A slightly old-ish book (first published in 1994), I chanced upon this book and picked it up again at the library recently, though I had read it a few years back. While after so many years, it may not seem to have anything new, given that there is so much written about Buffett since 1994 … Read more
Last weekend, my friend Swami complained over coffee to my broker friend Jigneshbhai: “For the past 3 years, your favourite fund manager, Prashant Jain of HDFC Mutual Fund, has not beaten the market index, and you told me that he manages the best performing funds in the country.” Clearly Swami was not in a good … Read more
My broker friend Jigneshbhai had asked me and Swami to come over to an investor camp last Sunday for our evening coffee. At that event, a retail investor took centre stage. Inspired by Sachin Tendulkar’s heart-touching farewell speech, the retail investor made an emotional speech thanking everyone for his experiences in trying to get rich … Read more
“The Sensex reaching a new record high around Diwali muhurat trading is a bit like Tendulkar hitting a century in his 200th test.” “Normally, no one could have asked for a better coincidence to pump up spirits” said my broker friend Jigneshbhai as we sipped our coffee. “But unlike the celebrations around Sachin’s 200 tests … Read more
“The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2013 was awarded jointly to Eugene F. Fama, Lars Peter Hansen and Robert J. Shiller for their empirical analysis of asset prices” read my friend Swami from his iPad, as we were having our weekend coffee after a long time. Looking up from … Read more
One hundred lesser would not have made Sachin Tendulkar a lesser legend in anybody’s eyes. Like the last four runs that Sir Don Bradman did not score did not make him any lesser a batsman. Or the last successive Wimbledon title that Federer failed to win in a row did not make him a lesser tennis player in … Read more
My friend Swami does not believe that he is ‘average’. Some study said that 9 out of 10 people believe that they are above average. This means that the average belief is that ‘I am above average’. This comes to the fore during performance appraisals in companies. At least 70% of the people are supposed … Read more
For regular investors for whom investing is not a full-time activity, the Bogleheads’ Guide to Investing is a wonderful book that asks the right questions and provides clear answers. In a single book, the authors (who also started an online forum bogleheads.org based on the investing principles of John Bogle) have explained, in a step … Read more
“What is the difference between retrospective and retroactive?” asked my broker friend Jigneshbhai, as we met over coffee last weekend after a long time. Surprisingly, the question today was from Jigneshbhai rather than Swami. Swami looked at my broker friend and shrugged it off. “They are the same, I think. Why?” “Well someone from the … Read more