It is customary for life insurance salesmen (by whatever name called) to sell life insurance by showing what is called an “illustration”. What is wrong with this “illustration” that is shown to potential customers? Simple, it does not mean a thing! IRDA has stipulated that the illustration should be made with 2 projected returns: 6% […]
Financial analysts try to determine the value of a stock by calculating a company’s discounted “free cash flow”. This is based on a series of computer models with assumptions about future sales, earnings and growth rates. These models are only as good as the programmers and analysts that build them. What you end up with […]
When it comes to analysing corporate performance, individual investors are surely at a disadvantage. You will find it difficult to know how many cars Tata Motors will make in 2009, how many hotel rooms Indian Hotels will be able to sell in Europe, etc. However the “international” fund manager has access to all this and […]
Bill Gates is a passionate man. First he was passionate about Microsoft, now he is passionate about charity. Making people ask “Is Bill Gates the next Ben Franklin?”. I found the discussion quite fascinating, hence here is an article based on a note I found in my inbox – sent by a friend. Like Franklin, […]
Economist is too respected a magazine to ignore. It also takes a balanced view of things. Many times they are right, sometimes of course, they could be wrong. Here I am reproducing a part of an article where they have spoken about India. Here, the quote starts, the highlighting is mine. “This year foreign capital […]
Real Estate: Greenspan Is Right? Alan Greenspan said falling home prices in America are “nowhere near the bottom”. Y V Reddy has been talking of an asset bubble for quite some time, but in our euphoria we chose to ignore him. Deepak Parekh has been shouting that real estate prices are far too high for […]
“The investor with a portfolio of sound stocks should expect their prices to fluctuate and should neither be concerned by sizable declines nor become excited by sizable advances. He should always remember that market quotations are there for his convenience, either to be taken advantage of or to be ignored.” I think Benjamin Graham was […]