Vishal Khandelwal

Admission Open: Value Investing Workshops – Offline (Mumbai) and Online

This quick post is to announce admissions to a couple of value investing workshops I will be conducting in January 2023, one offline and the other online.

Here are the details –

1. Offline Workshop: Mumbai – After a gap of 2 years, I am back with my live, offline Value Investing workshop. The first session is planned in Mumbai on Sunday, 22nd January 2023. I am accepting only 50 students for this session, and first 25 can claim an early bird discount. Click here to know more and join the Mumbai workshop.

2. Online Workshop – Admissions are also open for the January 2023 cohort of my online value investing workshop. The workshop involves 22+ hours of pre-recorded, detailed lectures and Q&A sessions, plus a 3-hour live online Q&A session scheduled on Sunday, 15th January 2023. I am accepting only 50 students in this cohort, and first 25 students can claim a special discount. Click here to know more and join the online workshop.

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If you have any questions on any of these workshops, please ask by sending me a message to – vishal@safalniveshak.com.

If you know someone who may benefit from either of these courses, please share with them.

Thank you for your time.

– Vishal

The Risk of Worrying About the Non-Risk

On December 24, 2014, AirAsia Flight 8501 took off from Surabaya (Indonesia) at 5.30 am local time. With 155 passengers and 7 crew members onboard, the flight was headed to Singapore. About 43 minutes into its flight, the Airbus A320 disappeared from the radar. The worst had come to pass. Two days later, the rescue team discovered the plane wreckage in Java sea. All 162 people onboard perished in the crash.

The crash investigation revealed that it was a pilot error. The in-command Captain Iriyanto – a 53-year old former Indonesian Air Force pilot – performed a non-standard reset of the onboard flight control computers. Which means he did something which was not mentioned anywhere in any of the operating manuals.

Why would someone with an experience of more than 20,000 flight hours do such a thing?

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The 44th Lesson

The Sketchbook of Wisdom: Get Your Copy Now

Buy your copy of the book Morgan Housel calls “a masterpiece.” It contains 50 timeless ideas – from Lord Krishna to Charlie Munger, Socrates to Warren Buffett, and Steve Jobs to Naval Ravikant – as they apply to our lives today. Click here to buy now.

Life’s passing by too fast, or so it seems. I complete 44 years in my present state of existence today. That’s more than three-fifths of the average life expectancy of an Indian male.

Now, while spiritualists would want me to believe that I have existed from anadi (before the beginning of cosmos) and will exist till ananta (infinity), I see forty-four years as a good enough time to find some meaning in one’s life. At least, my rapidly greying hair and receding hairline help me realize that.

Now, while it amazes me that I’ve been around that long — I feel like I’ve barely begun (except when I look at the actuarial table).

I’m not usually one to make a big deal about my birthday, but as always, it has given me an opportunity to reflect.

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My Notes on Howard Marks’s Latest Memo: What Really Matters

The Sketchbook of Wisdom: Get Your Copy Now

Howard Marks yesterday released his latest memo to clients of Oaktree Capital.

It was titled “What Really Matters?”

It’s a wonderful take on what investors must focus on and what they must avoid to achieve superior investment returns.

I have prepared some notes on the memo. Click here to read my notes.

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With respect,
– Vishal

StockTalk Nov. 2022 (Prime Exclusive)

Here is the November issue of StockTalk, a Prime members exclusive, that contains analysis of a leading Indian company in the financial services space.

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The Investor’s Manifesto (2022)

This is for you. This is from someone like you.

It is an Investor’s Manifesto.

It is something you can reflect back on if you ever felt stuck in your investing life.

If you believe in it, follow it, and stand for it, your investing life will be good.

Click here to download the manifesto.

Read it. Print it. Frame it. Face it. Remember it. Do it.

This is YOUR Manifesto.

And if you find value in it, please share it.

Value Investing Contest 2022

Here’s your chance to showcase your devil’s advocate skills to the Safal Niveshak tribe, help others understand what can permanently lose them their capital, and in the process win a prize if your entry gets chosen amongst the best.

Contest Rules

Write a max. 1000 words SELL or AVOID report on a listed Indian company of your choice (BUY reports or those longer than 1000 words won’t be accepted)
You must submit ONLY one report
Deadline for report submission is 20th November 2022
Email your report in a Word file to vishal[at]safalniveshak[dot]com with the subject line as – “Value Investing Contest 2022 – Company Name – Your Name”
The stock must have a market capitalization of more than Rs 5,000 crore
The idea must be well researched (by you). Your analysis must cover these areas:
- Company’s business
- All your reasons why one must avoid/sell the stock

The report would be exclusive to Safal Niveshak. You must not have published it on some other site. But once the report is published on Safal Niveshak, you may post an abstract at other places and link to the full report on Safal Niveshak.

Evaluation & Rewards

I will evaluate each submitted entry ONLY on the depth and simplicity of analysis, though good presentation and proper language is more than welcome (would save me editing time).

There are three prizes to be won (delivery in India only) –

1st Prize – Books of choice worth ₹5,000/-
2nd Prize – Books of choice worth ₹3,000/-
3rd Prize – Books of choice worth ₹2,000/-

All submitted entries would be published on Safal Niveshak (the author can remain anonymous if he/she wants).

This contest is now open. Remember, the deadline for submission is 20th November 2022.

When I (Almost) Dumped Ben Graham’s Intelligent Investor

It was sometime in 2005 when a close friend of mine gifted me Ben Graham’s The Intelligent Investor, knowing that I was working as a stock analyst and aspired to become a sensible investor (aspirations are always sensible, you see).

“Is this a good book?” I asked him.

“Seek for yourself,” he told me.

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How to Manage Risk of Randomness in Investing

Admission Open: Value Investing Workshop (Online) – October 2022 Cohort

I have opened admission to the October 2022 cohort of my online value investing workshop. The workshop includes 22+ hours of pre-recorded, detailed lectures and Q&A session, plus a 3-hour live Q&A session.

I am accepting only 50 students in this cohort, and first 25 can claim a special discount. Click here to know more and join the workshop.

A Few Ideas I’m Thinking About

Here are a few ideas I have been thinking about over the last few days.

How to Manage Risk of Randomness in Investing

“All of life is a management of risk, not its elimination,” writes Walter Wriston, former chairman of Citicorp.

Randomness is the fabric that weaves the interaction of everything around us. Since you can’t remove randomness from our affairs, you can’t get rid of the risk also. Peter Bernstein in his book Against the Gods writes –

The essence of risk management lies in maximizing the areas where we have some control over the outcome while minimizing the areas where we have absolutely no control over the outcome and the linkage between effect and cause is hidden from us.

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10 Demons of Investing

I wish all tribe members of Safal Niveshak a very happy Vijayadasami or Dussehra. As per Hindu tradition, today marks the victory of Goddess Durga over the demon Mahishasura. Today also marks the victory of Lord Rama over demon Ravana.

Consider Ravana. He is depicted and described as having ten heads and as a follower of Shiva. He is a great scholar, a capable ruler and a maestro of the veena, but someone who wished to overpower the devas. His ten heads represent his knowledge of the six shastras and the four Vedas.

A negative interpretation of Ravana’s ten heads are the ten emotions or senses in humans –

Kama (Lust),
Krodha (Anger),
Moha (Delusion),
Lobha (Greed),
Mada (Pride),
Matsar (Envy),
Manas (Mind),
Buddhi (Intellect),
Chitta (Will), and
Ahamkara (Ego)

When it comes to investing, some of these emotions stand in between the investor and his long-term success.

As the story of Ravana depicts, the mind tends to shun all things good for our life and seek all things bad for our life. To attain wisdom, one of the most important things we must do is witness the tricks of the mind, and avoid playing the wrong hand as much as possible.

In the illustration that follows, I have tried to depict the ten emotions, or the ten demons, or the ten tricks of our minds, when it comes to investing. Print it, paste it on your work desk, and look at it often.

No investor can claim to master or kill these demons, but a knowledge of these residing within you is, I believe, pretty helpful.

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