Frankly, both debt and equity funds should form part of the overall asset allocation of investors. If we apply this principle, there will not be any need to time the market as the money will keep moving into both asset classes depending upon the choice of allocation to both. If one decides to allocate 60 per cent to equity and the rest to debt initially, this can be maintained by constantly moving from debt to equity and from equity to debt, depending upon the growth in the value of these assets. Having said that, debt funds should be looked at more seriously in a falling inflation and interest rate scenario. Invariably, it benefits debt funds investors due to appreciation in the portfolio. At the same time, timing equity is tough. One could probably go for increasing exposure to equity in a falling market and vice versa. While doing so, one has to keep accumulating equity as the power of compounding in equity cannot be ignored. In the same way, long-term investing in debt funds as an alternative to bank fixed deposits cannot be ignored given the near tax-free return one gets in debt funds. This is primarily because tax incidence in debt funds over three years is low due to the provision of adjusting cumulative of inflation as a cost from the total cumulative generated for the same period. At times, due to high inflation, the total return generated from debt funds becomes tax free as a result of this provision.