I could have easily adopted the text book method of defining wealth – and there are many available. Instead let us look at mindsets. It starts from the basic question of “Why do we borrow?” Most of us will today not need to borrow to buy a VCD or a television (did you note we [...]
It is so funny that when markets are rising, everybody asks you to buy, and when it is falling everybody asks you to sell! One commentator who unabashedly acused another big investor of “luring” the poor investor into the market (when the index was 7000), then changed his mind to predict 25000, then changed his [...]
It is easy for fund managers and television anchors to talk about index being at a pe of 15…but let us not fool ourselves. There are many shares at pe of 58 and 38 – L&T, Tata Power to name a few. How does one deal with these companies? Well a little differently. Why should [...]
When markets fall, Price Earning ratios correct. Including the PE ratios of candidates who attend job interviews! Already one is hearing about a big broking firm closing down 100 branches. I have lost track of how many branches they have, so this is an absolute number and not a relative number. What it means is [...]
Yesterday I saw, and I hope you saw that WB is not a fund manager. However almost all his thoughts on investing are worth reading and re-reading. Let us look at something very simple. WB says choose simplicity over complexity. Keep it simple. Do what is easy and simple – leave the complicated things to [...]
“Past performance is not an indicator of future performance” — the literature of every mutual fund you own, mentions something to this effect. In fact once, when I was lecturing at a mutual fund house, which was not performing well, one of the managers said, jocularly, “Can we say our past non-performance is not an indicator [...]