The Weekend Bulletin (Vol. 1 | Iss. 2)

Nov 30, 2019

Volume 1 | Issue 2 | November 30, 2019

The deepest insights sometimes reside in the simplest observations. In a rare (no pun intended!!) PUBLIC PRESENTATION, Utpal Sheth (CEO of Rare Enterprises), delivers some deep insights for investors from simple observations. He observes that there are a few mega-trends that are underway at any point in time that transcend decades, geographies, and governments. Within these mega-trends, there are a few businesses that take a large share of value (market share, profits, or cash flows). Investors that can identify such mega-trends and the leaders within those trends tend to enjoy decadal out-performance.
There are two important lessons in this SLIGHTLY TECHNICAL ESSAY: a) low interest rates have a very high impact on valuation of long-dated securities like perpetual bonds and equities; and b) at some point the relationship between pricing (valuations) and price breaks as demand-supply take over.
The ideal holding period of a long term investor is forever. However, that shouldn't stop the investor from regularly assessing the valuations of her holdings and exiting the business, claims THIS ARTICLE. After all, a successful investment operation has two legs - buying at a lower price, and selling at a higher price.

The internet has made it easy for investors to access as much information as they desire. However, does having more information improve you chances of making better investments? Research shows that more information leads to an increase in the confidence level. As for better outcomes, READ HERE to find out.

This is a shameless plug for a note that I wrote recently, just before leaving my previous organisation: In THIS NEWSLETTER I talk about some of the lessons that markets have repeatedly taught investors across different cycles in the past. These lesson, if ignored, can turn out to be quiet expensive mistakes for the investors. On the other hand, an understanding of these lessons can help investors navigate the markets better.

Want to do great work or become a genius? Be a little irresponsible, take up projects that seem unimportant but interesting, don't worry about wasting time and effort on things that you like to do. Sounds silly? If it does, then THIS ESSAY will be an eye-opener for you. If you are a parent, then please take some time off to read this essay and ponder upon the suggestions therein.

Last Saturday (November 23 or 11/23, to be precise) was an important date for numeric nerds - this day is celebrated as #FibonacciDay. You would recollect the Fibonacci sequence from your maths class in school as a series of numbers in which each one is the sum of its preceding two (0,1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,...). Interestingly, sections of the internet highlight that Fibonacci (Leonardo of Pisa) was not the first to think of it, just the first to bring it to the European world. The sequence itself first appeared in Indian Mathematics, known as Virahanka numbers, and was connected with Sanskrit prosody. You can read about it HERE and HERE (this one has some interesting revelations). Here is some further interesting trivia about the Fibonacci Numbers: