Titan – Ron Chernow – Superb insight into the life and thinking of the original “richest man of the world” and one of the “robber barons”. Close view of the American life in the second half of 19th century and early 20th century. Easy read but offers a lot to ponder regarding pursuit of wealth, regarding questions on legal/regulatory compliance, and regarding the link between wealth, religiosity and philanthropy.
Continue reading →Blaise Pascal, the famous French physicist of the 17th century, had once said “All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”
Understandably it is not easy to extol the virtues of laziness, or even of selective inaction. However, if laziness is resorted to consciously, with full control over oneself, in many situations it can work wonders towards attainment of goals and achievement of happiness. It can be of immense value for people in fields as wide ranging as sports, investments, science, archaeology , human relations, medicine and business management. Being comfortable with status quo, with environment, and with oneself can at times be crucial for flow of creative juices, for revitalization of thought process, for avoiding disasters, and for action later with renewed vigor and enhanced focus.
Success = Talent + Luck; Great Success = a little more talent+ a lot of luck
This is how Daniel Kahneman, Nobel laureate in economics, responded on being asked for his favorite equation. Napolean Bonaparte had once quipped “I’d rather have a lucky general than a good one.”
Regression to mean (RTM) is one such phenomenon which in a sense is manifestation of luck. Understandably RTM provides the philosophical underpinnings for many decision-making systems. It can be the savior especially when we are tempted to extrapolate current trends into the future – nudging us towards better decisions.
Investing in stocks is all about identifying and buying a good stock, holding it for a sufficiently long period, and selling it at an opportune time. The third part of this process — selling the stock generally does not get the importance it deserves, in turn resulting in sub-optimal returns in the markets even from good stock calls.
Continue reading →In an environment of rising inflation and interest rates, most new-age stocks are struggling. In recent times, backed by expectations of a bright future, these stocks were being priced aggressively, especially when seen on traditional valuation metrics. Most of these companies are loss-making even at the operating level. Not surprisingly, price-to-sales (P/S) is the most commonly used valuation metric to evaluate them.
Continue reading →Having strong views is fine, but investors should be flexible enough to change views if facts change
Continue reading →For voters to be steered by facts, it is important to provide them with a framework to assess the earlier government’s performance.
Continue reading →This is the second in a two-part series that looks at how divestment of government stakes cannot just help revive PSUs, but also help finance major education and health programmes
Continue reading →This is the first in two-part series that looks at how divestment of government stakes can not just help revive PSUs, but also help finance major education and health programs.
Continue reading →If fertiliser and oil subsidies are withdrawn, then Rs 100,000 cr can be freed up. Halving the MGNREGA budget would add Rs 25,000 crore.
Continue reading →Actively lazy style helps long-term investors to maintain status quo – by avoiding any fresh buy or sell orders- when markets are volatile.
Continue reading →The government—being the main equity holder in PSU banks—appears to be warming up to the idea of waiver for the power sector from RBI’s new framework. As a promoter, the government cannot be faulted for trying to protect its financial interests by maximising PSU banks’ loan recovery.
Continue reading →As the general elections inch closer, and amid increased crude oil prices and rising interest rates, many investors—even with long-term investment horizon—in India are looking to curb their holdings in equity markets.
Continue reading →It will be a loss for the economy if new power plants remain underutilised for long. We need an enabling environment for discovery of sizeable latent power demand, which, in turn, can boost productivity.
Continue reading →The only way to improve Indian Railways's financial sustainability is to augment capacities without inflating the manpower base
Continue reading →Over 30 years ago, on 19 October 1987 (dubbed “Black Monday”), the US stock market benchmark Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) index nosedived by 22%—representing the biggest-ever single day fall. Unfortunately, the world moved on without absorbing the lessons properly.
Continue reading →It is not quite one of the best-kept secrets that India is a power-starved country. With annual per capita consumption of about 1,100Kwh, India trails most of its developing world peer group. In countries such as Iran and South Africa, this exceeds 2,500 and 4,000, respectively. The global average stands at around 2,500.
Continue reading →An important question confronting Indian equity investors currently is whether we are near a mid-term market peak, and if a bear phase is lurking ahead. The Sensex has delivered a 22% return year-to-date, pushing the market’s trailing P/E (price/earnings) multiple meaningfully above the historical average, and prompting fears that India may have moved into speculative bubble territory.
Continue reading →Indian equity benchmarks open with sharp cuts. In conversation with Vipul Prasad Founder & CEO of Magadh Capital.
Watch video at source →Vipul Prasad of Magadh Capital LLP speaks to ET Now about the run-up. He says, 'Do not get carried by the run-up and the run-up is driven by re-rating in markets.
Watch video at source →HDFC Bank, Axis & SBI among banks and Dabur and Britannia are the top picks in banking and FMCG space, said Vipul Prasad, Founder & CEO, Magadh Capital LLP, in an interview with ET Now.
Watch video at source →Vipul Prasad, Founder & CEO of Magadh Capital LLP. shares his knowledge about the current market situation and gives his take on what stocks to invest in for FY 19-20.
Watch video at source →Vipul Prasad of Magadh Capital speaks on markets in 2019, trade & more.
Watch video at source →The cool off in the crude oil prices was a shocker. Vipul Prasad of Magadh Capital LLP speaks on how to deal with the cool off and which stocks would be sensitive to the crude oil prices.
Watch video at source →Farnam Street is devoted to helping people develop an understanding of how the world really works, make better decisions, and live a better life. Shane Parish and his team address such topics as mental models, decision making, learning, reading, and the art of living.
In this section we present material collated from various sources that we think may help in creating a valuable tool box for long term investment process, for improving the process of learning, for application of knowledge, and for life in general. We do not necessarily agree with every viewpoint that is put forth in these websites, blog sites, or books but we admire the basic, rigorous, detailed and fresh approach to learning that these sources offer.
Farnam Street is devoted to helping people develop an understanding of how the world really works, make better decisions, and live a better life. Shane Parish and his team address such topics as mental models, decision making, learning, reading, and the art of living.
Professor Aswath Damodaran teaches corporate finance and valuation at the Stern School of Business at New York University and is widely recognized as an authority on business valuations.
Collaborative fund is a team of investors who are trying to balance growth and returns with social mission. Their website is quite rich in content pertaining to investing.
This site helps people learn what they need in order to think for themselves as an investor. There is something here for everyone from the beginner to advanced investors.
We believe that reading is a very important part of long-term equity investment process. Here we list down some books that we believe can add value to the repertoire of an investor. Notably, we have not yet read many of these books though they are in our bucket list. On the other hand, we have read many of these books more than once and some of them act as reference material quite regularly.
One up on wall street - Peter Lynch
Beating the Street - Peter Lynch
Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits - Philip Fisher
Intelligent Investor - Benjamin Graham
Security Analysis - Benjamin Graham
The Manual of Ideas - John Mihajlevic
Education of a Value Investor - Guy Spier
The Dhandho Investor - Mohnish Pabrai
The Snowball: Warren Buffet and the business of life - Alice Shroeder
The Warren Buffet Way - Robert Hagstrom
Buffet: The Making of an American Capitalist - Roger Lowenstein
Tap dancing to Work: Warren Buffet on practically Everything - Carol Loomis
Seeking Wisdom - From Darwin to Munger - Peter Bevelin
Poor Charlie's Almanac - Warren Buffet
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
Titan: The Life of John D Rockefeller - Ron Chernow
Steve Jobs - Walter Isaacson
The House of Morgan - Ron Chernow
Three Merchants of Bombay - Lakshmi Subramanian
The Story of my experiments with Truth - M.K.Gandhi
Seneca - Letters from a Stoic
Lenin - Robert Service
The Last Mughal - Willaim Dalrymple
Genghis Khan - John Man
Lords of Finance - Liaquat Ahamed
Hedgehogging - Barton Biggs
Against the Gods - Peter Bernstein
A Demon of our design - Richard Bookstaber
The (Mis)Behaviour of Markets - Benoit Mandelbrot
The Most Important Thing - Howard Marks
Irrational Exuberance - Robert Shiller
A Random Walk Down Street - Burton Malkiel
Thinking Fast and Slow - Daniel Kahneman
Misbehaving - Richard Thaler
Wisdom of the Crowds - James Suroweicki
Predictably Irrational - Dan Ariely
Behave - Robert Sapolsky
The Little Book of Behavioral Investing - James Montier
Superforecasting - Tetlock, Gardner
Before You know it - John Bargh
Damodaran on Valuation - Aswath Damodaran
Corporate Valuation - Koller, Goedhart , Wessels
Creating shareholder Value - Alfred Rappaport
Capital in the Twenty First Century - Thomas Piketty
Das Capital - Karl Marx
Essays in Persuasion - John Maynard Keynes
Macroeconomics - Dornbusch, Fischer , Startz
The Art of Strategy - Dixit, Nalebuff
Competitive Strategy - Michael Porter
Berlin - Antony Beevor
Stalingrad - Antony Beevor
Europe at War - Norman Davies
Is Paris Burning - Collins, Lapierre
The Great Crash 1929 - John K Galbraith
Wealth, War and Wisdom - Barton Biggs
Bull ! - Maggie Mahar
Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds - Charles Mackay
Anatomy of the Bear - Russel Napier
Empires of the Word - Nicholas Ostler
Guns,Germs and Steel - Jared Diamond
Freedon at Midnight - Collins, Lapierre
O Jerusalem - Collins, Lapierre
The Wonder that was India - A.L. Basham
The Wonder that was India - SAA Rizvi
Early India - Romila Thapar
A History of the World in 100 Objects - Neil Macgregor
The Hammer and the Cross: A New History of the Vikings - Robert Ferguson
1491: New Revelations Before Columbus- Charles C Mann
Germania - Simon Winder
A Textbook of Historiography - E Sreedharan
Introvert Entrepreneur - Beth Buelow
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a world that can't stop talking - Susan Cain
Influence - Robert Cialdini
Arthashahstra by Kautilya
The Revenge of Geography - Robert D Kaplan
Copyright Magadh Capital. All Rights Reserved.