Avoid all the noise and music and circus and visual entertainment. Focus on individual stocks and sectors.

It is 9.15 A.M. Your heart beats fast. Your adrenaline flow is  high!! The screen flashes with red and green all over!! Your mom or wife or daughter comes and puts a cup of warm coffee or teas on your table. You gently pat on their back as a note of gratification but do not have time to look at them! Is not not the usual story of most of the people, who 'invests' in stocks? Who are long term investors? Those shall get themselves so rich over next 15 years that they shall take an early retirement!!! And every afternoon when the clock strikes 3.30 P.M. , a calm descend slowly , after exhausting you physically and mentally!!

Imagine the same thing happening for 15 continuous years while you sit in front of the screen , awed by the rapid movements of the stocks!! You become ecstatic with a movement of few dimes up or down. Yet you can remain calm all within and do nothing with your investments!!! It is like offering a sage all the worldly or material pleasures and he non nonchalantly rejecting it or showing complete indifference to all the pleasures.Possible? Think!! Think again!

I can vouch that you can only understand share markets if you have been in love at least once or twice or may be thrice in life !! I mean you have waited for him or her near the library or the popular restaurant door to catch a glimpse!! You have lost you sleep, dreamt the wildest of all the dreams, and you know that it is impossible to keep calm or show indifference if the on your love is so close to you and yet so far!!!

The human  psychology studies have shown that all those who visit a mall  for a window shopping inevitably end up buying at least a thing or two if they somehow spend a mere half hour inside the mall.And it is all about your expenses and debit. Then how is it possible for a human being to sit in front of a screen which offers possibilities of a stupendous income? You can not be expected to keep a stable head when there is so much of lure in front of you?

Hence this is not only about your habit of watching the fluctuation of prices every second.It is also about the time so valuable lost in the process. Then there shall be the inevitable CNBC programme coming up and you guzzle down all information available and all the doomsday predicted by the experts and equity gurus!! Can yo still survive?  The answer is no! You cannot!! You heart shall shall pump and may you look at the ugly aspects of the Share markets..

I happen to have watched most of the movies made on equity markets and all of them  gave me the impression that people do not like boring and insignificant objects or habits. The most unfortunate part of all these movies is that most of the directors have only sensationalized the share markets but have drawn either no lesson or have preferred to look upon it as a villain. The world has changed and villains or rather anti-heroes are flavour of the world.This is why the wolf of  Wall Street is a hero .This is why Michael Douglas as Gordon Gekko i the movie Wall Street is a hero. Th scandals and the forgeries are the most important movers of human psyche but not  the stability, patience, never say die attitude of age old and most prominent investors of the world. 

People cannot stomach the idea that it takes time to create wealth honestly and diligently.. All want to grow rich and follow the carpe-diem theme .Seize the day!! But there is also a life to be lived beyond the day!! there is a family to be had. Children to be raised and educated. Leisure travels and vacations in next couple of years. It is difficult to visualize life beyond a couple of years. Those who can survive with lot of ease.

Now what prevents you? The gaze and the glare! What stops you ? The noise and music and the pantomimes all around. People in Poland shall continue with mining. people in Portugal shall continue with their trade in textile clothing and footwear. People will continue drinking Coco Coloa and Britons riding their Land Rover and Jaguar!! There will be noises with the BREXIT, noises over Fed hike, noises of Chinese economy sobering and the markets may be correcting 5,10 or perhaps 15% percent. Then? Shall you stop investing? Within a couple of weeks the markets battered out of shape shall come back with a greater roar!! That is how the economy works!! Lot of pessimism with sudden burst of rapid pull backs. 

Hence it is imperative on our part to focus on specific stocks and sectors that shall ride the wave. 

Disclaimer: This site is for informational and entertainment purposes only, and the content herein should not be mistaken for professional financial advice. Please contact an independent financial professional or adviser for advice regarding your particular and specific situation.

Niche market and emerging companies. India has a lot of fascinating stories for the next decade.

Niche in this perspective of a market means a place which is suitable for someone or something. Hence we find bigger banks usually operating in the metros, urban or suburban areas and somewhat less enthusiastic in working in the village or rural areas. This is where the niche players in the market come to act decisively. If we take ICICI Bank ,HDFC Bank or an AXIS Bank or YES Bank they have greater marketability in the metros and urban areas. They offer big ticket loans , have big investors investing humongous sums of money and the transaction every day are beyond the imagination of middle class people. The corporate and the well connected people usually form the creme dela creme of these banks.

However it is not just the banks. Imagine a showroom in the villages selling Air Conditioners, delivering pizzas, multi-specialty hospitals, fresh fruit shops, SUVS, apparels, shoes etc.The answer most often shall be an emphatic no! No one blames these companies. They cannot just afford to put in time or workforce to penetrate these areas.

This is the time the niche companies come into the picture. If the banks cannot allow loan to the people there , the micro finance companies come in the fore. The smaller footwear companies come into the play.The smaller house building finance companies wait with eagle eyes. The niche companies target a specific group of customers.And the trick lies in focusing area specific demographics.Agents recruited from these specific areas do a commendable job in the sense that they are persistent in their striving in order to convince their customers in the locality.

It shall be an interesting observation that in emerging countries line India, some of the African countries, Poland, Austria, Lithuania etc. the sell of motorcycles in the suburban areas far outpaces the sell of four wheeler.The sell of products of a small company whether it be milk powder, footwear,apparels, small toys ,gunny bags in the local market outweighs the products of bigger and well renowned companies. Even the loans approved by the smaller housing finance companies are of a smaller ticket size ranging from a couple of  hundred or thousand in dollar terms.

Hence with time and a consistent effort , these companies create a niche consumer for themselves. And the loyalty of the customers to these brand are unbelievable.The loyalty earned is out of extreme gratitude .They are considered friends because they extended helping hands during time of need and planned the loan terms in such easy E.M.I's that they can easily pay back the loan.

The companies have the advantage of pinpointing their focus on these selected demographics. The lure of branching out into other supporting companies can be great and this is why many of the companies with great promise  fade away into oblivion.

Many of the niche companies get themselves listed on the stock exchanges. Some are happy to carry on with their usual day to day activity.And it shall be quite interesting to observe that most of these companies grow at a ferocious speed for 10 to 15 years. Their sales and profit margin grow at a break neck speed .Peter Lynch would like to call them high growth companies. Of course they are not cheap and ignored by conservative investors. The fault lies not in their diagnosis of the financials of the companies but out of their lack of information about them , specifically because they operate in the rural or suburban areas and is more often than not unknown to the urban specifics.

One of the major advantages of the niche company is that they cater only to a specific group and hence is not lost in the wilderness of heterogeneity.And the advantage now for the net fed investors is that they can derive ample information about these companies , thanks to a over conscious media and of course the stock exchange regulatory authorities.
 
However there are also pitfalls. Many niche companies get embroiled into or marred with controversies and the majority who suffers are the over zealous investors.One of the examples of this kind of controversy was with the SKS Micro finance company in India.It got listed on the National Stock Exchange(NSE) and BSE(Bombay Stock Exchange) with a lot of hullabaloo . Got to its life time high of 1490.70 on 27th September,2010 was victim of a series of controversies and came down to a all time low of 54.40 on 7th June , 2012. Experts cried , analysts were flabbergasted and the market was stunned. However it has made a new 52 weeks high today at 654.90 but it is a far cry fro its lifetime high it made a couple of years back.

How can we predict what can be the next multibagger? how can we say a company is going to be one of the best companies in the next 20 years. That is why it is always important to be cautious while investing in the niche companies. You may make a cut but the investments are always laced with danger.

The companies names above are only for illustrative purpose and it is not my intention either to encourage your or desist you from investing in these companies .


Disclaimer: This site is for informational and entertainment purposes only, and the content herein should not be mistaken for professional financial advice.Please contact an independent financial professional or adviser for advice regarding your particular and specific situation.

I planted a couple of coconut plants in my garden. Okay, I bought some conglomerates!

I planted a couple of coconut plants in my garden. Okay, I bought 

some conglomerates!

I really did plant some of them  many years back! And every season my family derives great 

pleasure from the the range of products the coconut plant offers.

Range of products??? What else has a coconut plant to offer apart than the fruit?

Oh!! Plenty!!! Much more than you can ever imagine!!

You have more often than not replenished yourself with coconut water. 

Coconut oil is extensively used for cooking in the southern states of India. 

Here is a detail of the extensive uses of coconut!!!

Now a plant yielding so much and so many products - a fabulous tree so to speak of!

And you must have a look at this delightful Bengali sweet dish 

called narikel naru!!! 

You must have a look at this delightful dish!

Had your satisfaction??

Now!!! 

WHY COCONUT??

IT IS PURELY BECAUSE NO SINGLE PART OF COCONUT PLANT IS DEEMED 

UNUSABLE!!

And that is called  the power of value unlocking.

Of all companies that are listed on the bourses ,the conglomerates have the best chance of value unlocking.

These are some of the Conglomerate companies of India:

Adani Group.

Aditya Birla Group.

Amara Raja Group.

Avantha Group.

Bajaj Group.

Bannari Amman Group.

Bharti Enterprises.

Binani Industries Ltd.

Grasim

Reliance Industries

Please take this in consideration that all the companies named in 

this blog are only for illustrative purpose and in no way 

a suggestion or advise to buy these companies.

And guess what Grasim  had listed UltraTech long back .And Grasim is going again for further 

demerger of its other subsidiaries!! And what shall happen? There shall be price discovery on the 

day of listing of the individual entities creating substantial wealth for all the stake holders. 

And here is some of the products of Grasim!!!

Grasim's products include viscose staple fibre (VSF), grey cement, white cement, chemicals and 

textiles. The cement business is conducted through their  subsidiary company , UltraTech Cement 

Limited 

1.(UltraTech).

2. VSF

3.Cement (through its subsidiary, UltraTech)

4.Chemicals

5.Textiles

Impressive isn't it?

That is why we can always concentrate on  the conglomerates because every now and then they have 

the potential to create the unexpected and which rubs the shareholders positively!!

Ala Coconut!!!

Disclaimer: This site is for informational and entertainment purposes only, and the content herein should not be 

mistaken for professional financial advice. Ultimately, you and you alone are responsible for the decisions you 

make in life, so please contact an independent financial professional for advice regarding your particular 

situation.

When is the next market crash? Or when is the next one in a decade chance to buy equities!!!

Yes the crash of 2008 seemed impossible. The pundits and experts and general traders and investors refused to believe that a crash could come!!

The SENSEX has scaled a high of 21,000 points by January that year and everyone was basking in their individual glories.

And as if like a curse of absolute destruction the market tumbled. USA was leading the rout and the rest of the world followed like a pack of cards.

USA... CHINA...JAPAN...RUSSIA...UNITED 

KINGDOM....INDIA...THEY FELL.. DOWN AND 

DOWN,,,AND DOWN .........STILL DOWN!!!

THERE SEEMED NO END.

It was a terrible year. The fear of recession was now real. Inflation took a back seat and the 

potently more dangerous and destructive stagflation stepped in. Industries with moderate 

capex cut back , production seemed to come to a grinding halt. The people who took a 

leverage of  10x  over their actual assets now reeled under heavy debt. The banks suffered 

like hell. NPAs seemed to increase on a break neck speed. Almost all the favourite 

companies of investors looked like third grade companies ready to declare bankruptcy.It 

was not one day of selling. It was a pathetic exercise of morbid pleasure derives by the 

markets  as if killing the investors with a very slow but sure death. 

January 21, 2008: The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex saw its highest ever loss of 1,408 points.

January 22, 2008: The Sensex  closed at a loss of 875 points at 16,730. 

The Nifty closed at 4,899 ,a loss of 310 points. Sensex crashed to 15,576.30 crossing the circuit limit of 10 per cent.

February 11, 2008: The Sensex ended with a loss of 834 points (4.8% ) at 16,631. 

The NSE Nifty slipped over 5% (263 points) to 4,857.

March 3, 2008: The  Sensex  lost 900.84 points to close at 16,677.88. 

March 17, 2008:  Sensex crashed by 951 points to close at 14,809. 

 October 24, 2008: The Sensex crashed by 1070.63 points (10.96 per cent) to close at 8,701.07. 
The  Nifty ended at 2,557.25, down 13.11 per cent or 386 points. 

However when all seemed lost and gone the recovery seemed like a miracle...

I looked upon the rotting sea, 

And drew my eyes away; 

I looked upon the rotting deck, 

And there the dead men lay. - The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Coleridge.

The markets started recovering by 2009.

O happy living things! no tongue 

Their beauty might declare: 

A spring of love gushed from my heart, 

And I blessed them unaware: 

Sure my kind saint took pity on me, 

And I blessed them unaware. 

The self-same moment I could pray; 

And from my neck so free 

The Albatross fell off, and sank 

Like lead into the sea.  - The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Coleridge.

And it reminded us once again that one that falls shall rise again!!! And what a rise it has 

been since the great fall. Hence it is equally important that we wait for the next bubble and 

be ready with cash in hand for the next great slide in the market. 

Here are some of the greatest falls in the share markets across the world!!!

Market Crashes: 

 The Tulip and Bulb Craze

The South Sea Bubble

The Florida Real Estate Craze

The Great Depression (1929)

  

The Crash of 1987

The Asian Crisis

The DOTCOM Crash (1997-2000)

 Housing Bubble and Credit Crisis (2007-2009)

And the above chart shall satisfy you that if there is a crash there is also a simultaneous recovery!!

Disclaimer:This site is for informational and entertainment purposes only, and the content 

herein should not be mistaken for professional financial advice. Ultimately, you and you 

alone are responsible for the decisions you make in life, so please contact an independent 

financial professional for advice regarding your particular situation.

“My Wife Ran Away With My Best Friend and I Still Miss Him a Lot.” What to learn and act quickly!!

Now this old country song  was what Warren Buffet referring to when he talked about his mistake in 

investing in one Hochschild Kohn.

Metaphorically speaking this is also about lost opportunity and indecision at a particular point of 

time.

Indecision ,particularly during great economic depressions and nose-diving markets most investors 

lose their final sanity and start selling their assets. The 2008 was one such year when everyone lost 

cool!!

THE GREATEST OF THE FINANCIAL ADVISERS AND EXPERTS SPOKE OF DOOMSDAY!!

PEOPLE LOST COMPLETE FAITH IN THE EQUITY 

MARKETS.

I was also there. I had faced the IT boom and burst period . But 

this sub-prime crisis brought me back to face the harshest of 

realities.Interestingly my father did not bother. He was rather 

interested in watching south Indian films !!! Only occasionally did 

he pick up the phone to order the broker to add little more to his 

portfolio. And me? 

Well  I became extremely philosophical!! I saw the market dipping 

lower and lower and  an eternal optimist that I was I hoped that it 

was going to turn back. Actually I lost my power to sell!! I 

suffered from an absolute inertia.

Finding me so gloom and depressed , he asked me to buy some more if I could!!! Even after a decade 

of investing experience, believe me it actually did hurt!!

I asked my father what could I actually invest in?

He said add to your existing portfolio. I had banking, cyclical like oil and gas, automobiles etc.  

He reminded me that when the economy rebounds it shall be the cyclicals and banking that shall 

recover at a reasonable speed!!

That gave me some kind of consolation!!!

And that it why even when you are 40 0r 50 or 60 you still fall back upon parents!!! They know by 

virtue of their experience and love!!!

And I added on to my portfolio like a man possessed!!! It was soothing to see the cost of average 

coming down significantly for the stocks!!! 

Yes!!! The wife did not run away. The friend did not run away. The relationships and bonds were stronger than before!!!

Yes a significant bear market shall come again!! Yes the world will 

suffer again!! But hold onto your boat dearly!! Never, promise 

yourself, never shall you let go off the opportunity to invest in the 

best of the companies!! It shall augur well for you!!!

Disclaimer: This site is for informational and entertainment purposes only, and the content 

herein should not be mistaken for professional financial advice. Ultimately, you and you 

alone are responsible for the decisions you make in life, so please contact an independent 

financial professional for advice regarding your particular situation.

"Fill it,shut it,forget it". Keep your love inside your heart and meet her after years!

"Fill it,shut it,forget it".

Keep your love inside your heart and meet her after 10 years!

The patient investor shall give examples of companies only for purpose of illustration!!! Decisions, the most important ones are always taken individually.

When I was a boy there was a very catchy slogan in an advertisement  doing a round on the television. The then Hero Honda motor company, with one of its models for the middle class Indians caught every one's imagination.

An extremely fuel efficient bike, promising over 80 kilometres a litre of petrol seemed fantastic!!!

And why not?

Indian was still a semi-closed economy, before the nineties and the power of consumption was also very limited.

And even today the famous model is not forgotten !!! One of my father's friend, a self-made man , a billionaire businessman, moves about on  his 80's model of this company and exhibits great pride in this piece of antiquity.

But what is so special about the bike?

And what is so special about the story?

Nothing unless you want to make things look special!

Nothing unless you believe in holding onto something dearly!

Nothing unless you realise that the company which can deliver such model and still is popular even after three decades must be a special company!

Nothing unless you value relationships and give it time to grow!

Ok!!!

You got me !!! To substantiate my implied reasoning let me quote the one and the only  Mr. Warren Buffet!

"Only buy something that you'd be perfectly happy to hold if 

the market shut down for 10 years."- Warren Buffett

You are never worried about your fixed deposits! You hold onto them for about nine years.

You even renew them for another nine!!

You never worry about the silent killer-the inflation!

You never worry about the loss of its purchasing power!

Then?

Let us think of a story!

A boy and a girl meet somewhere in this world. They are happy with their friendship, With time and

with gradual dependence and faith in one another they fall in love.But somehow the relationship

does not materialize. They go different ways. Yet the love is there, They promise to see each other

every 10 years after. A long time to understand if love exists even after years of separation. They

actually do meet and renew their promise of meeting each other after another decade, provide both

exist! Possible? Yes but not probable!! Only some madness, or some acute obsession can make it

possible.

W.B.Yeats never ceased to love Maud Gonne!!!

That is about the equity markets too!!! You have to have that obsession of not leaving what you love and wait patiently for the decade to pass!! You cannot be  a player who can stay invested for two to three years. 

Want to build wealth?

Then  wait!!! Wait patiently with your obsession!!!

Disclaimer:This site is for informational and entertainment purposes only, and the content herein should not be 

mistaken for professional financial advice. Ultimately, you and you alone are responsible for the decisions you 

make in life, so please contact an independent financial professional for advice regarding your particular 

situation.

Gift your wife/girlfriend that marvel every birthday, marriage anniversary,rose day, Valentine's day, and days with other curious names!!!

This is Ginger (Zingiber officinale) ,widely used in India both as spices as well as a product with great medicinal value.

Usually the rhizome is used for consumption.

Today I got a very interesting piece of information from one of my friends, Ganesh , who happens to

work in the same college.He said that he has planted ginger in his land in the village. He lives in

BarMangmaya , a beautiful village in the hills of Kalimpong. And Kalimpong is famous for its share

in the production of this beautiful natural product!!


And he aims to produce at least 1000 kilograms of ginger this year!!!

By now you must have understood that this incorrigible blogger has  discovered something big!! You

must be fuming , feeling cheated that I somehow is trying to convince you to gift your wife/girlfriend
a piece or some kilos of ginger during her birthday, marriage anniversary,rose day, Valentine's day,

and days with other curious names!!!

Wait!!! Please!!! Do not get me wrong!!!


Let me tell you Ganesh's story first. Acccording to him the edible psrt of the ginger is its root or

Rhizome. So does he need to uproot the plant every year?

He says not at all! Year the rhizome is ready for consumption , he simply tears aware the ripe

rhizome keeping the plant and the secondary roots intact!! That way he does not need to plant new

plants every year!! Hence he can carry on with the sale of his products without destroying his initial

plantation.


Still not clear about my big fat idea?

Let me clarify.

You are to gift your loved  that one precious gift, which I prefer to call marvel, with something which has a lot of potential value hidden in it. No, you can always gift her cakes, roses , jewelry, i-phone, cat(preferably kitten), puppy, perfume(never deodorant!!!) and all possible sorts of traditional gifts that your imagination and ability can buy!

But if you buy her a gift that grows with time ,over time , that ,too, has ability to produce rabbit for the hat? Something that can give her stability beyond imagination?Won't you do it?

Yes , you shall!!!

Don't worry about the outcome!! If she loves you she shall confide in you with greater belief and faith!! I mean it!!!

And as I always do I shall talk about gifting shares and mutual funds on every possible occasion or an excuse of an occasion. Believe me! You loved one shall reap the benefit of growth and reap the fruit of rhizome that is dividend as well. It may not appear an exceptional gift in the initial years but it shall in the mature period.

You may talk of  complications in marriage , separations but when you gift someone do you want them back unless ....

You are an extremely mean person?

No!!

Besides, when you gift her this unusual gift and tell her that it is a 

gift that she must hold onto, dearly, for over two decades  it gives 

her a much needed confidence that you are to stay!!!

Very much like the rhizome, which is used for consumption keeping the main plant intact, you can convince her that the initial gifts or investments shall stay!! She can always enjoy the dividends!!

Disclaimer: This site is for informational and entertainment purposes only, and the content herein should not be mistaken for professional financial advice. Ultimately, you and you alone are responsible for the decisions you make in life, so please contact an independent financial professional for advice regarding your particular situation.

One who budgets never go broke! Okay,one who invests savings, made in budget, never go broke!!!

My problem lies in reconciling my gross habits with my net income. ~Errol Flynn
http://www.quotegarden.com/money.html

You can have a monthly salary,weekly salary or even a daily one. The lesser the time , the more problematic it becomes with the budget. 

Why budget?

Because budget gives you the necessary experience to be in the present and prepare for the future while learning from the past.

Sounds philosophical?

I guess it is ,but philosophy of something enthuses us, increases our appetite.

Budget has two columns for common man:

Income	expenditure
ah! hah!	oh!! oh!!

Three rows for responsible human:

Income	savings	expenditure
ok!	good!!	still in doubt!!

Four rows for financially aware human being:

Income	savings	investment	expenditure
it has come!	retain savings first!!	invest them in diversified assets	spent whatever is left!!!

See!!!

This is exactly in consonance with the tenets of Warren Buffet!!!

First save and spend the rest!!!

NOW WITH THE THIRD FORM OF BUDGET UNWELCOME WORDS LIKE 

SPENDTHRIFT,FRUGAL,CHEAPSKATE COME INTO ACTION AND MAKE YOU FEEL 

MISERABLE!!

But these should not deter you!! These are short term bitter pills to create the panacea for financial troubles.

Always remember,that people shall respect you when they come to know that you are a human being of  reasonably good budget!!

People who are used to reckless spending, are actually in search of cheap popularity!!!

People depend on those who know how to balance and manage finance.

That is why the Indians, or people of Indian origin are so good at 

savings!!! Most of them started with a middle class income but 

believed in the power of budget and hence fiscal discipline!!

Read and think!! Everyday!! Add a little to your existing knowledge base!! That is one of 

the great Mungerisms!!

For a matter of fact India remained virtually unhurt during the 

great sub-prime crisis of the 2008!!! They did not go out of their 

ways to spend on things that did not require immediate 

gratification!!!

Disclaimer:This site is for informational and entertainment purposes only, and the content herein should not be 

mistaken for professional financial advice. Ultimately, you and you alone are responsible for the decisions you 

make in life,so please contact an independent financial professional for advice regarding your particular situation.