Author Archives: Uday Nath

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About Uday Nath

I'm motivated. I like to out-perform. I only strive for the best.

When it Pinches, Then You Buy

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What is a good time to buy for the long-term?

Is there some kind of formula? Mathematical equation? Algorithm?

Who doesn’t look for the holy grail?

Sure, there are technicals galore, to assist one’s buying and fix its appropriate time. 

Of course, fundamentals, when studied properly, are even more helpful. 

However, neither technicals nor fundamentals can replace emotion.

The emotional alarm, when sounded, is a good time to buy for the long-term. 

Surprised?

Here you are, getting alarmed at how the markets are falling. 

How are you supposed to buy with a straight face amidst the panic?

That’s just it. 

Markets are wired in an opposite fashion to our mentality. 

At the onset of margin of safety, our mental framework emits panic upon seeing the mayhem. 

Upon the vanishing of margin of safety, the same mental framework emits euphoria and wants to participate in the rally. This is trading, not long-term investing, and as long as you buy high and sell higher, you are good. What you are not going to do here is hold your trade for the long-term, thinking it’s a long-term buy. What has not been bought with margin of safety is not a long-term hold. 

Why?

Margin of safety gives us a buffer. 

Let the markets fall; they still don’t reach our entry price. Or, they only fall a tad under it, and then start to rise again. That’s the beauty of buying with margin of safety. You can use the low now created to pick up some more, if you are still convinced about the stock. Otherwise, you can always exit the stock on a high. 

In long-tem investing, one should not exit on a low due to panic. If one does so, it’s like market suicide. 

What causes exits on lows?

Panic. 

Need for money.

Weak hands. 

Become a strong hand. 

Put in only that money which you don’t need for the next ten years. Make sure before entry that you won’t be pulling out this money in the middle of the investment if you can help it. Have a fallback family fund to lean on ready before you start putting money into the market for the long-term. 

Teach yourself not to panic. Rewire yourself alongside the market. This takes time. It took me almost a decade to rewire myself. Everyone needs to go through this rewiring process.

Once you’re rewired and  financially secure, your strong mind will pick up on the emotional trigger, and will start buying when the pinch-factor kicks in. 

Your strong hands won’t let go owing to panic. 

In the long run, your investment, which has been made with margin of safety and proper due diligence, will yield you a fortune.

Happy investing!

🙂

Useless vs Useful Expansion

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I’m guilty of useless expansion. 

I end up doing it all the time. 

Can’t help myself, you see.

I like to keep exploring new stuff in the market. 

The silver lining is, the even though I might be expanding sideways, there are two good things happening also. 

There is no scaling up happening immediately. Good. 

There is also a lot of discarding going on. Things that don’t work out are eventually abandoned. Great. 

My issue is that I might have between 1 to 2 useless strategies in my repertoire at any given time. 

These strategies are not working. In fact they are dying out. Reasons can be many. A strategy might be sound, but it might not be a fit. 

For a strategy to work for you, it must be practically lucrative in the long run, and it must fit you. 

By the time I realize that a strategy needs to be discarded, money has been lost. Tuition fees? Yes. 

Ultimately, things boil down to a handful of successful strategies. It can even ultimately boil down to one or two successful ones.

Get there. I’m trying too. To do so, useless strategies will need to be discarded, like, now. 

The problem is, you don’t know that a strategy is useless till it has hit you a few times. 

Also, you don’t wish to discard something that you think might just work out for you in the long run. 

Fine. Keep grinding, and ultimately narrow down your sideways expansion, till you’re only working with strategies that are yielding, and show a long-term promise of being around. 

Right. 

You’re there. 

Now you can scale up. Doing so using a yielding strategy that fits is called useful expansion. 

Scale up slowly. 

You can position-size, and scale up using profits. This way you are not putting in extra principal. Let the strategy continue to prove itself by yielding. As long as it does so, you keep scaling up on your positions using the newly earned profits. 

Why is useful expansion not easy to maintain?

We get carried away.

We might scale up too fast, and then baulk at a loss when the size of the loss is too difficult to swallow. Large input can result in a largish potential loss.

Trading is about containing loss, and letting profits run. 

Scaling up too fast makes an early loss look big if we haven’t tasted the corresponding potential profits yet. Such an event can even cause us to abandon a successful strategy because we are disheartened. 

Therefore, try not to scale up by putting in new principal, if you can help it. 

Try scaling up on profits alone.

Position-sizing automatically controls the scale-up-scale-down factors by defining the size of a constant stop as a percentage of the principal remaining between trades.

Position-sizing makes one scale-up and scale-down on auto-pilot in a relatively balanced fashion.

Please incorporate this wonderful ideology (which comes from the stable of Dr. Van Tharp) into your trading strategy. 

🙂

Handling a Long-Long Trading Portfolio During a Market Correction

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You’re probably laughing at the use of the term “long-long”!

Hahahahaha, I laugh with you, 🙂 !

In India, we like to get our point across without caring too much for terminology, and / or how funny it may sound. 

What I mean is, and you’ve obviously gotten the drift, that the average trader is normally long in a trading portfolio.

Now, how is the trader to deal with his or her trading portfolio and its dwindling valuation during a long-drawn out market correction?

Sure, there are many options. 

One is to hold and sit it out. 

No good. 

This is not investing. This is trading. Trading means that once a stop is hit, you’re out. Period. 

Second option – bludgeon it. Cut the entire portfolio. 

Hmmmm, that’s not trading. 

Many stocks will not have their stops hit yet. Why are you cutting these? This would mean losing your position. What if the reversal starts right now? You did the right research, you entered, and now you’ve lost your position. 

Not good. 

We’re not bludgeoning it all. 

Of course we are continuing to cut those stocks whose stops are hit. 

No question about that. 

Now comes a kind of a “pointe”. 

You’ve hit a stop during the correction. You’ve gotten out of this stock, as per your trading rules. Look for another stock with a northwards chart that is not getting so affected by the correction, but has fallen a tad so as to allow margin of safety during trading entry. 

You’ve done three things here. 

You’ve entered a robust stock. 

Simultaneously, you’ve benefited from a slight price advantage. 

Thirdly, your trading portfolio is still going. Its contents are getting robust. Come the rally, and the robust contents are going to zoom. 

You’re trading on surplus. You’re not afraid to lose till your stop. You’re not afraid to reenter. So why cut it all? 

There’s no telling about turnarounds. 

However, when they happen, you are positioned. 

Optimal positioning while trading leads to big profits.

What’s the worst case scenario?

Stop after stop being hit, and eventually you being out of the whole portfolio?

Remember, the other side of the coin promises big profits, were the turnaround to happen now, with your portfolio full of robust stocks.

Are you willing to make the trade-off?

No?

Well, then don’t trade an entire portfolio. You’re better off trading one underlying, like an index derivative. Cut it when you like, no questions asked. 

Yes?

Well, then, what’re you waiting for? Make the trade-off. Go for it!

🙂

Let if Fall to Zero, I Say

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Markets are correcting. 

The correction seems to be gathering momentum. 

Long-term portfolios lose out on net worth. 

Trading portfolios get their stops hit. 

It’s not pretty. 

Should one be worried?

Why?

Have we not taken worry out of the equation?

Sure. 

We have. 

We’re not worried. 

In fact, we want the correction to linger. 

Why?

So we can buy more. 

How long can you keep buying?

Till eternity.

How’s that possible?

Very simple. Do you have savings?

Yes.

Lovely. Do your savings grow?

Yes, month upon month, they do. I make sure of this by spending less than I earn. 

Even lovlier. Now take a very small potion of your total savings, and put it in the market. 

How small?

Small enough, such that if you were to put in that same small quantum on all off the approximately 220 days of the year that the markets are open, even then, your savings would keep growing at a representable rate. 

Ok. I see where you’re going with this. 

Absolutely. Now, suddenly, your whole perspective changes. You want your next quantum to go in. Thus, you want the correction to linger. 

What if the markets go up?

One keeps going in with the same quantum till one is getting margin of safety. No margin of safety anymore means no more entry. 

I see. That’s where your confidence is coming from.

Not entirely. You see, by the grace of God, I have made sure that my family’s bread and butter is secure before putting even a penny into the markets. 

Oh. Well done!

Then, whatever is going in, is surplus. 

Right. 

The rate of entry, i.e. the size of each quantum is minuscule enough to not pinch me upon the onset of a lingering correction. 

Great. 

Please note, that one gets one’s margin of safety on perhaps 20 – 30 days of the 220 days that the markets are open in the year, on average.

Really?!

Yes. 

That means that your savings keep growing at almost their normal rate of growth, because you’re rarely deducting from them as far as your long-term entries are concerned.

Mostly. However, what if a correction lingers for 2 years or more? Even at a time like that, you’ve got the ammo. 

Ammo, yeah, ammo is paramount. Don’t you feel like spending your savings?

I spend wisely. I don’t blow them away. I make sure, like you, that I’m saving more than I’m spending, month upon month upon month. However, I do spend.

Ok, now I’ve understood how you are so confident. 

I’ve not told you about my due diligence yet.

Oh, sorry for jumping the gun.

Due diligence is my most powerful weapon. I delve into a stock. I rip it bare. I get into the nitty-gritty (I wanted to say “underpants” originally) of the management, and let all skeletons in the closet loose. If there’s something crooked, it will emerge. The internet is my oyster. Nowadays, any and everything is available online. Mostly, a stock fails my parameters within the first 15 minutes of research. If a stock  survives perhaps three full on days of head-on research, that stock could be a likely candidate for long-term investment. Then, one looks for an appropriate entry point, which might or might not be there. If not, one waits for it. One could wait even a year. Markets require patience. 

Wow. Can I now say that I understand where your confidence is coming from?

Yes you can. 🙂

Dealing with the Nag

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Sadly, one’s spouse is the butt of many jokes in life. 

However, at the outset, I wish to make it very clear, that this piece is not about a joke at the cost of my beloved spouse, who, by the way doesn’t even fall under the N-word category. 

Having gotten that out of the way, what kind of nag are we talking about. 

This one’s almost a constant, and starts off as soon as your money goes on the line. 

At first it’s a tug. 

What are the markets doing?

How is your holding faring?

Let’s have a look. 

Come on, come on…

The tug is very compelling. 

You have a look. 

You see that your holding is taking a hit. 

There is disappointment. 

You shut your terminal in disgust. 

You’re trying to do other stuff, to divert your mind, but your mind keeps flowing back to the status of your holding. 

The tug has become a nag. 

This is the nag we’re talking about. 

We wish to outline a strategy which takes the nag out of your way. 

So, how does one deal with the nag?

It will be there. However it won’t be in your way. How do we create this condition?

If you can manage by ignoring, that’s just great. This might not work though. Nag-value mostly defeats ignoring power. 

Enter small each time. You will take away greatly from the nag-factor. It won’t hit you as much. You will me waiting to enter again, small of course, in the event that your holding has fallen. This is long-term investing we’re talking about. You’ve done your due diligence, and are not afraid to repurchase umpteen times as long as you’re getting margin of safety. Re-entry upon a fall in price of the underlying does not work while trading. In fact, re-entry upon a fall while trading is a strict no-no. You exit your trade if the fall goes through your stop-loss. You don’t re-enter. However, the small entry quantum during long-term investing goes a long way in reducing the nag factor. 

How do we wash away what’s left of the factor?

Do many market activities, as in, play multiple markets. After you’re done with one market, forget about it and move on to another. Mind will genuinely be distracted. Nag value will be further reduced, and greatly. However, it will still be there, minutely. 

Once you are done with all your markets, close your connection to them for the rest of the day, and only open the connection during the next market session, and that too upon requirement only. Meanwhile, you’re doing other stuff. Life has so much to offer. All remnant nag will be washed under the rug. 

You need to now just hold it together and resist the lure of a nudge in your mind to see how the markets closed, or any similar urge. You’re done for the day, and don’t you forget it. Don’t fall back into the trap, or the rest of your day (and perhaps your night too) would be ruined. Ask yourself if that would be worth it. No? Then move on. Enjoy the rest of your day doing other stuff.

You’re done already!

🙂

Poker and the Markets

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Professional poker is not a gamble, when one takes a large sample-size of many, many hands into consideration. 

On the other hand, non-pro poker is more likely a gamble. 

So, what’s the difference between professional poker and non-pro poker?

Strategy.

Players make “mistakes”. 

Mistakes cause losses. Lets define “mistake” here as anything that causes loss. 

Winning players strategize in such a manner, that their mistakes make them lesser than average losses, and sometimes, no losses at all, but even a win results. 

Reads, bluffs, meta-game, what have you,…

…the reason the player is a winner is that he or she is winning even with hands that would normally cause a loss.

Also, when the pro senses a winning hand, the pro bets big because the odds are in his or her favour, and the pro would like to capitalize, given the odds.

A few big wins coupled with many small losses, whereby the sum total of all losses is lesser than the sum total of the wins – that’s a winning combination. 

Let’s just take this element of the winning combination, and see how it’s implementable in the markets.

Market play means mistakes. 

Almost all the time, we’re making mistakes while we’re attempting market action.

However, because of our due diligence, we make intelligent moves too. 

Our intelligent play wins us money. 

Our mistakes lose us money. 

How do we let our mistakes lose less money?

By having a very small entry quantum each time. 

How do we allow our intelligent moves to win big?

By not nipping a winner in the bud. Also, by putting money into the winner when it dips, and at an appropriate entry level.

What do we have here, then?

Many small mistakes, and a few big wins, whereby the sum total of the mistakes is lesser than the sum total of the wins.

This is the same winning combination we discussed above.

Voilà.

🙂

What is Human Capital Capable of Doing?

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Sky’s the limit, and so’s the ocean.

That’s the deal with human capital. 

However, we are pretty capable of choosing that kind of human capital which aims for the sky. 

After weeding out the fraudsters, we go ahead and align ourselves with stellar managements. 

Choice of management is one of the top three criteria while selecting a stock. 

Why?

One doesn’t wish to be in a stock with a lack-lustre, dull and boring management which has stagnated and has no creativity.

One wants one’s management to be actively pursuing the prime goal of finding means to beat inflation. 

Equity is perhaps the only asset class that promises to beat inflation, in case a management uses its intelligence. 

That is what good human capital is doing for us all the time, i.e. finding means to beat inflation and maximise profits. 

Inflation is something that eats into our assets, and at a rather alarming rate too. 

Gold, cash, real-estate, fixed-deposits, bonds and other similar asset classes have no choice but to take the hit. The returns they give us in reality can well be negative, with the exception of real-estate and bonds sometimes. However, here, even the real positive returns are expressed after deducting the effects of inflation, and they don’t amount to much, and we’re not really looking at double digits at all after inflation has done its work.

Equity, on the other hand, tells a different story.

It suffices to to sum up the case of equity by saying that this asset class gives inflation adjusted returns.

How?

Managements tear their brains apart to find ways to circumvent the effects of new laws, tariffs, duties, levies, taxes, natural events, unexpected circumstances etc. and the like to try and achieve a commendable balance sheet by the end of the financial year. 

What is inflation?

Exactly this.

Inflation is the sum of all the effects of new laws, tariffs, duties, levies, taxes, natural events, unexpected circumstances etc. and the like on your asset class, and the result that it causes is the diminishing of the value of your asset class. 

Managements thus take inflation head-on, and are constantly devising ways to come out with a stellar performance despite the sum total that we refer to as inflation. 

Because we have chosen to align ourselves with stellar managements that already have a commendable track record in taking inflation head-on and beating it, our assets are ideally positioned to show inflation-adjusted positive returns, year upon year upon year, and perhaps even double digit ones. 

I’ll leave you with some hard cold facts. 

Adjusted for inflation, gold has yielded 1% per annum compounded since the history of its existence. 

Adjusted for inflation, bonds, cash and fixed deposits are yielding negative returns, and have been doing so for a long time now. 

Adjusted for inflation, and after taking the black money component out, real-estate has yielded single-digit returns, per annum compounded.

Adjusted for inflation, all-time equity, including all stocks that don’t exist anymore, has yielded 6% per annum compounded. 

Adjusted for inflation, all-time equity, not including stocks that don’t exist anymore, has yielded 11% per annum compounded. 

Adjusted for inflation, an intelligently chosen portfolio is extremely capable of yielding 15%+ per annum compounded over a period of 10 years or more.

What more can one want from an asset class?

Go for it, do super due diligence, choose wisely, enter in a proper manner, and build up your long-term portfolio. Master the art of sitting, and you will be in a great position to make double-digit returns, per annum compounded, adjusted for inflation. 

🙂

Standing Your Own Ground – 5 Things You Need To Do Now

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Long-term investing is a battle of nerves.

It is not for the faint-hearted. 

It can also be… very lucrative. 

To be successful at long-term investing, one must bury the nerve factor, to ultimately stand one’s ground and emerge victorious.

Let’s see how we’re going to do this. 

First up, let’s look at the quality of money going in. 

Only that money is going in which we don’t really need over the next ten years. No other kind of money is going in. No loan money, no breaking-an-FD-money, no kitty-party-money, no child-education-fund-money etc. etc. Only surplus money and that too a very small fraction of this surplus money – that’s what is going to go in each time. Period.

Why?

We’re reducing the pinch-factor bit by bit and bringing it down to zero.

What is the pinch factor?

Corrections pinch. We need to make the pinch go away. When it’s gone away, there is no pinch. That’s when our minds are clear to do what they are supposed to do during corrections. Yes, during corrections, we diligently buy more with a very clear head and after doing a lot of homework.

Second up, we are only buying with margin of safety. 

When there is no margin of safety, we don’t buy. Period. 

Why?

Margin of safety reduces the pinch factor of a correction even further, and greatly. We’ve bought cheap enough, such that the correcting stock barely makes it back to our entry level as the correction ends and a rally starts. The pain-causing element is thus mostly washed away due to the existence of margin of safety. 

Third up, our due diligence is rock solid. 

We have a check-list of the things we want to see in our stock. 

Are we seeing all of these sufficiently?

We also have a list of all the things we don’t want to see in our stock. 

Are we not seeing even a single factor on this particular list?

When our arduous due diligence gives us a go, this action is coupled with a tremendous confidence-boost in the stock. 

Confidence in an underlying is a very powerful elixir, and kills whatever pinch-factor and nerves that remain. 

We’re not done yet. 

Fourth up, we look for an opportune entry point. 

We’re looking for an inflection-point to enter, a pivot, a Fibonacci-level, an Elliott-wave correction-level or perhaps a rock-solid support, and if none of these are available, we even try and make do with a horizontal base, though a rising base is ok too. A suitable entry point is the icing on the cake for us. If the appropriate entry point is not available, we don’t enter just yet. Instead we wait for an opportunity, when such a point is available, and that’s when we enter. 

Our armour is now very strong indeed. The time has come to seal and sterilize ourselves. 

We block all tips. We don’t talk about the markets with people. We don’t discuss our investments or any rationale. We don’t watch financial TV. There’s absolutely no need to follow live quotes. Market action is limited to as and when the need arises. Index levels and stock prices are only looked at upon requirement. After getting the basics bang-on and putting our money on the line, we are now fully equipped to stand our own ground…

…and this we do with great aplomb!

🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bifurcation Ability – Do you have it?

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No?

Develop it asap, please.

Otherwise, don’t be in more than one market. 

However, who is satisfied with just one market?

That would leave one with a lot of time on one’s hands, wouldn’t it?

Time on hands means looking for another market, and another, and another, till one’s time is fully occupied, and one’s thirst for market activity quenched. 

With multiple markets on one’s radar, one needs to bifurcate. 

As in time and mind compartmentalisation…

…which basically translates as…

…that when you’re working on the one market, you’re not letting any overhang from another market bother you. 

If an overhang is bothering you, take two, or take ten, or take however long it takes to kill the overhang. 

Loss, depression, profit, jubilation, exuberation, whatever cause or emotion is prevailing, let its effect come and let it go. Wait for it to go. Then open the next market. The last thing you want is for the other market to be observed and analysed while there’s emotional bias from a former market. 

Therefore…market done…market closed…next market. There’s no other formula here. 

Most market people are both traders and investors. 

This is the area where they really, really need to bifurcate and compartmentalise. 

Why?

Trading and investing involve diametrically opposite implementation strategies, that is why. 

If you’re making changes within your investment portfolio, but are still in the trading mindset, you are going to make major mistakes, which will most definitely disturb whatever balance you have managed to instill within your investment portfolio. 

Similarly, if you’re looking to open a trade and are still in the investing frame of mind, you are optimally poised to botch up your trade big time. 

This is how I approach the matter. 

I do a first half – second half thing. 

The first half during which the markets are open are for investment decisions. 

Then there’s lunch.

By lunch, I forget how the first half of the day has been spent. At least, I try and forget. 

I let the scrumptious lunch help me drown my memory. 

After lunch, the second half starts, which is dedicated to trading decisions.

Strategies used after lunch are diametrically opposite to the ones used before lunch. 

This works for me. 

There comes a time when there are no more investment decisions to be taken, at least for a while. Markets become expensive, and margin of safety vanishes. One is not thinking of entries. Exits are far, far away, as this is long-term investing. Here is when one can dedicate oneself to one’s trading. One’s got the whole day for it. It’s a great situation, because the need for bifurcation between trading and investing is gone. 

Then there comes a time where no trades are developing. Lovely.

Right, pack up, take a break, let’s go for a short and sweet holiday!

I Got the Feeling

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What feeling?

The feeling of value-creation – that’s the feeling we’re talking about. 

When can one create value?

When there is value…

… and one sees it,…

…upon which one has the courage to act…

…and make that value one’s own.

This normally happens during and after a correction. 

Therefore…

…a correction is not a cause for depression.

Please understand that and please incorporate that into your DNA.

A correction is a time for action.

You go about adding value to your portfolio, again, and again, and again, as long as the correction lasts, and after, till bullishness sets in beyond your comfort level.

How can you keep on doing this?

This can be achieved by keeping your entry quantum small enough each time. We’ve been over that many times, and only recently, we went over it very thoroughly. 

So, the markets are falling, and you are going on and on, adding value. To be able to follow through properly, your system needs to be fully convinced about what you’re doing, and that’s why, I ask you again. 

Do you have the feeling?

Do you have the feeling that you’re creating value and adding it onto your holding?

Keep doing so, till the feeling persists. 

Stop, when the feeling is gone. 

Save, so that you have the resources to go on and on adding value. 

Enter small, so that you can enter many, many more times, perhaps adding even more value the next time. 

Be sensitive towards when the feeling comes and goes. 

Soon enough, during a burst of bullishness, you’ll see how this knowledge translates into a burgeoning portfolio. 

Defining a Long-Term Hold

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Homework, people, is the most essential element of long-term investing.

No wonder they stressed so much upon homework in school. 

They knew what they were talking about. 

And, it has counted. I always took my homework very seriously. 

Things are no different in the markets. 

Do your homework well, and diligently, and the pay-off might surprise you. 

In the markets, you are not paid off with marks, but with appreciation in the value of your holding. 

So, what kind of homework goes into defining a long-term hold?

Today, we have stock-screeners, so use a stock-screener to spit out some potential long-term holds after defining the screener’s parameters as per your wishes. Choose a stock from the results of the screening that you might want to delve into. Then, delve into it. 

In scam-ridden India, the first things that one needs to look for are honesty and integrity.

Look very, very hard.

Do repeated fraud / scam / bribe searches. The web is your oyster. 

Look into salaries of top personnel. Low is good. If salaries are on the higher side, is it justified? Specifically, scrutinize the salary of the top promotor and the CEO. If not justifiable, just drop the stock. 

Look for acts of good governance. 

Openness.

Sharing.

Shareholder-friendliness.

Truth.

Responsibility.

Once honesty and integrity are established, go over the fundamentals. 

Overall, fundamentals will either meet your parameters, or they won’t. Also, it is you who is going to define the fundamentals you wish to gauge, and what you wish to see. 

Are you seeing what you wish to see?

No?

Discard.

Yes?

Proceed.

Is the stock going to be around even after ten years?

Gauge. Product, business-model, circumstances…

You think no?

Discard.

You think yes?

Proceed.

Is the business scalable?

No?

Rethink.

Yes?

Proceed.

Is there debt in the equation?

Are you comfortable with the level of debt?

No?

Discard.

Yes?

Proceed.

Get the overall picture. 

Are you comfortable with the overall feeling you are getting?

No?

Discard. 

Yes?

Proceed.

Look for an entry point. Open the chart and try and enter upon a base or some other technical level. If none is available, wait for a level to come, and then make your entry. 

Thus, you have successfully defined and entered your long-term hold. 

 

Benefit from a Small Entry Quantum

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You enter the markets with an amount each time. 

That’s your selected quantum. 

The idea that’s being discussed here is as follows. 

Enter the market as many times as you want. 

Just do one thing before that. 

Adjust your quantum level to a point where it doesn’t pinch you, and…

… such that any entry mistakes make themselves felt only minimally, seen from an overall perspective.

In other words, keep your quantum of entry small.

Also, keep it constant, so that overall errors and benefits are able to average out in the long run.

Let’s get some picturization into play, to elucidate the concept. 

Let us assume that you wish to buy stock X for the long term, and you’ve decided upon staggered entry, many times, with quantum Y each time. 

You enter with one quantum Y on day A in the morning. By late afternoon, you are disappointed to see that the price has moved 5% against you. Happens. You start wishing that you had waited till late afternoon for entry. This can be classified as a random entry error through no fault of yours. Such random “errors” keep happening all the time in the markets. Get used to them.

Because your quantum Y was small, your “error” was also small. That’s the point being made here. 

You are going to enter with quantum Y many times. Sometimes, immediately after entry, price might move in your favour. There might be lesser slippage. You might get a gap-down entry. You might enter after a big correction. Overall, whatever goes in your favour gets written off against all “errors”, such that in the long run, over many entries, the effect of errors is nullified. 

Well you got me there. Nullified, I say. Then you ask what the entry error minimalization talk was all about, when it would get nullified in the first place. 

Which is when I ask that what was it that would lead to nullification?

Many, many entries, right?

What has preserved your capital enough to last for those many, many entries?

A small entry quantum.

Also, psychologically, you know that your small quantum translates into a small potential entry error for you. So, your psyche is all geared up and raring to go. It is not afraid of entry, or of the error you might make upon wrong entry. 

To sum up, at first, a small quantum works in your favour because it causes lesser potential entry error, seen as an amount. 

Then, because your entry quantum is small, your capital lasts for many, many entries, which is when one can start speaking of entry error nullification because of evening out. 

Whichever way you look from, it is the small entry quantum that works for you.

From Park Mode to Flow

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Funds find their way …

… to where they want to be.

Thus, if you’re sitting on some surplus, let it sit.

Pressure will be there, to do something about the funds.

Park.

There’s a German saying.

Aus den Augen, aus dem Sinn.

Meaning, that what’s away from one’s eyes is also away from one’s mind, literally translated. However, you do get the drift.

Park your funds in such a manner, that you can’t immediately see them.

It can be something as simple as a savings account linked fixed deposit.

I prefer liquid funds, with my broker in between.

To call in the funds, I need to dial my broker. Then, a full working day needs to elapse before I have access to the funds in my savings account. I find this activation barrier slightly higher than logging in to net banking and nullifying a fixed deposit. That would give access in just two minutes. Too soon for me. I use my off-set day as a buffer, to perhaps contemplate about really going ahead with fund deployment or not. Access in two minutes would mean firing the gun without proper contemplation.

Yes, put an activation barrier between you and your funds. On purpose. Then they are truly parked. What do you do when you park your car? Handbrake on? Of course. So it is with parking of funds too. You put the handbrake on. Your activation barrier is the handbrake.

Now?

Now nothing.

Sit.

Do other stuff.

Lead a full life. Enjoy your life.

Time will pass.

Opportunities will come …

… and go.

Are they making you jump out of your seat?

No?

Right.

Keep park mode on.

Eventually, something will come along that will make you jump.

Homework gives a green signal.

You will want to be in. Every cell in your body will say so.

Kill park modus.

Let the funds flow to where they want to flow, into this opportunity that is making you jump.

Let it be has now turned into let it flow.

The Calm before the Storm

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Market forces …

… are a storm.

Minimum exposure or burnout…,

… that’s your choice.

To work in a market, you’ll need to be exposed to that market.

Sure.

However, the extent of that exposure is up to you.

I like to keep it minimal.

Why?

Firstly, what is minimal?

For me, it works out to about an hour a day. Four markets.

All activities in all four markets are accomplished inside of an hour, and then that’s it for the day. See you tomorrow. Nothing pending. Bis Morgen. À bientôt. Kal milenge. This includes any research pertaining to the trading market concerned.

Was this always so?

No.

Initially it used to take me up to three hours.

So how?

Streamlining.

Systems, systems, systems.

Practice.

Eventually, under one hour, with full justice done to each market.

So why minimal?

Market forces are poisonous. They shake up one’s entire nervous system. One’s after-market world-experience can then be tricky, and there can be explosions, misunderstandings, skirmishes, arguments etc.

With the minimal one hour, I still have to deal with milder versions of the above scenarios.

Milder is where I would like to draw a line. Non-market life makes the bulk of one’s existence. Why should one’s market-life be allowed to spoil one’s non-market life?

I have another secret weapon which I would like to share with you today.

It’s a powerful method to deal with market-forces.

Yes, I prepare myself thoroughly to deal with that one hour.

Calm.

I like to accumulate calm.

Till 1 pm I’m accumulating calm, doing other stuff, and no market stuff, but lots and lots (and lots) of other stuff.

1-2 pm. I do my four markets.

Calm – switch on – calm – do – calm – switch off – calm – forget till next day – calm.

That’s it.

This above line is my weapon. It’s very powerful. It won’t let market forces beat you. I share it with you. For free. Why? It gives me joy. I like to share. Sharing increases my happiness. It makes my life fuller.

I’m not going to tell you to start sharing stuff.

It suffices to narrate the effects of sharing.

Whether you want such effects in your life or not is up to you.

One way of getting them is to start sharing.

Resisting the Devil’s Lure

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The lure is tremendous. 

It’s flashy. 

It’s in the limelight. 

It’s happening. 

It wants to take you for a ride. 

It’s called Crypto.

There’s talk about “it’s the internet of the future”. There’s talk about how there’ll be no governments and how people will rule over their own currency. Enough to sweep one away. 

However, cryptos go against the grain of everything a steady long-term investor stands for. 

Origin is unknown. 

Banks won’t store. 

Governments rejecting.

Legit?

Do you know the answer?

Main exchange went bust in 2014. Got hacked. 

Terrorist and launderers have found in them a smooth haven. 

How is one to understand Blockchain?

X number of people agreeing that the sky is purple – does that make the sky purple?

What about all the cousins?

There are many cryptos. 

There’s one springing up every few weeks.

Which ones are going to be around in 10 or maybe 20 years?

Yes, long-term investors think …

… long-term. 

Cryptos are making people taste fast bucks. 

Fast bucks made in a few days can spell disaster…

…because this is a trajectory that makes one want to bet the farm at the peak. 

Crypto players are being set up for something big. 

The amount of ammunition prevailing is enough to bludgeon lots. 

Pigs will get slaughtered. Always happens. Very few people in the world know how to trade. Let alone knowing how to trade, very few can even define what a trade is. 

Cryptos are a trade. Period.

That too, if one wants to trade cryptos.

Why wouldn’t one want to trade cryptos?

For starters, very high beta. Not many traders are comfortable with high betas. 

Stepping into the crypto world means stepping out of one’s area of expertise initially. 

Why would one want to step out of one’s zone? Circle of competence means a lot to successful traders. 

Diversification?

Have crypto on your plate, and the sheer hullabaloo will disturb your other trading. The one you’ve taken so long to build up. Do you want that?

No. I don’t. I’m happy in my circle of competence.

I don’t want the disturbance. 

I don’t want the extremely high betas. 

I don’t want to get slaughtered. 

I want origin. 

I want legit. 

I don’t want bust exchanges. 

I don’t want to make my computer a target. 

I don’t want to be doing what terrorists and launderers are doing.

I don’t buy the mining story. 

If the sky is blue, I want to have the freedom to call it blue, even if a billion people are calling it purple.

My common sense says no. 

Therefore, my exposure to cryptos is nil. 

I resist the devil’s lure.

When do you know that you’ve detached?

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We’ve been targeting detachment.

As in, being in the markets and simultaneously unperturbed.

We’ve said it’s very possible and within our reach.

How do we know we’re there?

You’ve felt market-forces, right? Of course. If you’re in a market, you feel it’s force.

You’ve detached when this force doesn’t bog you down. It’s as simple as that.

Or is it?

Many spend their lives in the markets and fail to even define the existence of market-forces, let alone deal with them.

You are different.

You’ll not only deal with these forces, but you’ll control their effect on yourself too.

Yes, you’ll have to call the shots. It’s you, or the market takes over.

First-up, you are only letting in very little. Yes, you are only connecting to the market upon market action. Period.

No market action? No connection. You are now doing other stuff, till there is new market action. Your mind is also thinking other stuff, not market-stuff. For body and mind to remain aloof, quantum of money involved in the market needs to be below a threshold. It needs to be at chip-change level enough to not make you think twice about what’s going to happen to you, if you were to lose this money. Nothing’s going to happen to you. The potential loss would be so minuscule, that it won’t move even a whisker of yours. Be at that level, and not thinking about the markets at will is going to be a breeze.

Of course you’ll ask how you’re supposed to tame a beast if most of the time you’re disconnected to it.

You see, that’s the whole thing. 

You don’t let the beast get to you. 

You get to it. 

Upon requirement. 

What is requirement?

Analysis?

Not necessarily.

Doing analysis, you’re connected to your analysis. You’re in your Zone. You’re relaxed. There’s no live-feed (mostly). You’re analyzing end of the day data. There’s no tension. The past is sprawled before you. You conjure up strategies for the future. It’s fun. 

Connection comes when you go live. That’s when the market hits you with its full force. 

You let the force bounce off you, do your work, and then switch off the live-feed.

Zak Zak Zak, to borrow a phrase for swiftness from Germany.

How so fast?

You’ve planned your market action before going live. Once you go live, you can’t avoid seeing stuff you don’t want to. However, you focus on the correct clicks and logout upon job done. Then you forget what you didn’t want to see. 

The main indices remain with you. It’s hard to forget them. It’s ok. There will be remnant force. You’ll learn to carry it without being affected by it. Start by resisting the urge to look up the index level at a random time of the day. Save it for live connection. 

At times, you’ll need live connection for analysis. That’s that. Deal with it. 

Once you’re done with the market for the day, … , are you done? Or do you get back to it despite being done?

If you do, you’ve not detached. 

If you don’t, well congratulations, you have. Now you can go about enjoying your non-market life too!…….

🙂

Markets & Detachment – Possible?

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We’re pushing limits here.

Making the improbable possible – doesn’t that give you a kick?

Am I even qualified to talk about detachment in the markets?

Well, I can at least tell you how I’m approaching the subject.

Hmmmm – where to begin, let’s see…

Let’s start at the nascent stage where a pang of attachment causes you to worry.

You sit up.

What’ll happen to my stock?

What if there’s a huge crash overnight?

What if I get wiped out?

What will my wife think of me?

Will I become the laughing stock of the Universe?

It’s ok.

Worry.

Burn your heart out worrying.

One needs to feel the pain of the disease to want to weed it out comprehensively.

Worrying and burning your heart out is not the only thing you are doing, though.

You are simultaneously making a list of all the questions that are cropping up courtesy your burning heart.

Yes, yes, make the list. Cast aside the silliness of the questions. No matter how silly a question is, include it in the list if it has cropped up even once. Get on with it.

There then comes a time where you can confidently say, that yes, my list of questions is pretty much complete. No new question seems to be asking itself.

Wonderful.

Now go about creating the circumstances for each question to not crop up.

Meaning that you have undergone actions that are now enabling you to answer each question with “this will not happen because I have created such infrastructures that exactly this will not happen”.

How are you addressing those question for which you can’t create such infrastructures, like an imminent market-crash, or what your spouse might think of you?

To address these particular questions, you create circumstances that cause you to be least affected in the event of the appearance of such questions.

For example, to be mostly insulated from the effects of crashes, buy with margin of safety. Or, set stops. Or, don’t buy. Short. Hedge. Do what suits you, but do it.

Regarding spouse, he or she will think what she thinks. You can’t change that. You just need to have a clear conscience. Commit those actions that give you the clear conscience. Hahahahahaha! 🙂

Right.

There then comes a time, where all queries have been comprehensively addressed. They stop cropping up.

Next, you need to stop committing those actions that can act as catalysts for a query to pop up.

Only look at the market when you have to. Don’t, otherwise. Try only looking at the underlying. Broader markets – well, poisonous, keep these at a minimum. Try and bring down your market action to once a day. Limit the action to the minimal time possible.

Weed out any kind of market conversation with other individuals. There’s no need. There’s you, there’s the market, there’s your system. That’s all you need.

Keep brokers and middle-men at a manageable level. Preferably at zero, and maximally at lower single digits. Only do business with them, no loose-talk, no exchange of tips. Tips are another big poison.

Find your own investments or trades. Resources are phenomenal today. You have everything at your beck and call with a computer and an internet connection.

Shut off business TV. More than a glance at the business page of the newspaper is unnecessary. Business magazines? Forget it. Every piece of info is accessible pinpointedly on the net. You wish to enter into an investment at the nascent stage, right? By the time the story gets published, smart money is already in, and there’s already been a run-up. Your margin of safety is gone.

Finally, take a look at yourself now.

Your results are improving drastically…

…and you’ve detached in the markets…!

Who the hell wants to detach?

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Easy to spell, right?

Hard to attain, though. 

Why would one want to detach anyways?

Detachment is a must for success in the markets.

Any market.

Detachment is not really a human instinct.

We are born because we are attached. 

Attachment comes naturally to us. 

Detachment does not. 

Cut to the markets. 

Market psychology works in reverse to our natural instincts. That’s why, losers are many, and winners a few. 

That, by the way, is the similarity between detachment and market success.

We’ll need to learn to detach, if we want winning market-play. 

This is an achievement-oriented society. 

We like resumés.

We like to post it the moment we nail it. 

We like to book profit the moment we have a mover. 

We like to hide our short-comings. 

Weakness?

What weakness?

We nurture our losers, hoping they’ll at least make it to break-even one day so that we can book them. 

See?

Yes, market psychology works in reverse to our way of functioning. 

What does detachment do?

It takes us away from the euphoria of a mover. 

We learn to let the mover … move. 

We learn to not book it. 

It then moves, and moves. 

Eventually, it starts to fall.

We set a stop and let the market throw us out. 

That’s how one exits an underlying showing a profit. 

What has detachment done here?

It has caused us to book a big profit instead of a small one. 

What else does detachment do?

It reforms us such that we recognize and acknowledge weakness, and then cut the weakness off immediately upon such recognition and acknowledgement, as per the definitions of our trading systems.

What has detachment done here?

It has caused us to suffer a smaller loss now rather than a potentially much larger loss later.

Repetition of this cycle – again and again and again – sorts us out for life. 

From Target to Target

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What’s your target?

Big one?

Fine. Good for you. Nothing wrong with having a big target. Go for it.

Big targets appear far.

That will need to be tackled.

Why so?

Because big targets are big, they take … you guessed it … time.

Getting to the big target requires handling time.

Yeah, that’s the killer.

Barely anyone around claims to manage time successfully.

Managing time can also mean inaction.

Barely anyone acknowledges that.

Time does us in.

We lose sight of the big target.

Game over?

Or is it?

No, not game over.

Nobody’s telling anyone to not have a big target.

Have it. Fine.

However, have many small ones.

Yeah. Many small targets.

Move from small target to small target.

That’s how you bridge your month, week, or even your day.

Oh, one other thing.

As far as the big target is concerned, forget about time.

Then, as you move from small target to small target, and you’ve forgotten about time, well, voilà, guess what just arrived…?

Yeah, your big target.

Cheers!

Happy Seventh Birthday, Magic Bull ! 

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Are you happy? 

What makes you happy?

Have you discovered that? 

Do you do what you’ve discovered? 

Do you try and stay happy? 

Writing makes me happy. 

Everything else goes into the background. 

Words remain.

They will remain beyond me. 

They are powerful. 

Writing has a meaning. 

It organizes thoughts. 

It elucidates concepts. 

It helps those in need. 

It breaks paths. 

It sets standards. 

Sure, I do other meaningful things with my life. 

Writing is right up there at the front of those meaningful things. 

Happy seventh birthday, Magic Bull !