A Major New Index Fund Should Unnerve Climate-Skeptical CEOs
Thanks to the publicity created by Gamestop, the widespread perception is that the new generation of investors are small time amateur day traders who will lose their shirts when the Fed turns off the liquidity tap. Whilst that may or may not happen, the reality is that some of the new gen investors are neither […]
The Three Ps of a Global Little Champ
Little Champs portfolio companies’ dominant position in their niche markets forms the key basis for their superior pricing power, profitability, RoCE and free cashflow generation vs. peers. However, a key pitfall of ‘niche focus’ is a high probability of hitting a growth ceiling after reaching a dominant position in a niche industry – a concern […]
Explained: How ZyCov-D vaccine works, how it is different
As Marc Andreessen highlights in his essay, vaccine technology – the unprecedented pace at which it was developed and made available widely has to go down as the biggest testimony for humanity’s technological prowess in recent times. Especially, the mRNA technology which holds so much promise beyond just the Covid vaccine in terms of solving […]
Technology saves the world
Almost a decade ago, Marc Andreessen, the creator of the internet browser Netscape and more famously the founder of the iconic venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (A16Z), wrote the now legendary essay titled “Why Software is Eating the World”. The past decade has seen that essay play out perhaps more than even he could imagine. […]
Analysis: When do electric vehicles become cleaner than gasoline cars?
The rapid evolution of battery technology has made affordable electric vehicles (EV) a reality, providing a breakthrough of sorts in humanity’s efforts to fight climate change. However, it turns out it is not as straight forward as that as the extraction and processing of minerals in EV batteries makes manufacturing EVs far more carbon heavy […]
Human Evolution Led to an Extreme Thirst for Water
Experts have now long been predicting that the next wars will be fought on water. Dramatic as it may sound, access to potable water is a real challenge in many parts of the world – the 3L&3S has featured several pieces on the subject. This research article in the Scientific American by human biologist Asher Rosinger […]
What It’s Really Like to Be a Wall Street Whistleblower
This is a riveting long read from the Institutional Investor on a subject that is of considerable interest to some of us in Mumbai’s financial markets: whistleblowing. The article traces the travails of successful wealth manager, Eugene Ross, who used to work at Bear Stearns and who blew the whistle on a hedge fund which […]
Quality Investing and Inflation and why Emerging Market equities are at a ‘historical low ratio’
We feature two different articles here from GMO. The first piece is a GMO newsletter which explains why investing in high quality stocks is a good idea at a time when inflation is high and likely to go even higher. Some of you might remember we have been highlighting in our TV interviews since December […]
CCP = 25% Free Cashflow CAGR = 25% Share Price Compounding
Capital reinvestments, including tech investments, drive incremental deepening of the Consistent Compounders’ (CCPs’) competitive advantages. This increases the importance of free cashflows in understanding the fundamentals and hence the valuations of our portfolio companies. Over the last 5 / 10 / 20 years, the free cashflows of our portfolio companies have grown consistently at around […]
You Can Only Maintain So Many Close Friendships
The lockdowns have curtailed our social lives and limited the number of people we engage with socially, nudging us to think about the quantity and quality of our relationships. Whilst it might sound unromantic to take away the spontaneity and the natural course in which we develop relationships, apparently there is science behind the number […]
For Inflation Protection, Commodities Belong in the ‘Too Hard’ Pile
Ben Carlson wrote a piece recently on 200 years of returns by asset class, which showed that commodities had indeed delivered a negative real return over the long run, failing to beat inflation. But surely, over short runs, commodities can be a hedge against inflation? Turns out that isn’t the case either. In this piece, Christine Benz […]
Baillie Gifford: can a new generation keep riding the tech boom?
Plenty has been written about Baillie Gifford, the Scottish investment firm’s success with technology stocks, much of it has been featured in the 3L&3S as well. But this piece is more about the softer aspects of the organisation that Baillie Gifford is, an understanding of which can give us at Marcellus a sense of what […]
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