Economic news will turn speculative in the coming weeks. We will either be sold hope or fear depending on the intent of the newsmakers. The budget will always be an event around which volatility will be more, speculative activity will rise, guesswork will be dominant, and the excitement quotient will…
Podcast Transcript As an investor and an advisor, I have had the privilege of closely interacting with thousands of people on matters relating to their personal finance. There is on running observation that keeps recurring. People who have done very well in life are often the least prepared financially…
The RBI’s monetary policy announcement did not do much to improve the market sentiment. The clear shift in stance, willingness to be accommodative, the confidence on inflation management and a decisive bend to act and do more if necessary were all simply not enough to reassure markets. The markets seem…
Election fever is just about to begin. This election is probably unique for its competitive intensity. On one side, we have a strong coalition with a clear leader. On the other, there is a strong opposition of divided forces to that leader. While the impact of a united opposition could…
Podcast Transcript Mindful investing can at first glance sound abstract. When we define different ways of investing, we mostly find empirical ways of describing them. We quantify why we want to do something. We are able to rationalize our thoughts clearly through numbers. That makes it easy to reason.…
Podcast Transcript 2018 is turning out to be a difficult year for many among us. Most investors have not seen their portfolios stay above cost. Most portfolios have lost money. This very much applies to mutual fund portfolios as well. In fact, the losses seem to be higher for…
Being a Contrarian is never easy. Most of the time, the Contrarian makes choices that are very different from the consensus. Given that consensus is far more powerful, a Contrarian has to withstand time and performance pressures for a very long time. Only if he holds steady can he benefit…
The month of October ended on a positive note for the markets. Trends seem to be indicating that the economy is doing reasonably well. Firstly, the GST collections crossed 1 lakh crore once again. Oil prices softened from the menacing levels it hit earlier in the month. Sales of the…
Podcast Transcript There is more to investing than just generating returns. There has to be a larger purpose. Investing is not a game we play to prove our self-worth. It is not something that can be done casually. But, most of us associate investing with just making money. In…
Recency bias hurts the most when a bull market ends. We tend to buy investment ideas which did very well in the recent past. This happens across the board. The stocks in favour remain the ones which hit recent highs and gained the most in the past year. We tend…
https://soundcloud.com/ithought-advisory/validating-advice Podcast Transcript Every portfolio often needs validation. Our ideas are constructed in a particular context and we find that soon thereafter the market context changes dramatically. My own experience from previous bull runs is what comes to mind. When we come out of a bull market, we tend to…
