Category Archives: Opportunity

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!

🙂

Task

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Pockets…

…burn.

Other ones are still stable.

There’s no telling when…

…some of these will start to burn too.

Such are the times, that a new war commences within hours.

Meanwhile, our subconscious immunity to newsflow reaches new highs everyday.

That’s a huge marker for over-confidence.

Those entering propped markets in full flow are showing this trait in vast degrees.

At a time like this, where do we need to be, financially?

A 1.0.1. tenet that applies here is that basic finances need to be at our beck and call. No 48hr+ lags please.

Also, one needs to be in things one understands oneself. Ulterior motives rule amongst all financial institutions in extreme times, and the helm needs to be firmly in our hands, even if part of our finances are in theirs. So, nothing discretionary, please. Don’t leave yourself at the whim and fancy of a fund manager. Funds are yours. You will do a better job, specifically because your lifeblood is on the line.

Let’s plan for…

…entries, …

… exits, …

… continuity, …

… and legacy.

When it comes to personal finance, the job required is nothing short of thorough, solving for all nuances possible and conceivable.

Wishing you happy and lucrative investing!

🙂

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!

🙂

Win-Win, Anyone?

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Hey,

Our country just changed lanes.

It’s creating some waves in multiple fields.

India doesn’t posture.

It just…

…does, …

… quietly.

It’s been doing, quietly, for some decades now.

The cup just brimmed over, for the whole world to see, and for friends to acknowledge.

India’s efforts can’t be swept under the carpet anymore, they are just too many.

Sure, long way to go, I agree, but the point being made is that current GDP numbers, and soon to be double digit GDP numbers are encountered on the journey from ‘developing to developed’ phenomena.

Such numbers are not encountered in ‘already developed’ phenomena.

Therefore, anyone wishing to participate in these numbers, welcome, just come, in friendship, and earn some good profits.

However, if some are fuming, with jealousy, then its on them. Stop fuming. Be part of the journey. It’s everyone’s for the taking. India has a large heart. Invest in it. Now.

Don’t waste energy and resources in ventures aimed at derailing India. Instead, use your acumen to earn India’s trust, so that you can partner with it.

Let’s go places, together, in friendship.

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.

Approach

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Hey,

Just did a mental review about my approach to the markets over the years.

Saw how I started out.

What was the motivation?

Strategy?

Mindset?

Outcome?

Then gauged these parameters after being in the markets for ten years.

And, finally, assessed the same as of today, after being in the markets for twenty years.

Here are a few observations.

Approach softened over the years.

Not in quantity. Will come to that in a bit.

No, approach became opportunity-linked.

One didn’t wish that the markets would be somewhere.

One played them where they were, as was worthy of that situation.

One wasn’t tense.

One had rules. Approach was now rule-based.

One enjoyed the approach.

It was relaxing.

It now gave a kick.

Now, there was feeling of achievement.

Of creation.

Of success.

Earlier, all this wasn’t there.

One was tense most of the time.

One followed markets all the time.

Sometimes, sleep eluded.

Now, after market hours, what market? When you don’t think about it, it doesn’t exist, for you.

I’d said I would mention quantity, which has been increasing steadily, since it’s a function of portfolio-size.

So, in a nutshell, benefits abound, upon ever-increasing quantity?

What’s happened?

What’s changed?

Have gotten into a groove.

Found a sweet-spot.

Entered a zone. The Zone, perhaps.

It’s like that ‘perfect’ cover drive, or an optimal trajectory golf drive shot resulting in a birdie for the hole. Don’t wish to use ‘hole-in-one’ here, that would be too much… .

In the Zone, you know things.

Someone outside the Zone will ask how one knows.

Don’t know. One just knows.

One can attach oneself to the swing of the Universe.

One is one with the swing.

It takes time to get into the groove.

For me, make that twenty years.

One becomes mouldable, and flows with the current of the Zone.

I enjoy my approach.

It’s not tangible.

Visibility is not my criterion.

What is, then?

Fulfilment.

If my approach is all I have when I die, I’ll leave with a feeling of fulfilment.

Magnets

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Numbers…

…can behave like magnets.

Most of the time, and for most people, however, they don’t.

Yet, I know they do.

How?

From live example.

Haven’t figured out the dynamics (yet).

For example, when certain patterns or combinations prevail, I find my head turning towards them.

It’s happened too many times for it to be a healthy coincidence.

So…

…first let’s acknowledge, that this is a phenomenon.

Secondly, l’m acknowledging current lack of understanding of the mechanism.

Thirdly, yes, I acknowledge that I don’t care how it works. Bottomline is that it works.

Do you necessarily know the physics that propels a car? Yet, you drive or travel in one.

Have you mastered the biochemistry of a body-cell? Yet you live, perhaps thrive.

Looking beyond the ‘first tell me how it works’ attitude, we are far more interested in harnessing the power of the phenomenon.

Number Patterns.

Chart patterns.

Some indicate entries. Others exits. Yet others status quo.

Single numbers.

Combinations.

Some remind us of events.

Loved ones.

Warnings.

Messges.

Figure out what’s happening around you.

The universe is speaking to us with this tool.

Do we have the capacity to listen?

Understand?

Act?

No?

Why not? Rise and grab the tool and its benefits.

Yes?

Wonderful!

🙂

Opportunity

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Knock knock.

Nobody home.

See you, bye. Maybe never.

Knock knock.

Come in.

This is the requirement.

No funds.

Bye.

Knock knock.

Hey. Funds not a problem.

Guts?

What if I lose?

Bye.

Knock knock.

I wish to invest and the risk is digestible.

Ok. Pull the trigger.

Should we wait for a better price?

Bye.

Knock knock.

Let’s pull the trigger.

Ok.

There.

Bye.

Hey, it’s been a month and I’m up 10%. Let’s cash out.

Ok. Bye.

Knock knock.

This time I’ll let my profit run. The last one doubled in 6 months, but I’d cashed out after a minuscule rise.

So you’ve learnt how to sit?

I keep a lookout for you. If I’m not home I get alerted to your presence, so that I can act in time.

Then, I always maintain ample liquidity for you.

The amounts I put in make my risk digestible, looking at the total size of my portfolio and liquidity.

Once you knock, I’m not afraid to pull the trigger anymore.

I’ve learnt to let multibaggers develop. I don’t nip them in the bud anymore.

Wonderful. Now add cost-free-ness to your repertoire.

Why?

It’ll trick your mind into holding your multibagger eternally, so that it is given the chance of becoming a megabagger.

Will do, thanks, cost-free-ness won’t cost me anything, right?

Not a penny.

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.

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.

Unsolvables

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Is there a category…

…called “Unsolvables”?

Sure.

As long as something is unsolvable, there’s that category, for you.

When all on the category list is solved, the category ceases to exist, for you.

It switches on and off.

Then, there’s attitude.

As in, I will solve.

And, as in, nothing is unsolvable.

Or, as in, I’ll adjust around, and live with the unsolvable, as happily as I can.

What exactly is the basic nature of an unsolvable?

All that’s on your plate, observe that, and when you take away the solved and the solvable stuff, you’re left with that which is unsolvable, for you, at least at the moment under consideration.

Why is it there?

To make one exert…

…and grow.

When one has grown enough to learn the life lesson being taught, well, lo and behold…

…the unsolvable vanishes.

Its purpose is fulfilled.

The lesson has been learnt, remember?

So there’s hope.

There are some tough unsolvables, though.

They don’t seem to go away.

Here, the lesson being taught is a huge one, preparing one for a daunting task in the future.

In this case, the unsolvable vanishing will lead to a wasted opportunity to prepare for a daunting future task.

That’s why, it sticks around, perhaps for life.

That’s tough.

For life…

…is a long, long time.

Why for life?

Maximal tanking up on lesson energy required, …

… ,so the unsolvable sticks, for life.

That’s…

…why.

Don’t despair.

Take pride in the solved equations, and determine staunchly to keep the unsolvable list as empty as possible.

Eventually the pain caused by a lifelong unsolvable becomes a baseline, and one doesn’t feel it.

There’s vast hope. Yes.

🙂

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!

🙂

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.

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.

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.

Dynamics of a Right Call

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India is in a long-term bull market.

Sure, there will be corrections.

We can easily have a big-time correction, but still be in the long-term bull market.

Putting things in a twenty year perspective, 2008 hasn’t done away with direction.

Sure, ideally one needed to be equity – light by Jan 14, 2008, which most of us weren’t.

Question is, will be be relatively equity-lighter on Jan 14, 2021?

Yeah, I will be.

Lighter.

That’s about it.

Won’t be selling a single share of my core-portfolio.

However, hopefully, will have sold everything else before an interim market peak.

You see, for every right call, we make umpteen wrong calls.

These are the ones that we discard on interim market highs.

We don’t discard core-portfolio inhabitants.

These we allow to compound into multi-baggers.

It’s OK to make wrong calls.

Without these, we won’t get to make the right ones.

We won’t make the next mistakes though.

We won’t discard wrong calls without it being an interim market high.

Also, we won’t discard a right call as long as we keep feeling it’s a right call.

The best calls remain right…

… like…

… almost forever.

We’re talking Buffet and Coke.

Or, for example, RJ and Titan.

List goes on.

Point is, when we’ve made the right call, we need to follow up with right actions that allow maximum mileage.

Allowance for compounding.

Increase of position upon interim lows.

Patience.

No trigger-fingers.

You get the drift.

Over time, then, we are left with right calls which have developed into multi-baggers. Wrong calls have been discarded over many interim cycles.

The multi-baggers in our folio are, at this time, generating enough dividend to sustain us.

This is where we want to be.

It’s OK to dream.

Without the right dreams, we won’t arrive at the sweet-spot mentioned above.

Happy long-term investing! 🙂

High-Conviction Diaries

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Sometimes, we’re convinced. 

Every nerve in our body is rooting for a particular thing.

It’s a go. 

Do one thing – 

– don’t hold back. 

Listen to yourself. 

High conviction doesn’t just dawn just like that. 

We’ve worked our whole lives to arrive at this high-conviction moment. 

On the way, we’ve made many, many bad calls. 

Actually, they weren’t bad calls, because…

…if it weren’t for them,…

…how would we learn?

Is some college professor going to teach us the markets?

Is there a recognised university teaching successful market play?

It pays more to depend on one’s own self, and on one’s common-sense – this being my opinion, of course. 

We learn the ropes – OURSELVES – by making mistakes and learning from these.

Here we are. 

We’ve survived so far. 

Now, our sensors are on full. We’re on high alert. We’ve arrived at a high-conviction moment. 

We know this is the right call. 

It’s going to make money. 

All entry parameters are showing a tick-mark. 

What’s stopping us?

We’re human.

There’s always doubt. 

Negative experiences in the past enhance such feelings. 

What if we’re wrong?

Well, if we never get going, how are we ever going to find out?

Enter. 

With a small quantum. 

Keep entering with small quanta as the opportunity exists, along with high-conviction. 

Assuming that high-conviction continues, but opportunity stops existing – 

– Stop.

Wait for next opportunity. 

Assuming that opportunity continues to exist, but high-conviction wavers –

– Stop.

Wait for high conviction to develop again. 

If it does so, see if opportunity still exists. 

If high conviction doesn’t develop again, discontinue going in any further. 

Revaluate the investment upon a market high.

Equity – The New Normal for Parking

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Who’s the biggest…

…Ponzi…

…of them all?

Insurance companies?

There’s someone bigger.

The government. 

Legit.

Probably not going to go bust…

…at least in a hurry. 

Moves money from A to B…

…with minimum accountability. 

Resurrects skeletons and gives them infinite leases of life…

…with good, clean and fresh funds…

…that flow out of the pockets of helpless citizens. 

So, what about the government’s bond?

Sovereign debt.

The herd is flowing to sovereign debt, and to some extent to 100% AAA max 3 month paper duration liquid funds. 

This is after the johnnies at FT India miscalculated big-time, and had to wind-up six debt mutual fund schemes in their repertoire.

Should one do what the herd is doing?

Let’s break this down. 

First up, the herd exited credit-risk funds en-masse, post FT India’s announcement. Logical? Maybe. Safety and all that. Took a hit on the NAV, due to massive redemptions. I’m guesstimating something to the tune of 3%+. 

This seems fine, given the circumstances. Would have done the same thing, had I been in credit-risk. Perhaps earlier than the herd. Hopefully. No one likes a 3%+ hit on the NAV within a day or two.

Let’s look at the next step.

Sovereign debt is not everyone’s cup of tea. 

Especially the long-term papers, oh, they can move. 3% moves in a day are not unknown. 13-17% moves in a year are also not unknown. A commoner from the herd would go into shock, were he or she to encounter a big move day to the downside in the GILT (Government of India Long Term) bond segment. Then he or she would commit the blunder of cashing out of GILT when 10% down in 6 months, should such a situation arise. This is absolutely conceivable. Has happened. Will happen. Again.

There are a lot of experts advocating GILT smugly, at this time. They’re experts. They can probably deal with the nuances of GILT. The herd individual – very probably – CAN’T. The expert announces. Herd follows. There comes a crisis that affects GILT. Expert has probably exited GILT shortly before the onset of crisis. Herd is left hanging. Let’s say GILT tanks big time. Herd starts exiting GILT, making it fall further. Expert enters GILT, yeah – huge buying opportunity generated for expert.

More savvy and cautious investors who don’t wish to be saddled with the day to day tension of GILT, and who were earlier in credit-risk, are switching to liquid funds holding 100% AAA rated papers.

Sure. 

This is probably not a herd. Or is it?

Returns in the 100% AAA liquid fund category are lesser. Safety is more. How much are the returns lesser by? Around 1.5 to 2% lesser than ultra-short, floating-rate and low-duration funds. 

Ultra-short, floating-rate and low-duration funds all fall under a category of short-term debt which people are simply ignoring and jumping over, because apart from their large size of AAA holdings, a chunk of their holdings are still AA, and a small portion could be only A rated (sometimes along with another smallish portion allocated in – yes – even sovereign debt – for some of the mutual funds in this category).

The question that needs to be asked is this – Are quality funds in the category of ultra-short, floating-rate and low-duration funds carrying dicey papers that could default – to the tune of more than 2%?

There’s been a rejuggling of portfolios. Whatever this number was, it has lessened.

The next question is, if push comes to shove, how differently are 100% AAA holdings going to be treated in comparison to compositions of – let’s say – 60% AAA, 30% AA and 10% A?

I do believe that a shock wave would throw both categories out of whack, since corporate AAA is still not sovereign debt, and the herd is not going to give it the same adulation. 

The impact of such shock wave to 100 % AAA will still be sizeable (though lesser) when compared to its cousin category with some AA and a slice of A. Does the 2% difference in returns now nullify the safety edge of 100% AAA?

Also, not all corporate AAA is “safe”. 

Then, if nobody’s lending to the lower rung in the ratings ladder, should such industry just pack up its bags? If the Government allows this to happen, it probably won’t get re-elected.

The decision to remain in this category encompassing ultra-short, floating-rate and low-duration bond mutual funds, or to switch to 100% AAA short-term liquid funds, is separated by a very thin line. 

Those who follow holdings and developments on a day to day basis, themselves or through their advisors, can still venture to stay in the former category. The day one feels uncomfortable enough, one can switch to 100% AAA. 

This brings us to the last questions in this piece. 

Why go through the whole rigmarole?

Pack up the bond segment for oneself?

Move completely to fixed deposits?

Fine.

Just a sec.

What happens if the government issues a writ disallowing breaking of FDs above a certain amount, in the future, at a time when you need your money the most?

Please don’t say that such a thing can’t happen.

Remember Yes bank?

What if FD breakage is disallowed for all banks, and you don’t have access to your funds, right when you need them?

Sure, of course it won’t happen. But what if it does?

You could flip the same kind of question towards me. What happens if the debt fund I’m in – whether ultra-short, or floating-rate, or low-duration, or liquid – what happens if the fund packs up?

My answer is – I’ve chosen quality. If quality packs up 100%, it’ll be a doomsday scenario, on which FDs will also be frozen dear (how do you know they won’t be?), and GILTs could well have a 10%+ down-day, and, such doomsday scenario could very probably bring a freeze on further redemptions from GILT too. When the sky is falling, no one’s a VIP.

Parked money needs to be safe-guarded as you would a child,…

…and,…

…there spring up question marks in all debt-market categories,…

…so,…

…as Equity players, where do we stand?

Keep traversing the jungle, avoiding pitfalls to the best of one’s ability. 

How long?

Till one is fully invested in Equity. 

Keep moving on. A few daggers will hit a portion of one’s parked funds. Think of this as slippage, or as opportunity-cost. 

Let’s try and limit the hit to as small a portion of one’s parked funds as possible. Let’s ignore what the herd is doing, make up our own mind, and be comfortable with whatever decision we are taking, before we implement the decision. Let’s use our common-sense. Let’s watch Debt. Watch it more than one would watch one’s Equity. Defeats the purpose of parking in this segment, I know. That’s why we wish to be 100% in Equity, parked or what have you, eventually. 

As we keep dodging and moving ahead, over time, the job will be done already.

We’re comfortable with the concept of being fully parked in Equity. 

Whereas the fear of losing even a very small portion of our principal in the segment of Debt might appear overwhelming to us, the idea of losing all of one’s capital in some stocks is not new for us Equity players. We have experienced it. We can deal with it. Why? Because in other stocks, we are going to make multiples, many multiples, over the long-term.

Equity seems to be the new normal for parking.