NIFTY and SENSEX have been scaling heights in recent months – that is true only if you look back last 6 months, or 12 months, or 24 months. But when you look back 2 years or 3 years, one would say, it is not a correct statement. In this context, the correct statement would be to say NIFTY and SENSEX are at same levels. You see how putting context or changing data set changes observations and conclusions. The point being, as an investor you have to learn how to “make an objective decision”. You have to learn how to “avoid making subjective decisions”. The current state of equity markets and economy provides a very good example of how to we make subjective decisions.
In last month or so, I have had an opportunity to interact with few folks on email. Many of these folks very interested to know whether it is time to sell any stocks in my portfolio e.g. ONGC, Reliance Capital, HDFC Bank, ABB, etc. Many of them wanted to check if it is time to book some profits. And few folks made a comment that Reliance Capital, NTPC, and ABCIL are not fundamentally strong for buy and hold portfolio. Continue reading rest of this article…
Few months back I wrote, post about MPROFIT, a product for personalized portfolio management which is desktop based. In simple terms, this is solution for retail investors to manage/track their transactions across many different types of asset class. It simplifies many of the mundane tasks of portfolio tracking. Some of the highlights are:
What is common between “searching for needle in a haystack” and “going fishing”? The common thing is you are trying to get one small thing (needle or fish) in a sea of unknowns. That’s where the commonality ends. The approach one takes is different in both cases. In case of fishing, you place your hook in the water and wait for fish to get trapped. Yeah, you may try to fish in location known to be breeding ground. But in the end, fundamentally, you have to wait for the fish to get trapped. In case of searching for needle, you are making a proactive effort to clean the haystack knowing there is at least one needle somewhere in there. A dumb person will try to dive in, but a smart person, will carefully remove small blocks of haystack to reduce search space. You cannot do that with water. Can you reduce water to increase your probability of catching your fish? Probably not.
Over a year ago, I wrote a guest article about 
Holding companies Can Be Good Long Term Investments
I try to keep things simple and focused. Style and panacea does not give you sustainable returns. Your sustainable returns comes from substance behind those stocks. All holding companies are not created equal, and hence all cannot be grouped together as good or bad. As an individual investor, you need to separate holding companies that have substance and fits your portfolio objectives. Continue reading rest of this article…