It has been almost 10 months now since I have started this blog. It started as means to share my journey and also to keep track of investment data that I generate for my personal investments. May 2009 was the last time I had discussed about traffic for TIPBlog. At that time, the blog was new and hence I presented the most cliché metrics such as number of visits and page views. In today’s post I am reviewing it again, but this time it is in the context of the metrics for social media. I am using frame work presented at Occam Razor by Avinash Kaushik (AK). AK’s reputation is; he is considered as one of the experts in Web Analytics. The essence of AK’s frame work is using trends in six key performances matrices. There is no absolute value which demonstrates success. AK suggests focusing on trends; they should be going in right direction. The six key performance indicators for measuring success of a blog are as follows: Continue reading rest of this article…
Year 2009: A Bit of Nostalgic Reflection
Even after completing my schooling and college education, I still continue to be a student and always eager to learn more in anything I do. There are few characteristics of being a student; viz., you will have to have an open mind otherwise nothing new will go inside your head, you will have to take exams and tests, and you will fail on some and you will pass of some. The trick is to keep passing on more occasions and minimize your failed questions. However, there are differences in being student in school and being student in life. Among many of these differences, I am talking about two specific ones.
The first difference between schooling days and life is; there is no one fixed teacher to whom you can turn and ask questions. As a student I was always scared of test and exams. It scared the hell out of me. The fact that one never fails in any exams, in reality, puts more pressure during the next exam. In life, experiences in daily life and the daily grind one goes through; is your teacher. There are no ATKTs where you get another chance in six months. You fail once, it will hurt you and in many cases it takes more than six months time to repair or correct it. Continue reading rest of this article…
Do You Have Habits or Addictions?
Habits and Addictions are two terms we use in many contexts in our daily lives. At the root of it, it is and action/activity that one has to do at regular frequency or in certain way or at specific time, etc you get the point right. Now, if those necessary activities or actions are good we call it habits (in most context), and if those activities or actions are bad we term it as additions. In investing, we individuals need to develop habits.
I have seen lot of people who are so obsessed with market or SENSEX that they keep following hour by hour, on SMS’, on computer, and what not. They do not lose a single opportunity to see what’s happening to their stock holdings. If they are working on computer, they keep ticker monitor or browser window open to keep track of SENSEX movements. We all know that in short term markets are going to behave irrationally. You do not hold Index Funds or ETFs, and are still worried about what is SENSEX or NIFTY doing? How is holding individual stocks related to index? Index is a weighted average, and hence will have stocks above average and below average. If you are constantly watching and tracking your stocks, you will make an emotional decision. You may sell at wrong price or you may get rid of that good stock, or you may just buy a crappy stock. Irrespective of what it is, addictions are bad. And this addiction to keep track is bad for investing success.
Rookie Trader or Investor – Turbulent Journey Cut Short
I am presenting a direct copy of an email by one of the readers of TIPBlog. In this email, the reader shared his/her journey and is narrating an experience. After the story I will present my views and thoughts about it.
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My experience in stock markets has been one involving many emotions right from elation (beginning with RPower in Jan 2008) to point of being depressed (with the Oct-Lehmann crash)……. I just wanted to share it with someone hoping you can bring some clarity to my investing/trading style and how I can chart a path in this field.
I was a college grad with 1 yr experience and already into a second job (hopping very early) in early 2008 when I got caught in
the euphoria of RPower. That was when I actually came to know the ‘ABC’ of stock markets. I wanted to make quick bucks (and still in that mindset I feel) and subscribed to full limit thinking it would double in no time after listing. I even borrowed from my brother to invest on his behalf. I didn’t know what was a ‘bull’ or ‘bear’ and just blindly went on buying stocks which propped up in media and held some 2L worth of stocks during the Feb ‘08 – June ‘08 period. I didn’t even know that a fully charged bear market was ongoing until it was too late for me to grasp the various terms and happenings around the world.
It’s All About Perspectives
I like reading about what well know business leaders have to say. I like to understand their thought process; I like to understand their philosophy on which they have built their business empires. However, I do not get inspired by each and everybody. I do know why? It is just that sometime I strike a chord with certain leader’s thought process.
Sometime back, I came across few words of wisdom from Azim Premji (CEO Wipro Technologies). He narrated a small donkey story which goes like this (quoting directly):
One day a farmer’s donkey fell down into a well. The animal cried piteously for hours as the farmer tried to figure out what to do. Finally he decided the animal was old and the well needed to be covered up anyway; it just wasn’t worth it to retrieve the donkey. He invited all his neighbors to come over and help him. They all grabbed a shovel and begin to shovel dirt into the well. At first, the donkey realized what was happening and cried horribly. Then, to everyone’s amazement he became quiet.
A few shovel loads later, the farmer finally looked down the well and was astonished at what he saw. With every shovel of dirt that fell on his back, the donkey was doing some thing amazing. He would shake it off and take a step up. As the farmer’s neighbors continued to shovel dirt on top of the animal, he would shake it off and take a step up. Pretty soon, everyone was amazed as the donkey stepped up over the edge of the well and trotted off!
Life is going to shovel dirt on you, all kinds of dirt. The trick is to not to get bogged down by it.
We can get out of the deepest wells by not stopping. And by never giving up! Shake it off and take a step up.
It is no wonder that when everybody is crying horse on outsourcing, this company is happily shaking of dirt and stepping up. He is not only employing thousands of workers, but also helps companies in developed world reduce their operational expenses. You clap with two hands! Outsourcing exists because somebody wants it!
It’s all about one’s perception and how an individual looks at various aspects. A glass can be half empty or half full. While most of us look at shovel of dirt as an insult, this donkey looked at as a life line.
In the same way, I look at dividends as small building blocks of my portfolio. I will continue to shake off the tag of non glamorous investor and tag of pennywise pound foolish investor. I plan on accumulating my dividends (dirt to financial engineers!) and someday I will also trot off the financial pit. Like all stocks traded on an exchange are not good, similarly, all dividend paying companies are not good.
My Top Three Investing Mistakes
There are very few things in life that I consider myself an expert in, and investing is not one of them. If I was then I would have been a millionaire and would not be going to work every morning. I have not only earned PhD in my professional subject, but I also have PhD in investing mistakes.
The biggest challenge for me was to identify the top 3 (and not top 10 or top 5). This made me think hard to rate which would be top 3 investing mistakes.
At the end of the post, I will pass on the baton to my fellow bloggers to come up with their mistakes. The more we share and create awareness, we all will be a better investors.
(1) Not having a well defined strategy
The most important aspect of do-it-yourself investing is to have a well defined plan which includes style of investing, time line, diversification, asset allocation, and how you are going to manage it. In my early days of investing, I thought I had a plan. I thought making few quick trades, smaller incremental capital appreciation, etc was my so called well defined plan. I was new and hence, the allure of tipster’s and advisors tips was just too strong. Alas! that was not to be. It was a little bit of this, a little bit of that, and I end it became as little bit of everything. Not anymore. I fired my tipster a long way back.
Now I have more time to do other things and I can sleep peacefully every night without thinking what trade I have to make next day. Continue reading rest of this article…
India Votes for Strong Man of Action
Once again prediction pundits, pollsters, permutations and combinations have been proven wrong. It happens umpteen number of times and still we continue to give media space to predictologists.
On a personal note, I had a secret wish and desire that Congress should come to power. Not because I have Congressi political lineage, but because of Dr. Manmohan Singh. I don’t want to waste my time expressing my disgust with all political parties and so called political leadership. It’s a waste of time. Now that secret wish has been fulfilled, I think I can say few words… Continue reading rest of this article…