Three Longs & Three Shorts

Aug 2021

Week 1

Short Read

Published on 01 Aug, 2021

Invert, Always Invert

In a recent podcast, Howard Marks recalled his chat with a pension fund manager who said that his fund was “never...

Published on 01 Aug, 2021

What it Means to be Rich

Last week, we featured a piece by Morgan Housel on a perspective of wealth. Almost as a follow up, this week Ben...

Published on 01 Aug, 2021

Why is China smashing its tech industry?

Just as India is celebrating its first big consumer tech IPO in Zomato, China is smashing its hugely successful tech...

Long Read

Published on 01 Aug, 2021

The Network Effects Manual: 13 Different Network Eff...

With Zomato’s listing, Indian investors are required to get their head around how to value businesses which don’t...

Published on 01 Aug, 2021

Ending shadow banking means ending modern central ba...

In last week’s ‘3 Longs & 3 Shorts’ we had quoted the great strategist Russell Napier’s point of view that...

Published on 01 Aug, 2021

Leaving burnout behind: the pain and pleasure of sta...

For decades Lucy Kellaway was, as a famous FT columnist, an assured source of weekly wit and wisdom for many of us at...

Jul 2021

Week 4
Week 3
Week 2
Week 1

Short Read

Published on 25 Jul, 2021

How Susceptible Are You to the Sunk Cost Fallacy?

How many of us find it difficult to let go of a project even when it’s clear that there are better uses of our...

Published on 25 Jul, 2021

The true extent of America’s food monopolies, ...

The winner takes all business models built on network effects in the new age tech businesses are driving monopolisation...

Published on 25 Jul, 2021

The Highest Forms of Wealth

We at Marcellus are in the business of wealth creation. But what underlying purpose does wealth creation serve often...

Long Read

Published on 25 Jul, 2021

We Are Entering a Time of Financial Repression

When it comes to stepping back and looking at the big picture through the lens of financial history to see patterns...

Published on 25 Jul, 2021

Reviews of Michael Lewis’ new book, “Premonition”

Michael Lewis is the best non-fiction writer of the past 30 years. Not only does he write a book every other year, not...

Published on 25 Jul, 2021

The Impact of Intangibles on Base Rates

In our first two pieces this week, we highlight the latest publications of the two of the very best writers of the past...

Short Read

Published on 18 Jul, 2021

The grit and greatness of Novak Djokovic

Even the most ardent of Federer and Nadal fans have now conceded defeat in the G.O.A.T debate, acknowledging the...

Published on 18 Jul, 2021

Beware the IP-Ohs

Retail investor participation has skyrocketed across the world as seen with the surge in accounts at Robinhood and...

Published on 18 Jul, 2021

A litre of petrol takes up 30% of average daily inco...

Social media is flooded with memes about the record high fuel prices in India. Whilst high fuel prices has been a...

Long Read

Published on 18 Jul, 2021

Master Series: David Rolfe

If you enjoy learning from other investors, John Garrett’s Masters Invest website is a goldmine with a vast library...

Published on 18 Jul, 2021

Cricket is having its Moneyball moment

Michael Lewis’ blockbuster bestseller “Moneyball” not only immortalised baseball coach Billie Bean’s use of...

Published on 18 Jul, 2021

Semiconductors could be the new oil – here’s why

A lot of people these days say that “Data is the new oil”. Whilst the sentiment they are trying to convey – that...

Short Read

Published on 11 Jul, 2021

Is gaming good for kids?

With the schools on full term break and the monsoons in full swing here in Mumbai forcing the kids to stay indoors...

Published on 11 Jul, 2021

The medieval nuns’ guide to virtual travel

With travel still restricted across the world, we are all longing to resume exploring the various wonderful places on...

Published on 11 Jul, 2021

ESG outperformance looks set to end, study suggests

Here’s another piece on ESG investing. Increasing awareness about socially responsible investing has resulted in...

Long Read

Published on 11 Jul, 2021

Illusions of empire: Amartya Sen on what British rul...

As William Darlymple noted recently, unlike the Germans who acknowledge the dark chapters in their history, the British...

Published on 11 Jul, 2021

16 Unbelievable Facts About the Markets

Ever since he published the bestseller, ‘A Wealth of Commonsense” five years ago, Ben Carlson has been astounding...

Published on 11 Jul, 2021

A Major New Index Fund Should Unnerve Climate-Skepti...

Thanks to the publicity created by Gamestop, the widespread perception is that the new generation of investors are...

Short Read

Published on 04 Jul, 2021

Explained: How ZyCov-D vaccine works, how it is diff...

As Marc Andreessen highlights in his essay, vaccine technology – the unprecedented pace at which it was developed and...

Published on 04 Jul, 2021

Technology saves the world

Almost a decade ago, Marc Andreessen, the creator of the internet browser Netscape and more famously the founder of the...

Published on 04 Jul, 2021

Analysis: When do electric vehicles become cleaner t...

The rapid evolution of battery technology has made affordable electric vehicles (EV) a reality, providing a...

Long Read

Published on 04 Jul, 2021

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...

Published on 04 Jul, 2021

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...

Published on 04 Jul, 2021

Quality Investing and Inflation and why Emerging Mar...

We feature two different articles here from GMO. The first piece is a GMO newsletter which explains why investing in...

Jun 2021

Week 4
Week 3
Week 2
Week 1

Short Read

Published on 27 Jun, 2021

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...

Published on 27 Jun, 2021

For Inflation Protection, Commodities Belong in the ...

Ben Carlson wrote a piece recently on 200 years of returns by asset class, which showed that commodities had indeed...

Published on 27 Jun, 2021

Idiots, Maniacs & the Complexities of Risk

Most discussions around investments centre around returns and very little on the risk associated with those returns....

Long Read

Published on 27 Jun, 2021

Baillie Gifford: can a new generation keep riding th...

Plenty has been written about Baillie Gifford, the Scottish investment firm’s success with technology stocks, much of...

Published on 27 Jun, 2021

To choose a career, I needed to do more than ‘follow...

India has the youngest demographic not just in the contemporary world but also in the history of this planet: no...

Published on 27 Jun, 2021

The Feynman Learning Technique

All of us are being told that we will have to work until 70 years of age and hence will have to reinvent ourselves 2-3x...

Short Read

Published on 20 Jun, 2021

I Was Taught From a Young Age to Protect My Dynastic...

The recent ProPublica report showed how the wealthy contributed so little in taxes compared to the increase in their...

Published on 20 Jun, 2021

Milkha Singh: An unmatchable romance with a near miss

Before the systematic path to the Indian team’s success in recent years, few athletes have managed to savour...

Published on 20 Jun, 2021

Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman: Never Trust Your Gut...

We are huge fans of Daniel Kahneman, as our work (and life) requires us to separate our instincts from the thoughtful...

Long Read

Published on 20 Jun, 2021

The full collection of the Nomad Investment Partners...

As our clients, readers and well-wishers would know, we at Marcellus tend to be prolific in expressing our thoughts in...

Published on 20 Jun, 2021

Tiger Cubs: How Julian Robertson built a hedge fund ...

From talent management in cricket, let’s now move to talent management in the world of asset management. This piece...

Published on 20 Jun, 2021

How did India build their world-beating bench streng...

Thirty years on the opening up of the Indian economy in 1991, we are seeing generational change taking place in...

Short Read

Published on 13 Jun, 2021

Getting the Goalpost to Stop Moving

Morgan Housel is in fine form with this brilliant piece about how our happiness levels get dragged down by the weight...

Published on 13 Jun, 2021

The story of mRNA vaccines at the messaging edge of ...

Pandemics much like wars and other calamaties have a brighter side to them. They tend to bring the best of human...

Published on 13 Jun, 2021

Why it is usually a mistake for investors to take pr...

Last week we featured a piece by James Anderson, a fund manager at Baillie Gifford, a more than a century old...

Long Read

Published on 13 Jun, 2021

Add Crypto to IndiaStack

A lot of us fundamental-types tend to dismiss off crypto as a fad and hence unwittingly form a barrier to our...

Published on 13 Jun, 2021

Don’t Approach Life Like a Picky Eater

In this piece, Arthur Brooks explains how you and I can have the right amount of neophilia i.e. openness to new...

Published on 13 Jun, 2021

The Indian megacity digging a million wells

Most of us know that Bangalore has a water-scarcity issue as it is one of India’s few large cities not to be situated...

Short Read

Published on 06 Jun, 2021

The Brain-Changing Magic of New Experiences

Many of us are craving to visit new places, for a more active social life meeting new people and in general...

Published on 06 Jun, 2021

How the World Ran Out of Everything

Plenty has been written about the supply constraints the world is facing during the pandemic – semiconductor chips to...

Published on 06 Jun, 2021

Why Time Horizon Works

You might have heard that people these days are getting all worked up about P/E multiples. Morgan Housel comes to their...

Long Read

Published on 06 Jun, 2021

How Amateur Sleuths Broke the Wuhan Lab Story and Em...

The internet has become a massive force of decentralisation impacting several facets of human life. DeFi or...

Published on 06 Jun, 2021

Stay On The Road Less Travelled

Nowadays everybody has heard about ARK and the cool stuff they are doing in the US. However, just as extraordinary –...

Published on 06 Jun, 2021

How to operate

This is a power packed 46 minute video that we enjoyed watching. The presenter is Keith Rabois who was part of the...

May 2021

Week 5
Week 4
Week 3
Week 2
Week 1

Short Read

Published on 30 May, 2021

Here’s the Fastest Way to Board an Airplane (So Why ...

Among the many fallacies we live with, one is about airlines’ motive for our aircraft boarding sequence. One would...

Published on 30 May, 2021

Speaking with Katy Milkman about “How to Change”

Katy Milkman – who is said to be a ‘pioneering scientist’ – “is the codirector of Behavior Change for...

Published on 30 May, 2021

Vaccicorns: An improbable rescue mission

Over the past decade we have learnt a lot from watching the good folks at Nalanda Capital invest. In this blog one of...

Long Read

Published on 30 May, 2021

Stanley Druckenmiller: ‘The greatest investors...

This week we feature investing lessons from the legendary Stanley Druckenmiller, who in this free wheeling yet...

Published on 30 May, 2021

Europe’s Soccer Elites Took Their Eyes Off the Ball

Many still scoff at the idea of stakeholder capitalism and believe the only purpose of business is to maximise...

Published on 30 May, 2021

The 60-Year-Old Scientific Screwup That Helped Covid...

A couple of weeks ago, Azim Premji at an RSS lecture talked about how ‘Truth and good science are key to confront...

Short Read

Published on 23 May, 2021

The Mental Benefits of Being Terrible at Something

Most of us tend to get carried away in our work lives, perhaps, passionately at that, getting better and better at it...

Published on 23 May, 2021

Sunderlal Bahuguna: A Himalayan voice for ecological...

Anyone’s death is a cause for grief and mourning but with some people, it is a time to celebrate the life that they...

Published on 23 May, 2021

Daniel Kahneman: ‘Clearly AI is going to win. ...

Daniel Kahneman, the Nobel prize winning psychologist and author of the fascinating book ‘Thinking, Fast and...

Long Read

Published on 23 May, 2021

Distribution and Demand

Last summer, following Jio’s slew of deals with global investors and tech companies, Ben Thompson, one of the more...

Published on 23 May, 2021

Thomas Piketty is right: Everything you need to know...

Now let’s move from Paul Graham’s theory to see an application of this theory i.e. let’s dig into one of the most...

Published on 23 May, 2021

How to think for yourself (and ‘independent vs conve...

One of the privileges of working for Marcellus is that our colleagues share plenty of non-Finance related reading...

Short Read

Published on 16 May, 2021

The 3 Science-Backed Strategies That Can Help You Ac...

Five months in 2021, many of us have already given up or lagging behind on our goals for the year or resolutions we...

Published on 16 May, 2021

Makers Keepers: What can we learn from listed vaccin...

As India’s pandemic continues to rage on, moving into small town and rural India with even greater inadequacies in...

Published on 16 May, 2021

How Much Energy Does Bitcoin Actually Consume?

Earlier this week, Elon Musk announced that Tesla has suspended accepting Bitcoin for its vehicle purchases triggering...

Long Read

Published on 16 May, 2021

FinTech, BigTech and Cryptos – will new technology r...

Two weeks ago, we featured a piece on crypto by Ben Hunt somewhat misleadingly titled “In Praise of...

Published on 16 May, 2021

Interview with Brian Bares, Bares Capital Management

Like other professionals, we try to learn from compatriots across the world and we are particularly interested in other...

Published on 16 May, 2021

Why Sanjaya Baru looks at the dismantling of an old ...

Sanjaya Baru has done it again. Seven years ago his book on the then PM, Manmohan Singh – titled ‘The Accidental...

Long Read

Published on 09 May, 2021

The fight to save India’s most elusive cat

Crazy as it sounds but even today in a country inhabited by 1.4 billion people, there are some wild animals in India...

Published on 09 May, 2021

‘The Pandemic Is a Prisoner’s Dilemma Game’

This is a slightly dated article from December 2020 when the vaccination drive across the world had just about started...

Published on 09 May, 2021

Charlie Munger: 2021 Daily Journal Annual Meeting Tr...

Charlie Munger is, amongst other things, the Chairman of the Daily Journal and in this capacity he presides over its...

Short Read

Published on 09 May, 2021

Why we can’t outsource social change to advertisers

Often our celebrities whether movie stars or sportsmen are accused of being silent if not indifferent on social issues...

Published on 09 May, 2021

The Grim Secret of Nordic Happiness

This year’s Oscar for the Best International Feature Film went to a Danish movie called ‘Another Round’ (with a...

Published on 09 May, 2021

The elusive search for goat number 3

Some concepts of investing may sound cliched but remain timelessly effective and hence need to be reiterated and...

Short Read

Published on 02 May, 2021

The Golden Age of Fraud is Upon Us

As the world’s largest economy enters a purple patch in terms of economic growth, corporate profits and financial...

Published on 02 May, 2021

Flu Has Disappeared Wordlwide during the COVID Pandmic

Whilst the Covid pandemic rages on, data shows that the incidences of the common flu or influenza have dropped...

Published on 02 May, 2021

Smells like team spirit: Getting ‘art’ out of artifi...

In this piece for The Mint, Jaspreet Bindra invokes ‘the 27 club’ referring to a whole class of great musicians who...

Long Read

Published on 02 May, 2021