My friend Swami was quite cheerful a few days back when we met. “Finally the markets are going up – now that Modi is sure to become the Prime Minister.” “There is no such thing as a sure thing” said my broker friend Jigneshbhai, putting brakes on Swami’s enthusiasm, as he sipped coffee during our … Read more
Invest in businesses as if you are investing in farmland. Look at the earning capability of the asset and how that will increase consistently over time, and hold it for decades. This, or something to that effect, is what Warren Buffett said in his latest shareholder letter – drawing parallels with his own investment in … Read more
“I’m not strange, weird, off, nor crazy, my reality is just different from yours” wrote Lewis Carroll, the author of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. My adventures with data and analytics have often landed me in situations where I have wondered whose version of reality is the right one. In some … Read more
Most investors find it difficult to truly appreciate the mind-boggling effect of the power of compounding. Financial companies keep touting how 5000 rupees invested regularly will give you 1 crore in 25 years, but most people don’t quite get it. The human brain has a problem with understanding geometric progression. The reason, perhaps, is that the … Read more
‘It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.’ So said someone accomplished. I learnt this truth in my job a few years back when I used to analyse marketing campaign effectiveness for marketing managers. How much ever I tried to tell them that a … Read more
So the old saying that ‘Money does not buy happiness’ is true, and a Princeton-Gallup study has data that backs it up. Take a look at this link: Happiness is Love – and $75,000 The study by Princeton Nobel laureates does say that money does count (or, let’s say, is a significant variable!) for happiness … Read more
Last weekend, my friend Swami complained over coffee to my broker friend Jigneshbhai: “For the past 3 years, your favorite 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 center 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