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
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
“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 his … Read more
In the classic Sherlock Holmes short story, ‘Silver Blaze’, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle chronicles the story of the missing race horse and the murder of its trainer. One of the popular Holmes stories, the plot in ‘Silver Blaze’ hinges on Holmes observing the ‘curious incident of the dog in the night-time’. Here is the dialogue: … Read more
My friend Swami definitely does not believe that he is ‘average’. Some study said that 9 out of 10 people believe that they are above average. Which means that the average belief is that ‘I am above average’. This comes to the fore during performance appraisals in companies. Atleast 70% of the people are supposed to … 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
“Andy Murray’s victory in the Wimbledon final last Sunday reminded me a lot of the Indian victory in the Mumbai World Cup final.” Jigneshbhai said when we had our coffee last week. Swami agreed. “Both Andy and the Indian team carried the heavy burden of expectations on their shoulders, albeit Andy had it more in … Read more