Have you ever tended to a garden? As a gardener, you would ensure that your plants get enough sunlight, water, and nutrition. But, there is an inherent expectation that your garden will flourish. Imagine you received a handful of seeds. You were told that these seeds would eventually grow into…
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…
A relatively insignificant event triggered a massive scare in Indian financials on Friday. But, the story does not lie there. It lies in the institutional imperatives clashing with individual investor interests. When there is a problem, either of solvency, liquidity or of risks, it is the bigger investors who bail out…
“Prophecy is a good line of business, but it is full of risks.” ~Mark Twain These words ring a bell as we approach the end of a decade after Lehman. Predicting almost never brings glory to the person doing it. Even if, by the twist of fate,…
The rupee now stands at 72 against the US Dollar. This is an unprecedented low. So far, neither the RBI nor the Government has aggressively stepped in. Is there an investment opportunity for you? When the rupee weakens, the markets react. The yield on the 10 Year Government…
Investors are always so busy celebrating market highs that they miss the peak out moment. So, most investors tend to wake up long after the market corrects. The only way to ensure one is alert to the market highs is to follow an active-passive approach that is dynamic. This requires…
Podcast Transcript The markets are hitting new highs. But my advisor says, “Think long term”. I asked him if we need to book some profits. He says “Do nothing, just let the investments stay.” Friends, keep bringing up these conversations more frequently these days. The problem with…
Opinions are very different from judgements. Investment is a field where we carry both and apply them constantly. Opinions are lighter, presumptive, and easy going. We can like or dislike a personality, a business leader, an industry, or a business. Opinions formed on the basis of instinct rather than inquiry…
Podcast Transcript How we develop conviction matters. Everybody agrees that the quality of conviction will determine many things- how we translate conviction into investments, how we allocate money into an investment, and how we hold onto the investment. Generating conviction, growing conviction, preserving conviction and translating conviction are four…
In good years, defensive investors have to be content with the KNOWLEDGE that their gains, although perhaps less than maximal, were achieved with risk protection in place, even though it turned out to be not needed. – Howard Marks Every investor scrutinizes the relationship between risk and…
The purpose of monetary policy is to manage inflation, facilitate growth, and regulate credit in the economy. The RBI’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has a clear mandate to target inflation and maintain it around 4%. In terms of bond markets, 2017 and 2018 are like chalk and cheese. 2017 witnessed…