Category Archives: Margin of Safety

Reflex

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Uncertainty…

…gives rise to…

…options.

Well, if one is liquid.

If not, one doesn’t have the luxury.

If yes, one has the option to act…

…upon the opportunity being offered.

Or, one can choose not to act. To wait. For an even better opportunity.

These are wonderful options.

How did they come into play?

Because of uncertainty.

This trait makes people nervous.

When the masses are nervous, they sell.

This creates selling pressure, …

…leading to falling prices.

These, after considerable falls, create opportune entries.

That’s where we come in, because we are…

…liquid.

Liquidity doesn’t come for free.

One needs to learn how to create it, and one keeps learning this till liquidity-creation has become a reflex. Our financial behaviour, from this point onwards, out of sheer reflex, just sheer generates…

…liquidity, …

…units, …

…soldiers that fight another day, another battle, to, in the future, bring back home their…

…winnings.

Rounders

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West’s got…

…woes, …

…currently being voiced in…

…Dawoes.

World Economic Forums come and go.

We’re not looking for flavours of the season.

And what’s our game?

Growth.

Ok.

With value.

How?

Reasonable price. Good dip on chart owing to current theatricals.

How do you measure value on a chart?

You can use conventionally accepted systems like Fibonacci, or you can make up your own systems too, whatever works for you.

Example?

First I’ll give you an example from Fibonacci.

Ok.

I’ll be buying into Growth below midpoint between 61.8% and 78.6% dip on a Fibonacci retracement.

Why?

That’s when the rubber-band is really being stretched, and beyond.

And what if the fall goes beyond 100 on the Fibonacci.

So be it. Change the retracement starting point to one pivot below. You now have a new Fibonacci. Buy below your band, defined just above.

Oh, so you’ve kind of re-assembled Fibonacci usage for yourself.

Ya. Anyone can do it.

Give me a more unique example. Something that’s your own.

I have the round number thing.

Being?

When all levels under consideration are broken or met, that’s when I activate ‘Rounders’.

Ha! Nice touch with the nickname!

:-).

Tell me about Rounders.

Well, at this point, when everything else is broken or met, and you’re poised to enter, you ask yourself just one more question.

Which is?

What’s the one round number below? 1000? 100? 50? 25? 10? 5?

5s are round numbers?

For scrips quoting in double digits, very much so.

Ok, so what of the one round number below?

Below this point, look for a break by about a percent, and buy there.

Sucking out all the value that’s possible, are you?

One takes what one can get.

What if you don’t get your buy?

So we don’t get it. Period. Soldiers are intact to fight another day. We wait for a few sessions and end up getting our price. Or not. In which case we deactivate Rounders if we are that keen to enter, and then we go for it.

I see. Soldiers?

Capital deployed into untriggered trade. This one’s no big deal either, by the way. Jesse Livermore used to buy three points below support, I believe.

Were you inspired by Jesse regarding Rounders?

I’ve read and re-read a lot of his books, so, perhaps.

But the name you’re using is yours.

It is. Rounders is a name I’ve given.

How come you gave a name?

Cheap thrills. 🙂

How to?

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How does one…

…position oneself…

…for what’s coming?

What’s coming?

Yeah.

Meaning the turbulence ahead?

What else. First up, we’re taking turbulence to be the norm, from this point onwards.

All right. Turbulence = norm. Baseline set.

Then, how do we maximally exploit our understanding, …

…simultaneously creating income…

…but then also allowing wealth to accumulate and compound?

Yeah, how do we?

You tell me.

We need to start with an asset class.

Right.

Which asset class?

Again, you tell me.

What we’re comfortable with.

Yes. Beautiful. And then we weaponize the asset class chosen, the one we’re comfortable with.

Weaponize?

Yeah. Otherwise it will be no good for these times. We need to make it time-befitting.

Example?

Let’s say you choose gold, ok? What good are your efforts in gold if after a point governments nationalize it and then confiscate it, paying you a reasonable price at that moment, and then, from that point onwards, in the hands of enough governments, gold turns a 100-bagger, for them, not for you?

Yeah, what good are my efforts in gold then?

No good. You need to trade gold, use some profits as income, and another portion of profits you invest in other asset classes, bought cheap, which the government has issues regulating harshly.

Like? Crypto?

Some think so. That’s their weapon of choice. Personally, I have problems with storing my entire networth on a pen-drive. That alone takes crypto off the table for me.

So where do you go?

Stocks. They come naturally to me.

Stocks can be harshly regulated.

In isolation, if we’re looking at stocks-stocks, yes, I’ll give you that. In a solid framework encapsulated within an income-generation cum wealth-creation mechanism operating with fundamental, evergreen principles like margin of safety, letting profits run, position-sizing and what have you, even stocks can be made to behave like the anti-fragile system they are a part of.

Would that not be valid for any asset classes, then?

Yes, provided the government can’t seize that asset class overnight from you.

Like cash?

True.

Gold?

True.

Silver?

Yeah.

Bonds?

Not sure. Risk of default though.

Real-estate?

Prices of real-estate follow demand and supply, and demand is reciprocally proportional to negative regulation. Governments can crash real-estate. So, yes.

Crypto?

I’m not so sure that crypto is beyond regulation. However, exchanges collapsing regularly are not my scene.

Stocks?

Have we heard of governments seizing stocks? As long as no illegal activity, all debts paid off, clear ownership and succession, I don’t think the government can do that. So stocks of companies, for me, remain in the fray. On top of that, we encapsulate them into a system. The system has an edge. It’s multi-faceted. It generates income, approximately when required, in cash. Otherwise, it creates wealth through compounding. Throw in 20 -30 models like margin of safety, letting most profits run, position-sizing, fine-tuned Fibonacci, income dynamos, etc. etc., and what we’re looking at is a unique entity, which behaves differently when compared to fragile stocks, or even to robust stocks.

So what you’re trying to say is that it all depends how you handle each asset class is what makes that asset class either fragile, robust or anti-fragile.

Exactly.

Is that your word?

Which word?

Anti-fragile.

No. It belongs to Mr. Taleb. In whatever way a word or a concept can belong to a person…

Like governments can crash real-estate, they can also crash stocks. What do you say to that?

Oh, that’s an anti-fragile part of this system, which leaves the user liquid enough to benefit greatly from such crash, seen from a 15 month perspective. User of such system is positioned to take huge advantage of temporary and large price dips. Stocks have a very low ticket size as compared to real-estate, and can be readily swooped up in a crash in bulk, unlike real-estate, which is heavy and is a huge liquidity-enemy.

Where do you stand with your system, personally?

As a whole, I’m working towards making my system with stocks, income-generation and wealth-compounding as antifragile as I possibly can.

What’s the critical mass, above which the system can be considered safe for the new world order?

I’m not sure. It’s all experimental.

So how will you know?

If I make the transition to the new world order whilst preserving a large portion of my portfolio, I’ll know that I’ve succeeded.

Any other method apart from the make or break one suggested by you?

No. Everything else is theory. Surviving reasonably well and then thriving is the only practical method that counts for me.

Thanks.

🙂

Potent Pioneers

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Hey.

We define our own roadmap.

Own indicators.

Own rules of action.

Own changes to our rules.

Own interpretations of prevailing market rules.

You get the drift. We have our own way of looking at things.

First up, acting on someone’s opinion leaves us at their beck and call.

Then, there’s the thrill, the kick, of defining a path.

And, lastly, but most definitely not ‘least…ly…(?!?)’, since everything on the path is kind of different, we don’t get slaughtered with the masses.

Also, in our own unique way, we have first mover advantage.

We can do all this, because we’re (almost always) liquid.

Liquidity is ammunition. Just ask a soldier what ammunition is worth in battle.

Liquidity didn’t come to us just like that.

We learnt (from many a beating) how to accumulate it.

Now we’ve learnt, …

… and we’re liquid, …

… and we’ve developed our own unique system …

… with its own unique edge.

This makes us…

… potent…

… pioneers.

Noise Diaries

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When something is a given, ….

…one just sheer deals with it.

And that something just got so much louder.

For example, social media is screaming with that something, i.e. …

… noise.

However, noise…

… has value.

One needs to know what’s being floated among the masses.

Furthermore, it’s helpful to gauge the decibel level.

If we look at the current scenario, everyone and their Aunty are yelling “Craaassshhhhhh…!” Dollar, bonds, gold silver, stocks, real-estate…

…everything’s supposed to “Craaassshhhhhhh!”

Fine.

Keep shouting.

At least we get an idea about the script and the concerned noise-level.

Is it supposed to scare us?

Yes.

Are we scared?

NO.

Why not?

Because we’re busy doing exactly what they don’t want us to.

Firstly, who’s ‘they’?

The floaters of the script. You were asking, ya, secondly?

Secondly, what do ‘they’ now NOT want us to do?

Buy cheap, like they are. They want us to let go and sell to them.

Wow.

Ya, it’s the biggest wealth-transfer in the History of mankind, currently unfolding.

Are you then not afraid of a crash, if you are buying now?

No.

Why not?

I’m liquid. If there’s a crash I’ll continue buying, into the crash. My entry quantum is aptly small and a function of my networth, thus allowing me entries for three to five years, upon any signs of reasonable value. Held over the years and bought with a clear head, in a growth market, assets will yield stellar returns.

So you’re saying you’ll cover the crash?

Yes. Timelines move very fast nowadays. Markets, when at all efficient, have become super-efficient, as if trying to prove a point to the level of overkill. When not efficient, they bubble or crash. Super-speed in times of efficiency is a huge bonus for us.

How?

Crashes play out within a shortish time-span. Buying through the crash is over fast. It’s not that when there’s a fire the crash is going to happen after five years. It will happen way sooner than later.

So is that enough time to get your money in, especially with a small entry quantum?

No. That’s why it’s important for small entry quantum cum long-term players like us, crash in, crash out, to keep buying amidst any signs of cheapness caused by fear-mongers creating all this…

…noise!

Exactly! 🙂

Opportunity

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Knock knock!

Who’s there?

Oppo.

Oppo who?

Oppo – rrrr – tunity, which don’t knock often (enough).

Yes, huge opportunity is knocking.

Global talent will stay indoors, to a large extent, from now onwards, come this September 21st, i.e. today onwards.

Brain gain time for us.

India is going to boom. Forget about tomorrow, next week, next month, but come medium term, and, going on to the long term, India will shine.

Sure, tomorrow, Indian IT will probably be down. Who’s in it for just tomorrow? One doesn’t get one’s house valued every day, week or year. One might do it when one is contemplating a sale, maybe after twenty years of owning it. Same goes for very long-term held compounders. Like Indian IT.

So, down? Maybe. Out? NO!!! Drag other markets? A bit. Effect to continue? Very short-term.

Beautiful thing is, Indian and possibly other corporates have been working on their plan Bs, and perhaps their plan Cs, and have, slowly but surely, been implementing these.

Also, government is boldly stepping up and refusing to get bullied. Watch out for the measures to be announced that will further boost the economy, to counter this ‘shock’. Thing is, where other nations have started thinking and acting short-term only, India has started to play a longer-term game. One can call it a meta-game.

Bottom-line.?

Time to answer the door-bell, open the door, and let the knockers in.

In my opinion, it’s safe to put one’s money on the line here.

Should Indian IT fall, large quantities of domestic funds will be lapping it up. Smart money will definitely be buying into offered margin of safety.

Why?

Fundamentals.

Clean balance sheets.

Free cashflow.

ZERO DEBT.

High RoE.

Large number of diligently purchased start-ups owned.

AI incorporation and development.

Steady growth.

Technical margin of safety being offered, possibly, tomorrow onwards.

And now, brain gain.

These are some of the big pluses that Indian IT offers.

So, one can easily and calmly go out there, and, with a cool head, put one’s hard-earned money into any margin of safety exhibited by these potential compounders with amazing track records, with a clear-cut goal of generating long-term wealth.

Wishing you happy and lucrative investing!

🙂

Strategy

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Reserve currency’s buying power is…

…waning.

Many others, too, have pointed out, that…

…assets…

…quoted in the reserve currency…

…are getting expensive.

Across the board.

If something is happening across the board, is the entire board showing an anomaly, or is it the underlying entity, here the reserve currency, that is behaving differently?

Going for the latter. Gut. Common sense. Fundamentals. Printing. Geopolitical balance of scales.

Diagnosis stands. The only bubble in town is a reserve-currency-bubble.

Doesn’t stop here.

Central governments across the world blindly price, or, rather, mis-price their own currencies in response to movements in the reserve currency. Many governments artificially support levels of their own currencies which are not realistic. Net net, asset markets worldwide are rising. It seems that buying powers of fiat currencies in general is falling. Masses seem to be losing confidence in fiat currencies.

Where does this leave you, financially?

Are you very liquid?

Hmmm, liquidity is losing value. How about moving some of your liquidity into assets of your choice. Look for value, and act where you find it.

However, stay liquid to a comfortable extent, and let some value of that particular liquidity be lost. It’s ok. You’ll make it up and more, in the event of a correction, where you’ll be tanking up on assets of your choice.

There will always be a correction. Period. You need to be at least somewhat liquid, come a correction, and it will.

So, this is what needs to be done.

Identify extra, and movable liquidity.

Look for value.

See if you are comfortable with the asset class offering value.

If yes, move any extra liquidity into the asset offering value, bit by bit.

Thaw?

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What does this even mean, …

… in today’s financial context?

Great, there’s some kind of a thaw on the horizon.

It’s only happening because one leader refused to be bullied.

Now, others are at least voicing themselves.

Had no one stood up, bully would have continued to arm-twist the world.

Is this a healthy situation?

Specificallly, in the context of one new tantrum almost everyday, there seems to be something big brewing.

Markets, in their efforts to behave ‘efficiently’, factored in a possible ‘thaw’, and one is barely getting entries now, for lack of margin of safety.

Fine.

No action is also considered action. No action is supreme.

Since one can feel it in one’s bones that something big is brewing, …

… will choose to save entry capital for the times to come.

Whatever’s brewing, should it come to pass, …

… will create the conditions for more entries, …

… will create margin of safety.

Proppers

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Come a crash, …

… we will let it…

…rip.

Toolkit is in place.

Having said that, the thing about crashes is, that when everyone expects them, …

… they don’t come.

If it were that easy, markets wouldn’t be markets.

That’s exactly what they are doing currently, being what they are, markets.

Some are being propped, and other markets are showing resilience, taking any kind of news in stride, and still advancing.

How long can something be propped?

Not forever.

However, longer than most players can stay liquid, that’s how long.

That’s an old market adage.

Eventually, proppers get tired, of printing, circulation, falsification or whatever gimmick they are employing. Mistakes at this level are deadly.

When a propped main market pops, initially it does take down most other markets, but resilient ones recover fast. Propped ones, after the pop, remain down, meaning that they encounter a delayed recovery.

A big pop only means entry opportunities in our resilient market of choice.

There’s no question of fear. This is what we wait for. Margin of Safety. Value. Opportunity.

Entry.

Signposts

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Noise, …

… currently, …

… is deafening.

Posturing, …

… rebuttal, …

… a coup nearby, …

… printing, …

… and what have you, …

… have now become par for the course.

What are the signposts we follow, amidst this chaos?

First up, let’s not be afraid of chaos. Big returns are made exactly there.

We are going to follow high-growth, …

… and specifically, value offered in a high-growth market. Ya, we’ll never get away from margin of safety. It keeps coming back, in one form or another, whether one is investing, or even trading. We use it to get a little better value while entering, facilitated by Technicals. We understand that it’s in volatile times and markets that growth offers value, very temporarily.

Needless to say, basic Fundamentals need to be intact, on the path that we tread.

The governments, and managements we invest in need to show integrity, and develop trust.

We remind ourselves, that high growth is a non-linear entity, and thus we need to stay invested.

We achieve this by keeping our Cost-Free-Ness in the market, like, forever.

We toil to create more and more Cost-Free-Ness.

What this exactly is has been explained ad nauseam in this space, at many earlier instances.

Creation of Cost-Free-Ness means that our principal goes to work repeatedly. Its mini-units are like soldiers that go into battle, bring back winnings, and then they rest, to be deployed another day. If some deployed principal is losing, we wait for it to win. If losses mount, we always have the option to bail it out, or to switch its battle.

The beauty about Cost-Free-Ness is, that since it remains in the field, like, forever, there then is no cap on its upside, in a high-growth market.

Wishing you happy and lucrative wealth-creation!

🙂

Steady

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Markets are not, …

… but we are …

… steady.

Why?

Our plan is in place.

And, it’s acting out.

At such a time, when things are actually happening, should we just bail?

NO.

We had built up to this.

We had determined…

…to be liquid…

…at a time like this.

And now the time is happening.

We were mindful of not underestimating market-forces and how they influence the mind.

We knew we’d feel a sense of fear…

…but had taught ourselves to still act, by generating an environment of fearlessness.

And acting we are, fearlessly.

Funds have been going in, and will continue to go in throughout the fall, bit by bit.

This is our time.

When everyone is afraid, that’s when we play.

We are actualizing big profits by this action, because we are buying into margin of safety. Actualization will translate into real profits at a later stage. Sooner, than later.

You see, things take place very fast in the markets nowadays. Falls happen extremely quickly. Bear markets were capped at 15 to 18 months pre-CoVid. However, don’t you feel the speed of movement is much quicker nowadays?

So, currently, we are buying into margin of safety. Eventually we’ll pull some principal out and create cost-free holdings. Later, as levels pick up, we’ll be buying into momentum. Our entry quantum will increase with increasing levels, since entry-size is a function of portfolio-size for us. Also, the speed of translation into cost-free-ness will shoot up.

We will continue to create cost-free-ness through all cycles, sometimes slowly, sometimes faster.

Over time, our created cost-free-ness will become a sizeable legacy.

A-Gamers

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Hey, …

…nowadays, …

…we only play our A-game.

There’s no time for formalities.

It’s late in the day.

All weapons are out.

This is the need of the hour.

So, what are the salient features of our A-game?

A well-forged, multiply-faceted, time-tested road map – our system of systems – our one Strategy. This one’s 360 degrees. It incorporates both trading and investing, and leads to very long holds in cost-free form. Includes more than twenty highly competitive, sharpened, edge-providing Modules, about which I wrote a few articles back. As far as strategies go, we are cruising in a Maybach on the Autobahn. No worries there.

Patience. In the last twenty odd years, we have learnt how to sit. Makes biggest money, said we know who. Patience is ubiquitous, or is it? Many people have developed it. Many are born with it. But then, many are not. And, markets demand their own kind of patience. Over the years, we have learnt and developed market-patience. We wait for our levels before acting. We sit on our Cost-Free-Ness, like, forever. We are not in a hurry. I ‘can behave’ as if this is my own module 🙂 (do allow me the indulgence), but patience is universal and out there for everyone to incorporate and exploit on their own.

Liquidity. This is a module. Am reiterating it here since it is key. Our initial small-entry-quantum strategy (remember, that’s how we started!) allowed us ample liquidity, always. Yes, we were always liquid in situations, when they came, while building up the backbone of our portfolios. Slowly, portfolio-size started to grow. Then came the incorporation of position-sizing, thanks to my learnings from Dr. Van K.Tharp. Subsequently, I instinctively added my own twist to this, making it Non-Linear Position Sizing (NLPS) that we follow. NLPS initially allows for small entry quanta. As portfolio-size increases, so does each entry quantum-size. However, the latter increases more than y = x, i.e. more than linear. This means that over the very long term, entry quanta become remarkably substantial in size. Nevertheless, we still maintain balance by perhaps Fine-Tuning entries and exits to the nth level, i.e. with huge win probabilities, which automatically / mathematically leads to lesser entries. Strategy thus goes on cruise-control. Furthermore, outstanding entry-prices, followed by Quick Generation of cost-free-ness make our very long-term holdings as Anti-Fragile (thanks for the term, Mr. Taleb) as possible.

Talking of cruise-control, our back-end allows for full Automation at button-clicks. All transactional trail-mail is auto-forwarded to every required avenue. It’s a one-time self-setup time-expense, so don’t be afraid of it, since the reward is disproportionately huge. Each avenue allows preview and further transfer / storage after button-clicks. Taxation? Button-clicks. Indexing? Button-clicks. Retrieval? Button-clicks. Viewing in any format? Button-Clicks (baby).

Time. We have all the time in the world. We do our own thing. Income is sorted. Wealth is being generated on auto, and is multiplying. Learn languages. Travel. Pro-bono. I teach kids. To manage their own finances. From a young age. Currently I’m teaching four kids. It’s a give-back, and they can pay it forward.

In a nutshell, that’s my A-game. I’ve taught it forward, so I can talk about a we. You’ve seen it develop in this space over the last 14+ years. I’ve nothing to hide. It’s for everyone to use and benefit from. The act of Giving gives me the most Satisfaction in life.

Waiters

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Hey, …

…what’s your hurry?

This is a long game.

It will continue…

…after you.

Hurry will spoil the curry.

Learn to wait…

…for your level.

We’re waiters.

We win…

…because we wait.

No level, no action.

If we’ve leant how to wait, we’re already ahead of most players. Almost 90% don’t know how to wait.

What’s the worst that can happen?

Our level doesn’t come, and we don’t get some particular action. Could be a buy, could be a sell.

Fine.

We can live with that.

There’s always another day, another opportunity, another set of actions, …

…just move onto the next scrip, entry and / or exit available.

What’s most important is that we have kept our liquidity intact.

We are financially sound for the next action.

A hurried entry without the level coming would have used up this particular liquidity, making it unavailable for the next action.

We act…

…at our level.

Our level is set to make winning highly probable.

That’s why, in the long game, …

…we win.

Obviousness

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Knowledge streams…

…at unprecedented speed.

You want it?

You got it.

Lag is negligible.

Everyone has access.

Conclusion? Fazit? Nichor? Bilan?

What seems obvious is likely a trap.

Fundamentals can be fudged, to an extent. A closer look at gaps between fundamentals vs actuals unveils those who fudge. Actuals on the ground will need to match fundamentals, somewhere. For example, if there’s no debt on the balance-sheet, there will well be a surplus which the company in question accumulates, and there will be a path on which this surplus flows. This path should be visible in the annual report. If there’s no surplus, company will show visible signs of stagnation. If something officially declared by a company doesn’t match (visible) actuals, the fudging window opens. We steer clear of companies with even a fudging crack open.

Technicals can be used to set entry and exit traps.

By professionals

For the masses.

Masses act at levels.

Generally, price hovers around an obvious level till the majority has acted. Then, generally, price goes against. When crowds cut entries, institutions enter on their exits. This strategy paves the way for relatively easy and heavy entries.

Moral of the story for us?

We wait for an obvious level.

We don’t act. Yet. However, we are on alert.

We envision an aftermath play in our minds.

Entry pivots are coming quick, nowadays. There’s hardly any time to act, especially if one has an otherwise busy schedule.

Therefore…

…we only deal in GTTs. Period.

Thus we feed in our GTTs, as per mentally outlined situation, and back up these with funding, if entry-trigger is less than 5.2% away. All this we do in a cool moment, after market hours, away from the noise, when we can think clearly.

And, most importantly, …

…we do it away from the obviousness.

Chronology

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Pipelines…

…come at a cost.

And, first up, there’s no need to fret about this cost.

I know, it pinches.

Having funds at a 20 second disposal will definitely cost.

Why go this extra, extra mile?

That’s a very befitting question.

We are not mad to create pipelines on call within 20 seconds.

Well, just to give you a heads up about how things can go down, here’s something.

June 4th, India, markets tank in the first hour.

Alerts, GTDs, GTTs, what-have-yous trigger.

I’m busy. Business meeting. Can’t get away.

6 of 7 GTTs in place get hit, and I’m in on these 6 scrips, at my price. 7th gets hit. No entry. No more funds in purchase account reported.

As meeting leader delivers on taxation laws in the country, there’s regret in my mind. Why did I not have enough funds in place?

Idea.

Let’s slimily look busy, and, meanwhile, activate a pipeline, put funds in place, and forcefully enter this particular scrip at CMP.

“Could you please pay attention, Mr. Nath, and put your phone away!”

Yikes.

Meeting ends (phew).

Action stations. Funds in place. Yes.

But what have we here?

Scrip’s showing a huge pin, and live daily candle has become a hammer. Bottomed out and then some, has the scrip. CMP is now 11% above the bottom.

Chickening out.

11% shaved off my margin of safety, in 45 minutes.

Yes people, that’s the window nowadays, for getting dream entries.

45 minutes.

Had it not been for the meeting, I would have been in within a minute or two, after reading the alert that GTT got triggered but no funds were available.

Lost time in this case would have been the interval between reading messages, plus a minute or two to have funds in place and go through with the buy. I’m not very regular about messages, though, perhaps on purpose, and 30 minute plus periods can well elapse. So, window cuts very fine. Idea is, whenever awareness kicks in, one needs to be in within a minute or two, if the GTT option has failed to deliver due to whatever reason.

The case described above was the one time that did not work, despite having everything of the highest quality in place.

What puts salt on the wounds is that the scrip quasi doubled from there within three months, so those lost 11% on margin of safety were peanuts. Yeah, the final fail was my fearful mind.

Painfulllllll….

That’s how it crumbles. One learns from the pain.

No pain, no learning.

My learning from this is that when GTT limit is 5.2% below CMP, we just sheer put funds in place for that GTT…

…now.

Pigs

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A structural component of markets…

…are its hands.

There are weak ones.

Then, other hands are strong.

Weak hands can be snatched from…

…easily.

They panic fast, and throw their holding during mild turmoil, …

… they are afraid, …

…not possessing holding-power, because they haven’t created the circumstances, and have prematurely jumped into a market.

Buying without margin of safety is one such premature jump.

Without fundamental, technical and / or general knowledge are others.

They are the mythical ‘pigs’ that get ‘slaughtered’.

Evert cycle produces new ones.

The ‘pig’ of one cycle eventually goes on to become a strong hand of another future cycle.

Strong hands know.

They study fundamentals, or technicals, or are generally savvy from experience, having developed market intuition. Strong hands have come prepared, perhaps, with a combination of all these traits.

They are liquid.

The’ll buy through the fall, piece by piece.

You can’t throw them off, …

…because they have holding-power.

It didn’t come for free, for once upon a time, they too were ‘pigs’ that got slaughtered, but they survived to live another day, learn, and rebuild.

As we grow in market experience, our hands tend to get stronger.

Some ‘pigs’ don’t make it to the next market.

Their slaughter moment might come late, paralyzing them financially, with no time, or energy, or both, to recover.

Some just give up on markets after an early slaughter experience.

We need to make many mistakes, early in the game, by sheer doing, learning, and not repeating, these. Early on, the numbers that we play with, are generally small. That’s when we need to get fatal errors out of the way.

As our numbers grow, and as our hands become strong, we then position ourselves…

…to thrive in the markets.

Any market.

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!

🙂

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.

Being Cost-Free is like having 100% Margin-of-Safety

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What allows us to sit?

It’s margin-of-safety.

When we buy without margin-of-safety, we are not able to sit for the long term.

Long-term investing fails for us if we don’t know how to sit.

Extrapolating this logic further, what would allow us to sit on high-quality holdings, like, forever, allowing for multibaggers to develop in our portfolio?

It’s cost-free-ness.

Being cost-free in a stock is equivalent to having 100% margin-of-safety on the holding.

Such a state of being allows us to freely sit on the holding, like, forever.

A range of other benefits open up for us, and about these we have spoken in detail earlier.

For example, we become fearless with regard to our cost-free holding. Then, we experience full freedom of focus on future play, while simultaneously forgetting that we even have this other cost-free holding that we own! Like I said, we’ve discussed all this thoroughly in previous pieces.

Bottom-line is, that we understand explicitly following extrapolation : Buying with margin-of-safety translates into sitting-ability for us, leading to creation of cost-free-ness upon appropriate appreciation, and such cost-free-ness in turn equates to 100% margin of safety in the held underlying, which then allows us to sit indefinitely on our high quality holding.

We’ve thus set the stage for holding many multibaggers in our ‘folio, by the time we reach retirement age.

🙂