“Basically, price fluctuations have only one significant meaning for the true investor. They provide him with an opportunity to buy wisely when prices fall sharply and to sell wisely when they advance a great deal. At other times, he will do better if he forgets about the stock market and pays attention to his dividend … Read more
“Do you remember what you were doing when 9/11 happened. I remember I was in Pune at my friend’s house having my evening coffee and suddenly got a call to switch on the TV” remembered Jigneshbhai when we met last weekend. That left me and Swami also remembering what we were doing then. A lot … Read more
“Can you guarantee it?” asked my friend Swami, when my broker Jigneshbhai asked him to hold on or add to his investments saying that markets will recover. Jigneshbhai said, “Boss, there are no guarantees, but they should recover eventually.” Swami continued, “But when? For the last 4 years, the returns on my investment are less … Read more
“The festival of Gowri-Ganesh in Bangalore has quite a few differences from the festival of Ganpati in Mumbai” said Jigneshbhai as we met for Ganesh darshan at Swami’s house. Though we did not have any arguments or discussions on that, it left me with a lot of musings on how this festival is celebrated differently … Read more
“The true investor scarcely ever is forced to sell his shares, and at all other times he is free to disregard the current price quotation. He need pay attention to it and act upon it only to the extent that it suits his book, and no more. Thus, the investor who permits himself to be … Read more
“One of the things that I learnt from the recent anti-corruption movement is that I think there is a generation of Indians who are the ‘in-between’ generation” said Jigneshbhai when we met for coffee last week. Swami and I started wondering what this ‘in-between’ generation means. Every generation is in between two we thought. While … Read more
‘All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone’ – said Blaise Pascal. On those lines, there might be some truth in extending it a bit – ‘All of a nation’s problems perhaps stem from their parliamentarians’ inability to sit quietly and agree in a room together.’ If only … Read more
A lot of financial planning is geared towards basically creating a corpus for a goal like retirement which can replace your current income stream in inflation adjusted terms. And it is all good when they profess getting out of debt; preach high rates of savings that are put in a manner across asset types to … Read more
“A truly conservative investor will be satisfied with the gains shown on half of his portfolio in a rising market, while in a severe decline, he may derive solace from reflecting how much better off he is than many of his more venturesome friends.”- The Intelligent Investor The best portfolio strategy for an individual investor … Read more