisions driven by fear or hype. | Sticks to treatment regimens, therapies, and lifestyle changes even when progress feels slow. |
Ironically, these are the same qualities that make great investors.
Lessons for My Fellow Patients
If you’re navigating your own storm, here’s what I’ve learned:
- See yourself as an asset: Your resilience has value.
- Leverage your niche: Your journey gives you insights others lack.
- Invest in health first: Without it, no comeback is sustainable.
- Stay curious: Knowledge is empowerment.
- Think long-term: Just as markets recover, so can you.
How I Am Trying to Power My Future
I believe that experience with rare and chronic diseases gave me the key to:
1) Register for health programs
2) Monitor my health every day
3) Share anonymous genetic data
4) Support connected health records
5) Participate in a diverse expert group
Each step fuels the data engines that shape future treatments. It helps create a new asset class for impact-driven investors.
A Final Word
My journey through Isaacs’ Syndrome, Lyme, glaucoma, kidney disease, and more taught me one thing: Hidden within scattered medical files lies an opportunity to change a lot.
For me, the hidden alpha wasn’t just in my rare disease research and investment strategies. It was in rediscovering my own ability to adapt, learn, and lead. I am healthier now. Ready again. And I believe the insights born from rare disease can reshape not just portfolios, but lives.
By uniting rare-disease data with finance and patient advocacy, we can pioneer a new frontier: The one that delivers both social impact and financial returns.
The frontier awaits. The margins whisper. The hidden alpha is there, waiting for those willing to look where others are not.
DISCLAIMER
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not represent any medical advice.