Safal Niveshak

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Archives for 2011

You Don’t Need Enemies When You Have Such A Financial Advisor

“I’m looking to invest in mutual funds. Can you help me do that?” I asked the lady who picked up my phone at Bluechip Corporate Investment Centre Ltd.

Bluechip is the financial services company that had advised my friend’s father to invest in over 50% of the 192 mutual fund schemes he held in his portfolio. I had written about this in yesterday’s post.

“Yes sir,” said the lady. “There’s this gold fund that you can invest in for very good returns.”

“Can you explain me more?”

“One minute sir, let me ask my financial advisor to talk to you. He will explain you everything.”

“Aren’t you the financial advisor since you were advising me the gold fund?” I asked.
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Shameless! Horrible! Disgusting!

I couldn’t stop myself from uttering these words as I looked at the papers my friend had handed over to me.

It was a list of mutual funds his father, who had just passed away, had invested in. And this poor friend of mine, physically challenged and utterly confused, was in a state of shock because his father never discussed with him his investments.

Anyways, this was not what disappointed me. I was shocked to see the list of mutual fund schemes, which counted to 192!

Yes, 192 different mutual funds schemes held by a single person!

What was even worse was that each of these schemes was bought through a different folio number.
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Are Indian Stock Markets Cheap Now?

Led by 850 points gain in the Sensex, Indian stock market rose to its 3-week high by the end of this week’s trading.

These gains were led by improved earnings guidance from the technology major Infosys, and slower-than-expected growth in factory output that seemed to have fuelled speculation the central bank may halt its interest rate increases.


Data Source: Yahoo Finance

Despite this week’s rise, the Sensex is still down around 17% this year (since January).

The question on top of mind of most investors I meet these days is – “Are Indian stock markets cheap now?”
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The Simplest Way You Can Question a Company’s CEO

One of the rituals of being a stock market analyst is that you must analyze the quarterly results of each and every company that is under your research coverage.

The analysis report has to be sent to clients the very same day, as the target is always to be the ‘first to market’.

I was part of this ritual for 8 years, or 32 quarters. At any point in time during these 8 years, I had around 20-25 large and small companies under my coverage.

In short, over these years, I wrote around 650-800 result analysis reports. If that was not enough, there was a considerable amount of time spent listening to managements through conference calls that were organized after the results came out.
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Infosys and the Funny Stock Market Pastime Called ‘Expectations’

India’s leading software company, Infosys announced its September quarter result yesterday. The company reported an 8% growth in sales during the quarter, as compared to the previous quarter ended July 2011. Its profit growth stood at 11%.

The stock clocked gains of around 7% after these result was announced. Now, if you think the good performance from the company was the reason for the stock to have performed so well yesterday, you are missing the point.

The key reason the stock rose so sharply was not Infosys’s September quarter performance, but the fact that the management raised its ‘forward guidance’ or its ‘earnings expectations’ for the coming quarters.
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Don’t Believe Everything I Write on Stock Market Investing

Do you ever wonder if you’re wrong about certain things that you currently consider to be fact?

Like the way you handle your money? Or like the way you invest in stock market?

Do you ever think that maybe you were wrong about that worthless stock you still hold in your portfolio? Or the advisor who advised you that stock? Or your own habit of making hasty investing decisions that led you to buy that stock?

Do you ever question your beliefs and opinions when it comes to investing in stock market? Like, where they came from? Did you develop them yourself or did you adopt them from someone else, like your father, colleague, or Warren Buffett?
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Why Investing Now is Like Catching a Falling Knife

The Indian stock markets have had a ‘relief rally’ over the past few days. With the Sensex recovering almost 700 points over the past four trading sessions, investors are starting to believe in the ‘end of crisis’ theories floating around.


But the fact remains that the global economy and financial markets remain far from an end of crisis, and investing in stocks is likely to be clouded by high levels of uncertainty in the short to medium term.
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Share Your Investing Story, Inspire Others

“Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself.” – Eleanor Roosevelt (US diplomat & reformer)

Some bumps and bruises in stock market investing can be avoided if you heed the lessons others have picked up along the way.

Mistakes sometimes happen when you try something new, when you take a risk, when you attempt to do things differently from others.

Nearly every investor can point to mistakes he made – and the lessons he learned from them.

It’s cheaper to learn from someone else’s mistakes. Your job as an investor is not to reinvent the wheel. You don’t know every answer, but you can usually find the people who do.

Safal Niveshak understands this. And this is the reason I have created this platform of ‘Your Story’ where you can share your investing story – the investing mistakes you’ve made in the past, as also the stories about how your chose your winning stocks.
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The Best Article on Value Investing You’ll Ever Read

Based on my readings of the world’s best investors and also through my own practice of investing in stock markets, I have come to believe one thing.

It is that long-term investment success is a function of two things:

  1. Right approach
  2. Right person

We have discussed these aspects of investing across several articles on Safal Niveshak. However, if I were to suggest you the best article I’ve ever read on this concept, it would be “The Superinvestors of Graham-and-Doddsville”.

This article was written by the world’s most successful investor ever, Warren Buffett, promoting the concept of value investing.
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