The Illusion of Knowledge
If you are an investment management professional, you will inevitably be asked the question about where we think the markets are headed? By clients, media, friends and family alike. ‘We don’t know’ is our preferred response every single time. This recent memo from Howard Marks reminds us that we should keep it that way. The […]
The obscure economist Silicon Valley billionaires should dump Ayn Rand for
For several decades now it has been fashionable for rich and successful people in America to say that they fans/followers of Ayn Rand. Such people – whose list includes Travis Kalanick, Donald Trump and Alan Greenspan – then usually go on to say that Rand’s bestselling book “The Fountainhead” had a profound influence on their […]
The Illusion of Progress
In investing, as in many other aspects of life, we at times tend to mistake inputs with outcomes, efforts with progress. Working hard is important, but efforts, if misdirected are a waste of time. This paradox is even more extreme in the field of investment where what is commonly regarded as the main activity of […]
Rising Giants Are Following the CCP Template
The Rising Giants (RG) portfolio companies have witnessed significant acceleration in their Free Cash Flow (FCF) compounding in recent years. In terms of trend in FCF generation, the RG companies currently are where Consistent Compounder Portfolio (CCP) companies were about a decade ago. Given that the CCPs have been consistently improving their FCF conversion (i.e. […]
Focus to Win
We have all known the power of focus to succeed. But not many of us understand what it really means to focus. In this really short blog, Shane Parish makes a powerful point drawing from the life of Steve Jobs, as shared by Jobs’ Chief Design Officer and the man behind those cool designs of […]
Why economists are flocking to Silicon Valley
Whilst financial markets continue to chase macroeconomics for that elusive insight, the world of business still finds value in microeconomics. The latest to hop on the bandwagon is tech giants who have hitherto thrived on electronics, computer science and software engineers. The emergence of data science in new age technologies such as artificial intelligence and […]
Crazy rich relocations: Singapore becomes a haven for Chinese elite
In the wake of Jack Ma’s very public defenestration and with Chinese authorities talking of “common prosperity” and making no secret of their desire to cut down to size other articulate billionaires, unsurprisingly the Chinese elite is taking flight. Had the Chinese economy been booming perhaps these billionaires might have hung around but with a […]
Liquid assets: how the business of bottled water went mad
The new season of History 101, a documentary series on Netflix with 20min episodes on the evolutions of various things such as GPS, MP3, IVF, etc featured the history of bottled water. The Guardian’s Long reads archives promptly threw up this piece from 2016 on the same subject. Both of them talk about the fascinating […]
Business Breakdown of Rolex
Business Breakdowns are a series of podcasts which dive deep into very interesting businesses such as McKinsey, LVMH, Atlas Copco, Union Pacific, etc. We find these podcasts very useful because they help us understand & appreciate competitive advantages that we had never thought of. The featured expert in the podcast tends to be someone who […]
Meet Quick Style, that group of Norwegian boys who dance on Hindi songs and create moments that are priceless and special
We said in our blog last week that more than GDP growth, the measure of a country’ rise tends to softer factors like success in a range of sports which are NOT associated with making lots of money – see https://marcellus.in/blogs/sporting-success-captures-indias-rise-better-than-gdp-growth/. In the same vein, we take note of the meteoric rise of Quick Style, a […]
The Irrelevance of Short-Term Investment Performance
Short term (less than 12 months) performance of an equity portfolio is significantly affected by noise. The tools that can help deliver consistent short-term outperformance over benchmark indices usually bring with them the risk of compromising long term (3 years or longer) absolute returns. For instance, Berkshire Hathaway’s monthly performance has exceeded that of S&P500 […]
The Default Tech Settings You Should Turn Off Right Away
The fall in technology stock prices this year notwithstanding, tech companies such as the so called FAANGS have changed our lives for the better in many ways bringing convenience in terms of access to goods and services and the resulting productivity gains. However, a lot of their ability to deliver more relevant content and services […]
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