Three Longs & Three Shorts

Jan 2020

Week 4
Week 3
Week 2
Week 1

Short Read

Published on 26 Jan, 2020

Johns Hopkins University Reimagines the M.B.A.

At Marcellus, we prefer to hire our research analysts via an internship program and for interns we tend to lean towards...

Published on 26 Jan, 2020

Why India faces a public funding crisis

Rathin Roy is perhaps one of India’s finest macro economists currently. He made headlines last year for suggesting...

Published on 26 Jan, 2020

The Investor’s Fallacy – Why Markets are...

“In God we trust, others must bring data” is a quote attributed to Deming. But Nick Maggiulli is perhaps one of the...

Long Read

Published on 26 Jan, 2020

Tomorrow’s industries: from OLEDs to nanomaterials

In his incredibly fascinating book Loonshots, Safi Bahcall discusses how serendipity plays a role in most big...

Published on 26 Jan, 2020

Why every company needs a Chief Fun Officer

It is worth ignoring the puerile title of this piece and focusing on the more substantive point made by the...

Published on 26 Jan, 2020

Manchester United Is the General Electric of Football

This article draws an interest parallel between capital allocation in the corporate world and that in the world of...

Short Read

Published on 19 Jan, 2020

What’s in the Forecast: Private Weather Predic...

The movie industry globally has had this Sci- Fi sub-genre “Climatic Apocalypse” movies, which gained...

Published on 19 Jan, 2020

Phil Fisher: The Art of Holding On

At Marcellus, we believe that identifying a great company is hard enough, selling them is harder and continuing to hold...

Published on 19 Jan, 2020

How Slack ruined work

Technology has made the world smaller & closer but there is a flip slide to it. Instant messaging apps like Slack,...

Long Read

Published on 19 Jan, 2020

China Spins a Trade-Deal Trap in Bad Debt Market

Like India, China’s financial system is also grappling with a mountain of bad debts which now stands at a staggering...

Published on 19 Jan, 2020

Boeing Hands Over Internal Employee Messages Describ...

A month ago we highlighted a long essay on how Boeing went from moated CCP-type franchise to a company run by cost...

Published on 19 Jan, 2020

A World Without Pain: Does Hurting Make Us Human?

Joanne Cameron, a 72-year old retired school teacher living in a village in the Scottish Highlands, suffers from a rare...

Short Read

Published on 12 Jan, 2020

Installing air filters in classrooms has surprisingl...

Every winter, the problem of air pollution in Indian cities gets exacerbated with severe consequences on both...

Published on 12 Jan, 2020

Compounding Knowledge

At Marcellus, we are obsessed about the concept of compounding. Our purpose is to help our clients fulfil their...

Published on 12 Jan, 2020

Bartender School

Joshua Brown is yet another good writer from Ritholtz Wealth Management. Here he talks about what he learnt as a...

Long Read

Published on 12 Jan, 2020

3 Reasons It’s So Hard to “Follow Your Passion

The most common advice young graduating students at the cusp of choosing their careers, in particular receive is to...

Published on 12 Jan, 2020

You’ll see the sky crawling”: Astronomers fear that ...

The term ‘space pollution’ is being increasingly used by astronomers as human interest and hence activity outside...

Published on 12 Jan, 2020

The Analog January Challenge

Thanks to two incredibly popular books – ‘Deep Work’ and ‘Digital Minimalism’ – Cal Newport’s status as a...

Short Read

Published on 05 Jan, 2020

At SoftBank’s Jewel in India: ‘ToxicR...

Softbank’s troubles don’t seem to be ending anytime soon. After the spectacular WeWork debacle, now fun and games...

Published on 05 Jan, 2020

The Top 20 Business Transformations of the Last Decade

Amongst many ‘looking back at the decade’ studies, this one is quite fascinating. A study by Innosight of the most...

Published on 05 Jan, 2020

Silicon Valley’ Exits With Serious Points About Big ...

3L-3S has been prolific in featuring the growing dominance of big tech, fascinated by its ability to take mankind...

Long Read

Published on 05 Jan, 2020

Workism Is Making Americans Miserable

“Work is worship” is a popular saying attributed to several people from the 12th century philosopher Basavanna to...

Published on 05 Jan, 2020

Fuzzy Math That Fuelled Junk Debt Boom Is Sparking J...

15 years ago when US mortgage lenders relaxed their lending criteria for individuals with relative low ability to...

Published on 05 Jan, 2020

The 2010s Were the End of Normal – How social ...

Given that many of us have spent our Christmas break speaking to friends and relatives who are either worried about the...

Dec 2019

Week 5
Week 4
Week 3
Week 2
Week 1

Short Read

Published on 29 Dec, 2019

The curious tale of how Japan got hooked on KFC at C...

There is almost a sense of purity when it comes Japanese cuisine with all the emphasis on the freshness of ingredients...

Published on 29 Dec, 2019

The buzz around AirPods

In last week’s 3L-3S, we featured a piece on how the emergence of headphones are actually influencing the sort of...

Published on 29 Dec, 2019

The ideal team size for a money manager to beat the ...

Michael Mauboussin, director of research at BlueMountain Capital Management, has conducted a study which looks at the...

Long Read

Published on 29 Dec, 2019

Can we break our addiction to plastic? The future of...

This video on Youtube of a marine conservation biologist trying to help a sea turtle relieve of a plastic straw up...

Published on 29 Dec, 2019

Your Apps Know Where You Were Last Night, and They’r...

If there’s one thing that has made smartphones the gamechanging tech of our lifetimes, it is the use of location data...

Published on 29 Dec, 2019

Are anti-competitive firms killing American innovation?

When the economist, Thomas Phillipon, moved to America in 1999, he found a country where high quality products were...

Short Read

Published on 22 Dec, 2019

The man who made the “worst” video game in history

We know of companies who have shot themselves in the foot going for instant glory and in the bargain sacrificing...

Published on 22 Dec, 2019

The Bus Ticket Theory of Genius

Paul Graham is an investor, especially known for having founded Y Combinator, a successful incubation platform in...

Published on 22 Dec, 2019

How headphones are changing the sound of music

David Byrne’s book “How Music Works” talks about how music composition has a context to it. “For example, he...

Long Read

Published on 22 Dec, 2019

Why is Taking Action Hard?

As we approach the New Year, many of us are getting ready with our list of resolutions. Some of us will successfully...

Published on 22 Dec, 2019

Expect the Roaring ’10s for Stocks to Repeat in the ...

This piece uses a very useful framework created by John Bogle for his classic book published 30-years ago (titled...

Published on 22 Dec, 2019

My Favorite Investment Writing of 2019

As the Christmas break approaches, the team at Marcellus gets ready for some heavy duty reading over the holidays...

Short Read

Published on 15 Dec, 2019

How to Give People Advice They’ll Be Delighted to Take

Irrespective of our credentials, all of us tend to get approached for advice every now and then, from friends, family...

Published on 15 Dec, 2019

Beware Footnote Mischief

At Marcellus, a big part of our job is forensic analysis of Indian annual reports. Hence we are always interested to...

Published on 15 Dec, 2019

Ray Dalio Is More Famous Than Ever and Delivering Su...

As a fund manager, Ray Dalio – the founder of Bridgewater Associates – has attained celebrity status and is...

Long Read

Published on 15 Dec, 2019

The extraordinary story of the only B Corp in Afghan...

“People don’t buy what you do, they buy WHY you do it” says Simon Sinek in his hugely popular TedTalk...

Published on 15 Dec, 2019

How the Loss of the Landline Is Changing Family Life

The mobile phone will likely go down in history as the technology which had the biggest impact on people’s lives and...

Published on 15 Dec, 2019

The gospel of wealth according to Marc Benioff

In the run upto the next US presidential elections, it is inevitable that the topic of taxing the rich will be front...

Short Read

Published on 08 Dec, 2019

When is corruption good for growth?

Corruption is often attributed as one of the key impediments to development and growth. However, Shrabani Saha and...

Published on 08 Dec, 2019

All-Time Highs Are Both Scary & Normal

A common question from clients these days is “How comfortable are you investing now given the markets (and your...

Published on 08 Dec, 2019

How to Read: Lots of Inputs and a Strong Filter

We all know of people who read voraciously and keep wondering how do they manage so whilst we struggle through pages....

Long Read

Published on 08 Dec, 2019

Doctors are turning to YouTube to learn how to do su...

Social media and the rise of user-generated content has certainly bridged a lot of information gaps but also raised...

Published on 08 Dec, 2019

Hippie Inc: how the counterculture went corporate

We will shift focus from Silicon Valley’s darker side to its mellower side. The Hippie counterculture from the 1960s...

Published on 08 Dec, 2019

ADL International Leadership Award Presented to Sach...

For the first time we are kicking-off of ‘Three Longs & Three Shorts’ with a video because for the first time...

Short Read

Published on 01 Dec, 2019

We demand an absurd level of certainty from our poli...

It is said that intelligence is not static. Whilst we all are born with a certain IQ, it is possible that with...

Published on 01 Dec, 2019

The Joy of Finding Out

Equity analysts are not exactly rocket scientists but most analysts would agree equity research is quite a fulfilling...

Published on 01 Dec, 2019

Rituals and Routines

We are a big fan of routines and wrote a note on it six months...

Long Read

Published on 01 Dec, 2019

How Jaipur became an economic crimes hub

India’s Q2 GDP growth was reported to be 4.5%, the lowest in six years. Much of the country’s slowdown woes can be...

Published on 01 Dec, 2019

The Feud that Created America’s Greatest Race Car

Around the time that cable TV came to India in the early nineties, Michael Schumacher, the legendary Formula 1 driver...

Published on 01 Dec, 2019

The Long-Forgotten Flight That Sent Boeing Off Course

Plenty has been written about how the “financialisation” of Wall Street and the City of London over the last 40...

Nov 2019

Week 4
Week 3
Week 2
Week 1

Short Read

Published on 24 Nov, 2019

How Sesame Street set a gold standard for education

These days, there isn’t a household where young kids are supplied with educational gadgets or at the least a tablet...

Published on 24 Nov, 2019

How much would giving up meat help the environment?

The Economist’s this week’s edition’s Daily Chart section carries a startling chart showing the average relative...

Published on 24 Nov, 2019

Engineering a season of floods

This monsoon, several Indian towns hitherto not known for flooding were submerged for days resulting in significant...

Long Read

Published on 24 Nov, 2019

How The Private Jet Became The Singular Fetish Objec...

We live in the age of epic income inequality and in this era, private jets are the most sought after objects of the...

Published on 24 Nov, 2019

Inside the Most Watched YouTube Channel in the World

T-Series is not just India’s largest record label, it is also the most watched YouTube channel. From its humble...

Published on 24 Nov, 2019

Stop Trying to Raise Successful Kids

When children were asked what their parents want for them, 81% of American kids said that their parents value...

Short Read

Published on 17 Nov, 2019

Tech enhances our lives — but is it a good investment?

In meetings with investors, we are often asked why we don’t have any tech companies in our portfolio and by that...

Published on 17 Nov, 2019

Why investors want to bet on humble CEOs?

Earlier this month, we featured a piece on how there is increasing research from psychologists on the trait of...

Published on 17 Nov, 2019

Google’s secret cache of medical data includes...

As the movement for data privacy gains momentum, yet another whistleblower complaint shows how big tech may be...

Long Read

Published on 17 Nov, 2019

The Economist Who Wants to Ditch Math

In a world that increasingly believes data is the new oil, we have an economics Nobel laureate suggesting data is...

Published on 17 Nov, 2019

Rich Like Me: How Assortative Mating Is Driving Inco...

Many “modern” Indians and several Westerners find the Indian concept of “arranged marriage” quaint. This...

Published on 17 Nov, 2019

Manager of Managers

Perhaps the most troubling aspect of the rise of “wealth management” in India is the notion that the wealth manager...

Short Read

Published on 10 Nov, 2019

Long Before ‘Netflix and Chill,’ He Was the Netflix ...

In his book ‘Principles’, Ray Dalio talks about the concept of ‘Radical transparency’ as the cornerstone of his...

Published on 10 Nov, 2019

Despatch from Tokyo – The multiracialism of th...

Anyone out there who despairs about the amount of religion, language and caste related bigotry we see in India should...

Published on 10 Nov, 2019

A Long-Only Manager’s Radical, Logical Idea of Zero ...

As some of you might know, at Marcellus we offer clients an unusual fee structure: we charge fees only if we deliver in...

Long Read

Published on 10 Nov, 2019

Non-Intuitive Lessons From the Man Who Solved the Ma...

Renaissance Technologies, one of the world’s best performing investment firms ever has been an enigma of sorts with...

Published on 10 Nov, 2019

The giant steps of Yashasvi Jaiswal

Warren Buffet calls it the ovarian lottery. For most of us, the conditions of our birth – financial, geographical and...

Published on 10 Nov, 2019

Nokia’s collapse turned a sleepy town in Finland int...

Nokia, the Finnish pioneer in mobile phones controlled almost 40% of the world’s mobile phone market a little over a...

Short Read

Published on 03 Nov, 2019

Why older people should be allowed to change their l...

Earlier this week IndusInd Bank shares rose supposedly as the bank announced that it has finalised a potential...

Published on 03 Nov, 2019

Gandhi at 150: Icon immortalised in special New York...

We are fond of stories which describe the ascent made by Indians from modest origins. If such stories narrate quirky...

Published on 03 Nov, 2019

The sCAPEgoat: Why Valuations Get More Attention Tha...

Nick Maggiulli comes out with a timely post on the subject of valuations when investors world over are questioning the...

Long Read

Published on 03 Nov, 2019

Be Humble, and Proudly, Psychologists Say

It is often said that in the world of investing, the most important personality trait for success is humility,...

Published on 03 Nov, 2019

Mumbai and Kolkata face the wrath of sea-level rise

Just as a surprise burst of showers sent Mumbaikars scrambling around on Friday, you could hear Axl Rose, Slash and co...

Published on 03 Nov, 2019

How Do You Like We Now

This epic takedown of WeWork will go down in the history of journalism as one of the defining pieces which captured the...

Oct 2019

Week 4
Week 3
Week 2
Week 1

Short Read

Published on 27 Oct, 2019

The many beginnings of Diwali

If over a billion people on the planet are going to be revelling in in festivities over the next three days, it is...

Published on 27 Oct, 2019

Google CEO Sundar Pichai on achieving quantum supremacy

It is almost a century since Niels Bohr won the Nobel Prize for his work in quantum physics. Whilst applications from...

Published on 27 Oct, 2019

Napster paved the way for streaming-reliant music in...

Spotify has been Godsend for music lovers across the world, especially given its ability to machine learn your music...

Long Read

Published on 27 Oct, 2019

The US has fewer than 400 statues of women—but that’...

Women are not only smashing the glass ceiling in the corporate world but also apparently in the world of statues. Women...

Published on 27 Oct, 2019

NBA exec: ‘It’s the dirty little secret ...

Many of us who endure long commutes and work in businesses where frequent air travel is a must know a thing or two...

Published on 27 Oct, 2019

Airbnb and Uber are chalk and cheese

Uber and Airbnb were both founded around a decade ago and most of us think of them as being synonymous of the gig...

Short Read

Published on 20 Oct, 2019

‘Only Re 1’: Customers line up for sanitary pads as ...

In his book Factfulness, Dr Hans Rosling remarked that the sanitary pads market remained the world’s largest untapped...

Published on 20 Oct, 2019

Findings from Keeladi excavation site have a clear m...

We alluded to Bangalore’s traffic congestion problem in last week’s 3L-3S but it is the city’s ability to deal...

Published on 20 Oct, 2019

How Did Eliud Kipchoge Break the Marathon Record So ...

As an ever increasing number of people across the world take to running citing benefits varying from the physical to...

Long Read

Published on 20 Oct, 2019

The Tycoons Behind China’s Gadget Factories Boom Pre...

This is a super piece on how cold calculations – rather than national or ethnic identity – drive FDI. As China’s...

Published on 20 Oct, 2019

Salesforce Founder Marc Benioff: What Business Schoo...

Continuing with heartwarming inspirations from the world of business, Marc Benioff, the iconoclastic founder and co-CEO...

Published on 20 Oct, 2019

From rags to richer

The Economist – normally a champion of full on free market capitalism – has a heart warming story regarding a...

Short Read

Published on 13 Oct, 2019

How Bangalore’s IT sector flowered from a princely s...

One would assume that an article on urban development in Bangalore would talk about the ridiculous traffic congestion...

Published on 13 Oct, 2019

An economic crisis in your teens can alter your beha...

Behaviours of entire generations such as that of the baby boomers and the millienials and their influence on the...

Published on 13 Oct, 2019

The True Cost Of Ignoring True Cost

WeWork’s failed IPO has led to several notable commentators in America highlighting the folly of private markets and...

Long Read

Published on 13 Oct, 2019

Is Amazon Unstoppable?

As we approach the next US presidential elections, the chorus against big corporate will only get louder. Hence, it is...

Published on 13 Oct, 2019

Stephen Schwarzman Hung Out a Shingle.Then He Waited.

The appropriately titled King Capital was a story about Blackstone and how Stephen Schwarzman built a world class...

Published on 13 Oct, 2019

Real Economy Check: ‘Jammed Liquidity’ To ‘Overwhelm...

This insightful interview with Amit Sheth, the promoter of Orbit Lifesciences, is a rare example of a promoter talking...

Short Read

Published on 06 Oct, 2019

AI Is Coming for Your Favorite Menial Tasks

An argument in favour of automation using Artificial Intelligence replacing humans with machines for jobs that are...

Published on 06 Oct, 2019

‘The 3.5% rule: How a small minority can chang...

The arresting piece contends that “Nonviolent protests are twice as likely to succeed as armed conflicts – and...

Published on 06 Oct, 2019

Contradictory Figures: Lessons From Uber’s Rise

Ben Carlson, another star commentator from the fabulous Ritholtz stable, discusses one of the best business books he...

Long Read

Published on 06 Oct, 2019