Category Archives: Entry

Whetting

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What does it take…

…to convince my mind…

…that something’s a very long-term hold?

What am I looking for?

Longevity. Actually, perceived longevity. Perceived in my mind. Mind matters. When the mind is shaken, one lets go. For something to be a long-term hold, the mind needs to be long-term convinced.

Lack of dependency. On water. On other natural resources. On CapEx. On real-estate.

Immunity to trend-change.

Adaptability to disruption. As much proximity to a state of anti-fragility as possible. Entry price and cost-free-ness will reinforce proximity to anti-fragility.

Diligent, share-holder friendly management with good track record, with repeated examples of wealth-creation through exploitation of multiple avenues available.

A product line that is more dependent on human capital than on machinery.

Copious, intelligent, reasonably priced human capital. With that we’ve knocked out inflation.

Very decent margin of safety at entry point. With that we’ve accounted for any remaining idiosyncrasies in capable managements and / or otherwise humane promoters.

Lack of debt. We’re ok with reasonable amounts borrowed at reasonable rates for day to day working capital, but not a big fan of long-term debt.

No smoke cloud. Talking about scams, frauds, bribes, court-cases and the like.

That’s ten things already.

I take these ten, sift through the Nifty 500, and get 43 underlyings, which, for me, satisfy these criteria.

That’s it.

I play with these.

That’s all the whetting I need.

You’re saying I didn’t mention numbers. Metrics. Ratios.

Numbers come and go. Basics remain. When the basics are right, numbers will be intact for long, and for a few quarters they won’t be. Those are re-entry opportunities.

Good basics create good numbers, repeatedly. We are making sure that we are only entering into good basics.

Now the ball’s in your court.

Create your criteria.

What works for you?

Sift through.

Narrow down.

What remains are your whetted stocks.

Start your game.

It’s a long one, so…

…wishing you stamina!

🙂

2050

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Hey,

There’s a Street View… ,

… , and then there’s a street view.

I rely on…

…my street view.

Making it a point not to heed that the Street thinks, I repeatedly look for micro and macro signs on my street.

My street is where I am.

I mostly spend my time in my own country.

And, my street view is one of staggered growth.

There’s development…

…with holdups waiting to happen out of nowhere, and often.

That’s India, for me.

Am I going to cry?

I scream, actually, at apathy prevailing, but from the inside. To no avail. At one point the screaming stops. The only thing remains is to take advantage. I’ll make it up for India. Part of the money earned will go towards a private initiative towards my country’s development. So, no guilty-conscience here. My country gives me repeated opportunities. Why should I not take them? India does give me grief too. It’s ok. I love my country. We both can take liberties with each other, as do parents and children between themselves.

Owing to our attitudinal coordinates, our country is full of bottlenecks, and these bring a rising entity down, regularly.

Apart from that we’re emotional.

Over-emotional, actually.

So what’s going down goes down by an unhealthy multiple.

Activation.

Chart Pattern?

Numbers talking to you?

Method.

System development.

Pinpoint.

Enter.

Sizably.

Making size a function of portfolio magnitude.

When something here rises, one lets it ride with a stop that eventually triggers, then trails.

One never books a winner fully in India. Not in this bull market.

Billion dollar strategy.

One first goes cost-free.

And then some.

After one’s in-the-profit stop is triggered and then hit, one takes one’s principal out, with which one will fight the next battle, the next quest for cost-free-ness.

One leaves one’s cost-free-ness created on the table and shifts if out of sight and out of mind.

One’s cost-free-ness can be held for a long, long time.

Till 2050?

Yes, if the underlying has been duly whetted for a 2050 hold.

That’s how we play India.

Till 2050.

Beta

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We’re not afraid…

…of beta.

In fact, we want beta to be there.

And, we want it to be big.

Beta is part of wealth-generation through cost-free-ness.

Why…

…are we not afraid of beta?

When we make an underlying cost-free, there are two parameters that are of prime importance, in the game that we are playing.

First up, speed of cost-free-ness.

How much time has it take us to reach the desired stage?

Too much time?

Work at the strategy.

Short time?

Great.

With large betas, we take lesser time to reach cost-free-ness.

Cost-free-ness is a state of mind.

Also, it is a function of parameters prevailing.

As a result of internal synthesis, we know in our mind when it’s time for cost-free-ness creation.

Once cost-free-ness is created, we move on to the next play with the same objective.

Next up, we have quantum of cost-free-ness created, per capita time.

Higher the quantum, in lesser time, why, that’s optimal.

Again big beta.

Without big beta, there’s not much chance of achieving large quantum in less time.

How do we exploit big beta to attain objective?

Get in on huge margin of safety. Get principal out when exuberance prevails. Scrips being played are those of which you are convinced. Meaning, that you are mentally in sync with very long-term holds of cost-free-ness created in these scrips.

Also…

…as a general game-enhancing practice…

…get in and out with multi-day or multi-month triggers. Don’t look at the markets while they’re on. Take emotion out of play. Nil market forces out of your equation.

Here one sees, how, amongst other factors, a big beta allows one to generate long-term wealth through cost-free-ness while…

…acting on one’s own terms.

Hack

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Farm-land?

Own it?

Yes?

If so, you can avail an overdraft on your fixed deposits, having to pay low interest.

Why?

Government allows farmers to take crop-loans.

If you own farm-land, well, you are a farmer.

Even if you don’t use the facility to buy crops, you can still use it…

… for whatever.

Perk.

Government sops it to farmers and you get roped in as an accidental farmer.

G(ood) f(or) y(ou). Yeah, gfy.

Why overdraft?

So that a fixed deposit doesn’t need to be broken prematurely.

Why the trouble?

Let’s say you need trade money to be in a trade for a few days, but the bulk of your liquidity is working elsewhere. However, in good times, you have created fixed deposits, which add to your liquidity at regular intervals. When your liquidity runs out for a few days, you think of breaking an FD to replenish it, but this incurs a penalty.

Suggested hack keeps everything intact.

You utilize the created liquidity, let’s say for a month.

Meanwhile, your income pipeline generates new income. You use this to keep nullifying parts of the loan. Let’s say in 40 days you have nullified the loan, and your positional trade, for which you took the loan, is still on. You are charged low interest on the loan taken for 40 days. Now the loan is nullified. Position is on and yielding. All equations solved. Net net something created out of …

…s omething that was already utilized elsewhere.

It doesn’t necessarily turn out so good all the time with a position, though.

If it’s losing, you are suffering positional loss and interest payment loss simultaneously. That’s the downside.

This hack is worthy, nevertheless.

Interest charged on 40 days is a small figure, typically less than a percent. A positional trade in profit can well give 15%+ in that period.

So, hack stands.

All you need to do is to see if the hack fits you.

Process

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In the markets…

… actions are decisions.

No decision taken means no action.

Well, no action is also an action.

Ok.

However…

… eventually …

… to generate wealth …

… or income …

… we are confronted with decisions.

I’m not afraid to act, upon seeing a confluence of supportive indications.

If I were afraid to act, well, I could have just sheer chosen another line, but would have been confronted with the same deficiency, there too.

Acting upon enhanced win probability should do away with any fear.

However, there’s always that thing before trigger-press.

What if I’m wrong?

Let’s not be afraid of being wrong.

We’ll take our stop and then we’re done with this action, now looking at implementing another action.

Our ability to take the decision for this other action, and for all future actions should remain intact.

How do we ensure that?

When we’re wrong, let’s be wrong small.

Then let’s move on to whatever new action is coming our way.

If we let ourselves be wrong big, that, my friends, is crippling.

Let’s not cripple ourselves.

Crippling does away with the capability to act further.

Now, decisions are a fry cry.

The day becomes heavy.

Nights …

… well …

… sleepless.

That’s not going to happen to us.

Why?

As traders, will do everything in our capability to stop a big loss from happening.

How?

Losses are small in the beginning.

Let’s define their limit.

If you want to take it trade by trade, fine. Each trade has its own dynamics. However, small nature of stop remains common. Define what is small for you.

How?

My formula – anything that stops the day from becoming heavy and the night from becoming sleepless. For me, that’s small. You decide your formula. Whatever works for you, take it.

This is called process.

We follow process.

We don’t focus on profit and loss.

We focus on process.

We want to get our process correct, day in, day out, forever.

Losses will follow. They will be taken small.

Profits will follow. We will allow these to become big. Though that is a difficult one, we will need to learn to, because without this one thing working for us, we won’t be long-term profitable.

Here’s a formula regarding letting profits run.

After a profit has touched 3 x your stop, allow 50% breathing space. If this is squeezed completely, exit with small profit. If underlying inches higher, inch your stop upwards, always allowing for breathing space. At 4 x you can allow 40% breathing space, at 5x 30%. Etc. Make your own formula that allows profits to burgeon.

Wishing you lucrative trading and ample wealth creation!

🙂

Harness

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Market forces are like Wifi.

When we connect to them, they…

…connect to us.

When we’re indifferent, …

… we’re in a different world.

When we create systems, and put them on auto-pilot, we mostly do away with the ability of market forces to act upon us.

A successfully implemented system on auto-loop is like making time stand still.

That’s our goal; that’s where we want to be.

In the act of getting there, we are subject to compelling market forces.

How do we deal with them?

Rather than suffering KOs from their punches, we devise systems…

…to absorb their blows,…

…understand the implications of these,…

…to, then,…

…harness them.

What am I talking about?

Why give market forces so much power?

Why not?

They’re there, right?

In abundance, too.

Why not use them?

How?

You can go back to George Soros’s back pain for starters.

Have you developed such physical systems?

I’ll tell you what I implement. It’s a me thing. You’ll need to develop your you thing. I’ll share with you my me thing, though.

When markets are down, I do feel bad, it’s an initial reaction. I wait for it to intensify. I wait for myself to feel awful. That means markets must be really down. As awfulness rises, I start buying. When awfulness is uncontrollable, I buy big. When it makes me puke, I buy maximum. Meanwhile, I’ve rewired my nervous system to accept the awfulness as a marker for buying, and I’m not sad that I’m feeling awful during market crashes. Hmmm, I know it sounds a bit crazy, but this a successful harness-methodology of otherwise overwhelming market forces.

When markets are up, I feel buoyant. Earlier, when I felt buoyant, I used to buy more. Now, I do nothing. Market-nothing, that is. Non-market, I’ll do many things. That’s harnessing buoyancy. As markets rise further, I do even more of market-nothing, and when I can’t control it, I then start creating cost-free-ness. When buoyancy is uncontrollable, I create maximum possible cost-free-ness, and hopefully, then, I can go on market-vacation. Before I do that, I make sure to transfer the cost-free-ness created to a dedicated holding platform for my cost-free-ness.

Ideally, new market activity needs to only commence upon the next set of opportunities. Sometimes, one needs to wait long for these to develop. The act of bridging time comes in handy here. Market is not giving action. We harness even that. We have accumulated lots of pending tasks, just for this kind of period. Now, we do these. Ultimately, an opportunity arises. A new cycle of cost-free-ness-creation starts.

Development of you-unique systems helps you harness the market in a winning fashion.

Wishing you lucrative investing and lots of cost-free-ness!

🙂

Making Time Stand Still

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The buck stops…

…with the entity called time.

Too much hangs on it.

Lack of it makes decisions difficult.

Too much of it defers them.

In the markets, we take it out of the equation…

…and then act.

If not, market forces bog us down.

And, imagine the load if our game is heavy.

After having gotten our basics infallibly into place, we wish to play a heavy game, without the load.

Hence,…

… – time – …

…first we take out of the equation,…

…and then we play.

We stretch the trade duration to a potential infinity. Period.

Trade might resolve in a few days. Or not. Right.

However, potential infinity gives us the wherewithal to focus on the next play.

Then, before action, we make time stand still.

How?

By forgetting that it exists.

By focusing on the one act that we are about to commit.

By encompassing the totality of all connectivities that have led us to the moment of acting, and having them before our mind and on our fingertips, as we act.

By being pinpointedly mindful of our actions whilst shutting out any disturbing noise.

By being…

…in the Zone,…

…such that,…

physically,…

…time might tick,…

…but for us it doesn’t seem to.

And…

…why?

Why are we so interested in making time stand still as we act?

For just one pure reason.

We want our act to have maximum impact.

And that it will, once we act, immersed in the scheme of things.

The chronology is as follows : Time still-stand, identification of market act, entry into scheme of things, action, exit from scheme, time roll-forward.

Timeframe doesn’t register in our minds. Potent action is identified, and happens, fitting into the natural fabric of things, into the timeline of the scheme of events.

Impact, ideally, is maximum.

Imagine the cumulative impact of a lifetime of such actions!

Wishing you lucrative times!

🙂

Tech Bubble please burst

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Bubbles burst,…

…like,…

…pendulums swing.

We’ve seen bursts.

We’ve gauged our way through them.

Lucratively.

Why?

We save up…

…for such situations.

Earlier, bursts were rare.

Now, they are common…

…and quick.

That’s great news for us.

What’s the worst that can happen in a tech-bubble burst?

Front-liners can start trading at single-digit valuations.

Mid-tiers can be down 50 to 75%.

Smaller players can lose 90% of their market cap.

When front-liners trade at single digit valuations, we’ll load up on these.

Medium sized tech scrips showed even ten-bagger behaviour lately. Such down-side would be immensely valuable for us, to avail re-entry opportunities.

Coming to small-sized, debt-free tech players with remarkable free cash-flow to market cap ratios, ya, we do own a couple, and ya, we would re-buy.

So, what’s all the hoo-hah?

Bubble bursts, we buy.

Strategy is outlined.

Players are demarcated.

No time for small-talk, chit-chat, or any other non-useful “market-activity”.

Meanwhile, we just keep trading from interim low to interim high in our pursuit for small quanta of cost-free-ness.

Period.

🙂

Fearlessness

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Hey, 

There’s no hype…

…on Magic Bull.

No business lunches.

Conferences.

Fees.

Advertising.

Liasoning.

Roadshows.

Magic Bull is a no-nonsense, cut-to-the-chase space.

Why?

That’s how I like it.

A strategy that works under any market conditions, …

… is multi-faceted,…

…  adaptable, …

…  self-adjusting, …

… and comprehensive, …

… doesn’t require artificial crutches… 

… because, …

… it makes…

… money …

… on its own.  

Why is the Magic Bull approach successful in any market, under any conditions?

Because it is based on fearlessness. 

We are not born fearless.

Fear is a natural human instinct innate in us. 

It saves us, many a time. 

However, to make money in the markets, one needs to get rid of fear.

How?

Most of our planning revolves around creating circumstances around ourselves that take fear out of the equation. 

You’ll need to make the effort of going through the material in this space, to get a grip on how Magic Bull eliminates this emotion. 

You see, even if there’s a free lunch in life, it’s not that free that the spoon will lift itself and put the meal down another’s throat. 

A certain minimal effort will need to be made. 

Thing is, hardly anyone makes even that kind of effort. 

Result will be, that not more than a handful will actually read this stuff, and one or two might actually implement it.

Sure. 

Growing Magic Bull’s readership is not my objective.

What do I get from the entire exercise?

Evolution. Writing evolves. The strategy just gets better and better.

Blah blah blah. 

Oh, ya, what happens when a strategy gets it right?

I’ll leave you to figure that out, since that’s what I get. 

And why again?

Because of fearlessness.

One’s cycle of winning in the markets, under any conditions, starts with fearlessness.

Wishing you fearless trading and investing!

🙂

Banking on Infinity

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In a market…

…that promises decent…

…long-term growth, …

… we are able to…

…bank on infinity.

In such a market, the concept of cost-free-ness proves successful …

… in that it is able to generate multibagger outcomes, …

… over the very long-term. 

In such a market, the power of compounding makes itself felt in its full glory.

Also, in such a market, fear goes out the window for the clued-in player, since one is able to…

…bank on infinity.

We are fortunate to be playing in one such market. 

Yes, one such market is our very own. 

Having said that, India has idiosyncrasies, as does every market, and the Indian angle on these is definitely unique. 

The main one is that we’re an emotional lot. 

That is automatically then reflected in our market too. 

High beta. 

Meaning, in normal English, that there will abound huge entry opportunities, and huge exit opportunities, on a regular basis. 

And that, if I may underline, is worth Gold for us in the pursuit of cost-free-ness.

In other words, we will be able to create cost-free-ness year upon year, month upon month, and, at times, like now…

…week upon week.

Is that not…

…wonderful!

Once cost-free-ness is created, we transfer it out of sight, and, banking on infinity, we can just sheer forget about it, focusing our attention on the next round of cost-free-ness-creation.

We can do that because we are in the right type of market for this particular model. 

In fact, this model has been conceptualised for exactly…

…this market. 

Maybe someone has done it before me. Perhaps a lot of people. More successful. Big players. Famous. And that’s huge. I’m happy for them.

However, that’s not the point. 

We’re not in this for the glory of who got there first.

We’re in this for generating long-term wealth by using the concept to the hilt, because it’s working, and promises to do so till into the far-foreseeable future.

Before I sign off for now, there’s one more thing to remember. 

When we bank on infinity, we most hold before our eyes, that the translation of long-term growth into long-term wealth…

…is not linear.

Growth is perceived in spurts of optimism spilling into over-optimism, and these become our exit opportunities, where we exit with our principals, and are left with stacks of cost-free-ness. 

During spurts of pessimism, spilling into sheer depression, prices dip low enough, such that we, once again, get representable entries. 

It’s a neat little cycle that has been playing out since markets started. 

In our own market, this cycle allows us to generate cost-free-ness, again and again, while banking on infinity. 

 

 

 

 

Is Cost-Free-Ness the Holy Grail?

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There is…

…a Holy Grail…

…mentioned in the Holy Bible. 

Also, …

… human capital

… pursues excellence.

I…

… am no exception.

Having stumbled upon…

…cost-free-ness…

…after many knocks in all possible markets, …

… and having developed the concept a tad, …

… I do say to you this.

I say to you, …

… , that cost-free-ness…

… is no holy grail. 

In its pursuit, money does get stuck. And, …

… upon its generation, money does flow, at times, into expensive, “uncatchable” material.

These are the two main mentionable “nuances” associated with the pursuit of cost-free-ness, that one needs to be aware of. 

Money getting stuck? Hmmmm.

If we’re afraid of money getting stuck, we should exit from the market. Any market. Period. 

Don’t be in the game if you can’t take the heat. 

It’s ok. 

Play another game, where you can. 

Perfectly fine.

Now let’s tackle the other one. 

Purists are jumping, I know. 

I can hear them yelling “EXPENSIVE!”

Sure.

Extremely high quality…

…will be expensive. 

One legitimate entry opportunity every ten years can be possible in such underlyings.

When it comes, and if one is having a bad hair week, one can even miss the window.

When it comes, we’ll enter big.

That’s a larger game, non-cost-free initially, and we’ve played it well in March 2020, entering non-cost-free, entering big (because of the available margin of safety), and generating vast amounts of cost-free-ness within a few months, to then ultimately be sitting on large, extremely high-quality & completely cost-free portfolios, perhaps for life.

However, such timelines are anomalies. We’ll pounce upon such chronologies when they happen. Meanwhile, …

…our bread and butter is to generate small amounts of cost-free-ness on a regular basis, day-in-day-out, all year round, …

… and it’s ok to enter extremely high quality with one’s freshly generated small amounts of cost-free-ness, right here right now, at the expensive price. 

Why?

Firstly, it’s not costing you. 

Secondly, when we deploy cost-free-ness into extremely high quality in a long-term-growth-promising market like India’s, it’s probably for life. 

Seen from a perspective of a decade or two, or perhaps three, the currently expensive cost-free entry is legitimate. 

Please do the 10, 20 or 30 year math for India, and you should come to the same conclusion.

Why do we wish to deploy immediately?

Out of sight, out of mind. 

Money has idiosyncrasies. 

The biggest one is that it is spent, in the blink of an eye. 

Better, deploy it, specifically also because your mathematics is okaying a legit entry for the extremely long-term.

And, pray, have you wondered why you will be able to sit on your investment for so long?

Primarily because your entry is cost-free. 

There is no other singular, more overwhelming reason. 

Cost-free-ness overwhelms the mind into sitting on extremely long holds. Try it out for yourself.

That takes care of the second point, …

… and I say to you this, that…

… cost-free-ness, …

… though not the holy grail, …

… could well be the next best market concept available to mankind, for long-term success in the markets.

Wishing you lucrative & highly successful cost-free investing!

🙂

Creating Cost-Free-Ness as a matter of habit

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Upon its creation,…

…cost-free-ness…

…can be put to use…

anywhere.

Expensive stuff?

Not able to catch it?

Eluded you…

…because…

…was too hot…

…to handle..?

And…

… you really, really want it?

Not a problem anymore.

Buy it with your cost-free-ness.

I know, that defies all the rules of margin of safety et al, right?

I mean, do you care?

I don’t.

Why?

What’s stopping me from going out there and creating some more cost-free-ness?

Nothing.

In fact, that’s all I’ll be doing, day in, day out.

There’s a small hitch though, during the creation of the next batch of cost-free-ness.

The just previously created cost-free-ness comes in the way by short-circuiting one’s thought process.

Get it out of sight.

Pickle it.

How?

Pick what you like.

Buying with one’s cost-free-ness that which one isn’t able to otherwise…

…is totally ok, …

…in my opinion.

You pick…

…what you like…

…and nobody’s going to question you.

It’s your cost-free-ness, and you can use it as you please.

Pick…

…buy…

…transfer…

…out of sight…

…forget…

…and then…

…focus…

…on creating…

…the next batch of cost-free-ness.

Eat-sleep-repeat…anyways.

Create-pickle-create more…

…cost-free-ness…

…always…

…as a matter of habit.

Period.

Emo-check

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Gauge…

…the impulse…

…before…

…acting.

Market behaviour evokes an impulse within us. 

Markets are such. 

They tease…

…at a spot…

…which has History with you.

They manage to find the spot.

And then they burn matches at it,…

…towards causing max-pain.

It can be a support level.

A resistance level.

Your stop-loss.

Exit level.

Entry-level

Break-even point.

What have you. 

Use your imagination. 

Whichever point holds value for you is open for needling. 

Meaning, please take it for granted that this point will probably be pricked again and again.

Why?

Ensembles…

…want you to act. 

Your action, if you succumb to the impulse, will then probably benefit these ensembles. 

Example. 

You enter an underlying. 

An ensemble takes it up 20% after your entry, on huge volume. 

Price then falls for twelve sessions, on low volume, such that more than 50% of your notional profit evaporates.

What just happened?

You’re feeling that impulse to preserve that other 50% of your profit, right?

It could be the right decision. 

Or not.

Depends on your outlook. 

Ensemble probably wishes to purchase another tranche, and is driving the price low enough to then act upon this relatively lower price. 

How will you feel, if you exit now, and then price shoots another 25%, immediately after your exit?

Hmmm, that’s another way of looking at it. 

What’s right?

What’s wrong?

Nobody knows before-hand. 

What is in your hand, though, is the ability to gauge your impulse, and to synchronise it with your objectives upon initial entry. 

When, then, one fine day, the impulse to act is so strong that no amount of rationalising can hold you back,…

…,well,…

…that’s the time when you…

…act,…

…and it’s the right decision for you, irrespective of market outcome. 

Why?

Such an “uncontrollable” impulse to act, even after study and attenuation, is better implemented rather than swallowed (leading to future indigestion). 

Are you Positioned?

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What’s our biggest enemy in the markets?

This one’s invariably…

…our Self.

Cut to ’07.

Fancy hotel banquet room, snacks and drinks, chief investment officer of JP Morgan is talking…

…and we’re listening.

My friend and I…

…sitting on profits…

…feeling smug about ourselves…

…young guns…

…ready to conquer the world…

…nothing can stop us now.

Or can it?

“There will always be a correction…”. These words catch my ear.

I raise my hand.

“Yes? The gentleman with the lime-green tie has a question?”

I stand up, and before I know it, I ask the deadly question.

“Don’t you think there’s been a paradigm-shift with regard to India, and that India has decoupled from the rest of the world?”

“How old are you, Sir?”

“37”.

This was ’07, remember?

“I’m going to excuse your question, because you’re young, and have probably experienced the markets for…?”

“3 years”.

“Exactly. That’s why I’ll only answer your question with a smile.”

How controlled.

“You see, globalization is a reality, and decoupling is a myth”.

Myth, really?

“It’s fancy phrases like “paradigm-shift” that catch the inexperienced investor’s imagination, leading to huge market mistakes”.

In these few sentences, my entire comprehension of markets was blown up and thrown out the window.

And that would have been a good thing…

…had I listened.

Such is the arrogance of “youth”, that “youth” doesn’t listen.

Soon, the ’08 crash happened.

I lost big time.

Was humbled.

Took me a long time to get back and stabilize.

I remember my stomach churning and my unwillingness to meet people as markets crashed to lower and lower levels.

I almost couldn’t take it.

We are our worst enemies.

What’s it going to be this market high?

We’ve learnt, and are positioned.

However, there will be newbies (like we were) who are going to go through this chain of events.

What buzz-words or phrases will catch their imagination?

BitCoin?

Liquidity?

Vaccine?

Quantitative Easing?

FIIs?

Pending rally in small-caps?

There’s a new cocktail doing the rounds this time around.

This cocktail will ensnare.

Even the topmost analysts are beginning to feel that a correction could take some time coming.

Some weeks ago, most felt that a correction could happen anytime now.

Player psychology is set for the cocktail to do its work.

Then one needs a pinprick.

In ’08 this was perhaps Lehman on the world scale and the Reliance Power IPO in India.

What’s it going to be this time?

It doesn’t matter.

Remember? There will always be a correction.

Are you positioned?

Positioned

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By now…

…, we are positioned.

The persistence of high price-levels…

…has led us to take appropriate action.

One after another, we are washing our market mistakes clean.

What remains, is cost-free-ness, in high-quality holdings.

We’ve then also helped our relatives and friends attain the same state of market-being.

MFs?

Now cost-free.

ULIPs?

Gotten them to money-market.

Debt market holdings?

No more debt market for a while.

Bond-yields are rising.

There’ve been blow-ups. Boys @ FT and Nippon take a bow.

Parking where?

Fixed deposits.

Why?

Not in it for returns.

Just to park, safely.

We’re sticklers for parking safely.

Loss of interest will be made up within days of opportunity, into which funds then flow, and then some.

One can now say…

,…safely…

,…that we’re positioned.

What happens from this point onwards?

How many days has the main sensory index spent at PEs of 35+ within the last 5000 days?

Yeah, right?

Small-cap rally still due?

That’s what everyone feels, right?

That’s the point.

Leave the masses hanging onto something they’re expecting.

If it doesn’t happen, they’re what?

Left hanging. Devil takes the hind-most.

Please do your math, and please position yourself too, appropriately.

What if markets go on rising?

Sure, that’s a possibility, perhaps for a while.

Simple rule.

No level, no entry.

We know how to sit.

On our holdings, and then…

…on our cost-free-ness.

Now, capital will only move…

…upon opportunity.

And the pipe-line’s ample, our positioning has seen to that.

Come something like March ’20, and we’ll blast the flow of our pipeline.

Oh, another thing.

Notice the speed of moves, nowadays?

It’s fast, isn’t it?

As in markets are efficient, till they’re not, and then they’re efficient again, and then they’re not, back and forth, to and fro, all very fast.

Meaning what?

Meaning, that there will be ample opportunities, more sooner than later, and that till there are inefficiencies on the down-side,…

…we sit tight…

…to maximize the impact of our positioning.

However, Cost-Free-Ness does afford us full Freedom of Focus

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Markets crashing?

Is one cost-free?

Yes?

No worries.

Markets can crash.

Technically speaking, one’s money is not on the line anymore.

This makes crashing markets a good thing for one.

Why?

Because of the lucrative entries coming up ahead, that’s why.

Is one able to focus?

You bet.

Somehow, magically, one’s focus is not on one’s existing Equity in the markets. Anymore.

Why?

Because it’s cost-free.

Earlier, falling markets would hamper full focus, which was supposed to be on fresh and lucrative entries coming one’s way.

With great difficulty, and lots of practice, one did manage to shift one’s gaze though, in the end.

Now, with complete cost-free-ness in the picture, focus is a breeze.

Yeah, one is fully focused on entry levels that might crop up in the stocks one is looking to enter into.

Without appropriate entry levels, one’s funds aren’t going to move. Period.

For that, one needs focus.

And it’s there.

Cost-Free-Ness completely does away with Fear

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When nothing from your end is invested, but you still have a holding in the markets,…

…you have created for yourself the state of cost-free-ness.

Cost-free-ness carries with itself a feeling of intense satisfaction…

…because of the sheer magnitude of the feat.

Well, congratulations.

With cost-free-ness comes absence of fear with regard to one’s cost-free holding.

When it’s not costing us, we’re not bothered.

Markets can go anywhere.

They can come down to zero, for all we care.

Fine.

Still unshaken?

Yes.

Why?

If markets comes down to zero, we can look to enter en-masse.

We’ve got principal, remember? Took it out, to create cost-free-ness, tu te souviens?

When markets come down to zero, owing to absence of fear, …

… our focus is not on our (cost-free) holding.

Instead, our focus is on the lucrative entries coming our way.

After markets come down to zero, if they do, they’ll soon reverse.

Then, our new entries will start becoming cost-free, as prices climb.

Soon, we’ll pull principal out again, and will have have new cost-free holdings, which we can transfer to our consolidated cost-free holding account.

Fear is nowhere in the equation.

Cost-Free-Ness

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Why…
 
…do we play this game?
 
I play it to…
 
…win.
 
What’s one’s definition of a win?
 
It’s different for everyone.
 
I’ll tell you mine.
 
I want to be completely cost-free in the markets before the end of a bull-run. 
 
What does being cost-free mean?
 
It means that whatever one has in the market, has been completely freed up of its principal. 
 
That’s done by taking the principal out, over time, as markets climb. 
 
What purpose does cost-free-ness serve? 
 
Firstly, whatever’s in the market now, in a cost-free state, is all high quality material. 
 
It can’t be otherwise. 
 
What’s not high quality will be pulled out as markets persist in their climb. 
 
Why?
 
The impulse to book is very strong. 
 
In that state of mind, whatever is not worth holding anymore, will be automatically booked. 
 
It’s human nature. 
 
Secondly, what’s in the market now, can stay in, like, forever, without causing us any tension. 
 
That’s an ideal state of mind for the creation of multibaggers, and the underlyings in question are all multibagger material, being the essence of one’s entire market-play. 
 
Thirdly, one has gotten one’s soldiers home, to fight more battles, as valiantly as ever, in the times to come. 
 
Ya, cost-free-ness means that one has pulled one’s principal out. 
 
This very principal will now be utilized to make more and more shares cost-free.
 
Fourthly, we are not going to suffer any pangs about the markets climbing and climbing further. 
 
Further climb benefits our material in the market, immediately. 
 
More material, picked up at trading levels, is likely to yield a small chunk of cost-free shares, in the form of a winning trade. As one exits such trade, one leaves one’s profit in the market, in the form of cost-free shares. 
 
Sure, eventually the market will collapse, and we’ll be left with some material which is not only not cost-free, but is now losing, perhaps big.
 
That’s ok.
 
Why?
 
Because, quantities are relatively small. These are trading levels, remember? Thus, entries will be small.
 
Then, these are the same underlyings as already existing in our portfolio. 
 
We want to hold these. 
 
We are holding many cost-free units of these very underlyings. 
 
Current loss-making units of these underlyings can be averaged as markets sink further, because we are highly convinced about these holdings.
 
Eventually, the curve will turn, and a new cycle will start.
 
As markets climb in the new cycle, eventually these new units will start becoming cost-free.
 
Such positive loop outlined above is the market sweet-spot I always wish to be in.
 
It’s the essence of almost seventeen years of first-hand, in-the-field market learning, with personal funds on the line at all times, struggles, losses, beatings, the works and what have you. 
 
And now, there’s cost-free-ness.
 
That’s my win in the markets!
 
🙂
 
 
 
 

Using Counter-Intuition as a Buy-Sell-Tool

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When the world is burning around you…

and there’s “blood on the Street”…

the last thing that one wishes to do…

…is to…

…buy.

Why?

One is afraid.

However, the most lucrative buys are the ones…

…made precisely…

…at this point in time.

Everything in our brain- and bio-chemistry will be screaming not to buy.

We will now use this state of being as a buy tool.

What?

You think I’ve let some kind of a secret out of the bag, or something?

Try doing it.

That’s the thing.

It’s most difficult to push through.

That’s also the reason very few people make big money in the markets.

Now let’s speak about exits.

Nobody really knows what’s a good exit, ever.

Why?

That’s because nobody knows the future in advance.

What we do know, is that euphoria can last long enough…

to wipe shorts out…

…as the recent shorters et al found out the hard way, in the US.

When there’s euphoria, we don’t feel like selling.

We want to make more, and more.

We feel that this can go on and on, ad infinitum.

Every bone in our body says hold on.

A sell made at this time could well nip a multi bagger in the gut.

However, our counter-intuition is speaking.

It’s already done us a service by providing us with great entries.

Let’s at least listen.

Tell you what we can do.

We can listen to it, i.e. we can exit, to some extent only.

That way, we’ll have exited and will still be in the market.

How exactly, then?

When we are feeling like this, and are experiencing prolonged euphoria…

…we can get rid of unwanted stuff.

As euphoria continues to rage, we target to make all wanted holdings cost-free, bit by bit, by exiting to that extent, ultimately and ideally.

Yes, ideally, we only want to be left holding cost-free items in the market.

From that point onwards, we don’t care where the markets are going with regard to our holdings.

It’s a sweet-spot, and we are in it because we have used counter-intuition as an effective and lucrative buying and selling tool.

Breaking Free

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[ “I want to break free
I want to break free
I want to break free from your lies
You’re so self satisfied I don’t need you
I’ve got to break free
God knows, God knows I want to break free… ” – Queen].

How does one stay invested in the markets…

…despite all its deceptions and mind-games?

As indices creep up and up, our minds start playing tricks on us.

We seek excuses to cash out.

And, mostly, we…

…cash out.

Done?

NO.

We don’t want to be done.

Why?

There might come a day, when we wish we hadn’t cashed out.

Markets can stay overbought for ages.

Or not.

We don’t know.

No one knows.

Appreciation that counts sets in upon staying invested for the long-term.

How does one resolve this…

…conflict of mind versus reality?

One…

…breaks free.

Meaning?

Free up whatever has gone in.

Meaning?

Cash out the principal.

Leave the profit in the market.

This profit has cost no money.

Leaving it on the table is not a biggie.

Or is it?

It is…

…for most.

Those, for whom it isn’t, will benefit properly from compounding.

Now, what’s the danger?

No danger.

What’s on the table hasn’t cost you, so no danger.

Still, what would one fear?

No fear. What’s in is free, so no fear.

Let me paraphrase.

What’s the worst-case scenario from here?

Well, U-turn, and a big-time correction.

So what?

Use the correction to buy low, with the idea of freeing up more and more underlying(s) upon the high.

This way, size of one’s freed-up corpus keeps growing, and so does one’s exposure to compounding.

Wishing all very lucrative investing! 🙂