Either I am a completely outdated, antique piece who doesn’t get it, or I may be a very calm composed person. I tend to give myself a positive spin with a benefit of doubt thinking it is the latter, but I suspect the former is perhaps closer to the truth. The last week has seen me pose … Read more
Prem Watsa was once called the savviest value investor you will never know. He is also known as the Canadian Buffett. In fact, his investing approach is uncannily similar. He heads Fairfax which owns multiple insurance companies. He generally buys companies in whole and mostly when they are in trouble (Blackberry being a recent example). … Read more
This year marks 50 years of Buffett and Munger running Berkshire Hathaway. Since 1977, Buffett has been writing an annual letter to his shareholders. A compilation of these letters was also published as a book. This year the letter has its details on business performance, plus the now regular interesting insights and wisdom as usual, … Read more
I found this wonderful talk – both in style and substance, in numbers and stories – as he mentions – delivered by Prof Aswath Damodaran (of New York University) at Google posted on Youtube over this weekend. Here are some notes/ statements from this talk to takeaway: “Accounting is not valuation” “Goodwill is the most … Read more
So 2014 saw a total of 75 NFOs (New Fund Offers by Mutual Funds) compared to 18 in 2013. In 2012, there were 8 and in 2011 there were 11 NFOs. Last we saw anywhere close to so many NFOs was 41 in 2008 and 48 in 2007. And incidentally many of these 75 NFOs … Read more
It has been a while since I posted to the blog. The reason being I had nothing much to say. So while I find something to say, there is always a lot of interesting stuff to read. While the message remains the same like all the basics of investing, it is not a bad time … Read more
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
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
One Idiot is a short 30-minute movie with a message on financial independence. The film is an initiative from IDFC Foundation (which may mean that it may indirectly and tacitly act as marketing for their mutual fund). But nevertheless despite that, it is a nice attempt to educate the youth of today’s urban India on the … Read more