Marcellus: Reading VS Naipaul Will Make You Richer
Published on: 18 Jan, 2019 Intensely researched, well thought through non-consensus opinions are priceless. VS Naipaul’s final book on India is an example of such work. Meticulously researched, Naipaul’s 1990 book flagged that India was a country on the move and on the make. At a time when the norm was to berate India for […]
Marcellus: Does Spirituality Help Improve Clarity of Thought?
Published on: 11 Jan, 2019 Any activity which entails making a call on the future is as much about managing emotions as it is about rational analysis. Investing therefore is always and everywhere a dance between these two elements – reason & emotion. We find that spirituality (i.e. reducing clutter in our lives, increasing focus […]
How Competitive Advantage Drives Churn in the Stockmarket
Published on: 4 Jan, 2019 The extent of competitive advantage possessed by a firm can fluctuate as the sector in which the firm operates grows (from niche to nationwide). The aggregation of this phenomenon across the entire stockmarket results in the BSE500 demonstrating twice as much churn as the Sensex. In fact, no other […]
Grand Fortunes and the Illusion of Competition
Published on: 28 Dec, 2018 Through the ages, the greatest and most lasting fortunes have been built on the back of commercial opportunism allied with the willingness to bend the rule of the law repeatedly & ruthlessly. The Medicis in Italy, the Mitsui in Japan and JP Morgan in America are exemplars of this template […]
Your memory will determine how much money you make
Published on: 20 Dec, 2018 Memory in all its avatars (perception, projection, intelligence) plays a big role in how we invest. The fragility of our memories (both in the sense of how quickly they fade and in the sense of how susceptible to manipulation they are) suggests that we need to be careful with how […]
Who is Marcellus and why does he matter
Published on: 9 Dec, 2018 We live in era defined by majoritarianism and social-media driven consensus. In such an age we seek inspiration from the one of the greatest warriors of the 20 th Century, Cassius Marcellus Clay, better known as Muhammad Ali. “I know where I am going and I know the truth and […]
System level thinkers
Published on: 2 Dec, 2018 The intellectual legacies of four titans show that the smartest thinkers of every epoch are able to understand how the economic system works in its entirety whilst most of the rest of us only understand the world at an episodic and literal level. “Truly radical “Machiavellianism”, in the popular sense […]
Weak EPS growth and strong GDP growth can coexist
Published on: 28 Nov, 2018 There is needless angst in India about EPS growth staying weak even as the economy grows at 7%. Such a phenomenon is actually a good thing for the Indian economy – it highlights a shift to a more competitive, pro-consumer paradigm which sets the stage for efficiency improvements in the […]
Have we hit Peak Finance
Published on: 19 Nov, 2018 The combination of a rising fiscal deficit & tighter monetary policy in the US is pushing the world’s risk free rate upwards thus reversing a 40-year trend of money become ever cheaper. Alongside adverse developments in global trade and politics, this could change the way we think about risk-reward tradeoffs. […]
The role of Outsiders in investing
Published on: 11 Nov, 2018 The success of non-establishment figures in reshaping the investment landscape in America over the past 40 years gives India a useful template. The outsiders have already made their mark in the VC and PE space in India. Now such thinkers seem likely to make their mark in the public market […]
The Indian Stockmarket is Unique. Here is the Data.
Published on: 7 Nov, 2018 No other large stockmarket is as overwhelmingly macro driven as India’s. Arguably, this is because of the high cost of factors of production and the influence of the Indian state in every aspect of business life. To make money in India, investors need to understand the macro as much as […]
Social Media, not Fake News, Damages your Portfolio
Published on: 30 Oct, 2018 Sixty years ago Solomon Asch showed that we start believing in nonsense if enough people around us are believers. Social media has amplified this problem manifold and thus become a hazard to HNWs’ portfolios. Cutting oneself off from social media and using simple behavioural rules mitigates this problem to a […]
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