“If the reason people invest is to make money, then in seeking advice they are asking others to tell them how to make money. That idea has some element of naivete.” – The Intelligent Investor Every few weeks, Saturday mornings are reserved for the barber. On one such Saturday, after our customary drive and parking, … Read more
“When the Supreme Court eventually decided that the Army Chief is actually going to be 60 this year though he will not really be 60 years old, it was a mature decision from a wise judiciary which knew how messy it would get if it went into documentation arguments” Jigneshbhai declared as we were having … Read more
“For years the financial services have been making stock market forecasts without anyone taking this activity very seriously. Like everyone else in the field they are sometimes right and sometimes wrong. Wherever possible they hedge their opinions so as to avoid the risk of being proved completely wrong. There is a well-developed art of Delphic … Read more
“Somehow the milk here seems to have too much water” said my Swami’s mother, while serving us tea. Having spent most of her life in Mumbai, she had come over to my Swami’s place in Bangalore for a few days. Her identity, for all practical purposes, was not just linked to being from Mumbai, but … Read more
“The investor’s common stock portfolio is almost certain to fluctuate in value over any period of several years. The investor should know about these possibilities and should be prepared for them both financially and psychologically. He will want to benefit from changes in market levels, perhaps also making purchases at advantageous prices.” – The Intelligent … Read more
“I washed the dishes today” Swami proudly proclaimed, when Jigneshbhai and I visited them. For a change, we had met today at Swami’s house today for our coffee. The purported reason for that being that Swami had lots of work at home so he can’t make it today. Jigneshbhai insisted that we must meet, and … Read more
Another weekend another book. This time it was about irrationality and actually how it helps being irrational – The Upside of Irrationality! We are an irrational species, and that was amply demonstrated through a set of experiments that the author conducted over time. Irrationality One of our irrationalities has to do with lack of acceptance … Read more
“Take the first left after the third signal from here” my South Indian friend Swami said to the person asking him directions in cold Delhi over hot coffee. “This is the 10th car since morning asking me for the address of the Ministry of Human Resources or Ministry of Information Technology” remarked Swami. “Looks like … Read more
I recently finished reading ‘The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable’ by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, the Lebanese essayist, writer, philosopher. I had read his ‘Fooled by Randomness’ a few years back, and the essential message of this book is, more or less, similar. The basic premise of both the books is this: The … Read more