Rising Giants: Focus on the Signal, Ignore the Noise
In this month’s newsletter we focus on the portfolio stocks that have witnessed significant drawdowns (>20%) since inception. For Dr Lal Pathlabs, we emphasise how turnaround time, quality and accuracy of reports are more important drivers of competitive advantage than pricing. Aavas’ asset-liability matching gives us confidence regarding the resilience of its spreads in a […]
Mars Inc gets the purpose v profit balance right
At Marcellus, we believe in the role of business going beyond just the motive for profits and hence have featured articles on the subject in 3L&3S often. Most recently, we featured the iconic ice cream maker Ben and Jerry’s conscious capitalism. For those of us with a sweet tooth, we feature another company which measures up […]
In Defense of Dollar Cost Averaging
We are often faced with the perennial question of when to invest from clients – in bull markets and bear markets alike. Alas, given the difficulty (or impossibility?) and also the futility of timing the market, especially for those with long investment horizons, there is never an easy answer. The Indian mutual fund industry has […]
Padma nationalism
In an era characterised by vacuous nationalism, it is refreshing to come across a landmark announcement by a small country which is on the rise and on the make. Bangladesh’s inauguration of its longest bridge is one such landmark announcement made that much more memorable by the fact that the bridge also helps Marcellus staff […]
Risk Capital and Markets: A Temporary Retreat or Long Term Pull Back
The past ten months have seen record outflows of c. $40bn from foreign investors (FIIs) in the Indian public equity markets thanks to interest rate hikes by central banks globally. This linkage between interest rates and capital flows into and out of risk assets such as equities is important to understand future expected returns. In […]
A Google engineer mistook a powerful AI as sentient because of this human cognitive glitch
A fortnight ago, we woke upto the news that Google has created AI capable of human emotions. This article takes a very different view of the whole furore around ‘sentient AI’: “When you read a sentence like this one, your past experience tells you that it Is written by a thinking, feeling human. And, in this […]
China lured graduate jobseekers into digital espionage
As Cold War II rumbles on hardly a week passes without a new revelation regarding China’s tactics in this war. In previous editions of 3 longs & 3 shorts, we have highlighted the investigations by American and Canadian intelligence agencies of Chinese academics teaching in North America. This investigative piece in the FT highlights a […]
CCPs Increase Investments During a Crisis
Historically, once every five years, Marcellus’ CCP companies have faced a challenging external environment. In such instances, CCPs have ramped up capex and working capital investments (ex-financials as these parameters are not applicable to them). This has been followed by a sharp acceleration in the franchises’ growth rates in the subsequent 3-4 years. FY22 was […]
Most of the world’s grain is not eaten by humans
Whilst food inflation globally is soaring for a variety of reasons, the war in Ukraine is clearly contributing its bit, given Ukraine and Russia both have a significant share of global grain production. Given the war is restricting the evacuation of grains from Ukraine to the rest of the world, millions of poor people at […]
How much money is needed for ideal life? Most are OK with £8m, study finds
Whilst an ideal life is subjective and hence the answer to the question in the title of this article might seem a bit elusive or at least personal, it is a question many of us ask of ourselves from a financial planning perspective. And often, as the article presupposes as its null hypothesis – everyone […]
Beyoncé is Black America’s great communicator
The FT’s pop music critic opines that “…among the ranks of opinionated entertainers, none is held to be as influential as Beyoncé. Leonardo DiCaprio’s warnings about climate change or Lady Gaga’s advocacy for LGBTQ+ communities never command the same degree of attention as Beyoncé’s interventions about racial politics and societal unrest. Kanye West attracts attention — […]
Quotes from Seth Klarman Interview
Seth Klarman is the CEO and portfolio manager at The Baupost Group, an American investment management firm. Klarman is known for his value oriented investment approach made most famous by his book – Margin of Safety. In a recent interview with Harvard Business School professor Das Narayandas, he shares his take on the markets and more […]
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