Blog on Value Investing | Safal Niveshak

Of Free Brains and Effortless Money

The Sketchbook of Wisdom: The second print of my book – The Sketchbook of Wisdom – is now available. Click here to reserve your copy. Send me an email at vishal@safalniveshak.com if you wish to place bulk orders.

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In the hospital, the relatives gathered in the waiting room, where a family member lay gravely ill. The doctor came in looking tired and dull.

“I’m afraid I’m the bearer of bad news,” he said as he surveyed the worried faces. “The only hope left for your loved one at this time is a brain transplant.”

“Oh, how risky is the procedure?” a relative asked.

“It’s an experimental procedure, very risky,” the doctor replied, “but it is the only hope for your loved one. Insurance will cover the procedure, but you will have to pay for the BRAIN.”

The family members sat silently as they absorbed the news. After a time, someone asked, “How much will a brain cost?”

The doctor quickly responded, “Rs 20 lac for a male brain, Rs 5 lac for a female brain.”

The moment turned awkward. Some of the men had to ‘try’ to not smile, avoiding eye contact with the women.

A man unable to control his curiosity, finally blurted out the question everyone wanted to ask, “Why is the male brain so much more than a female brain?”

Ben Graham: Just Plain Lucky?

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Remember Ben Graham, the guy who wrote The Intelligent Investor? And who taught Warren Buffett to become Warren Buffett?

Well, if you really know who Graham was, you also know that he is associated with buying something cheap (one dollar worth at fifty cents) and then selling it when it reaches a value that reflects what it’s worth.

A very copybook, calculated approach, right? Like what a Rahul Dravid would do in cricket.

The One Percent Show: Episode 1 – Manish Chokhani

Welcome to the first episode of The One Percent Show with Vishal Khandelwal.

Also listen on YouTube | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Apple Podcasts | Amazon

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Also Read:

Books Recommended by Manish: Talks on the Gita (Vinoba Bhave), The Sketchbook of Wisdom
The Story Behind “One Percent”

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Please share with others on WhatsApp, Twitter, LinkedIn, or just email them the link to this post.

Stay safe.

With respect,
— Vishal

Is Day Trading a Good Idea?

The Sketchbook of Wisdom: The first print of my book – The Sketchbook of Wisdom – got sold out in a matter of 3 months. Now, the second print is reaching me soon. Click here to reserve your copy. I will start shipping next week. Send me an email at vishal@safalniveshak.com if you wish to place bulk orders.

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One of the questions I get a lot, and especially in times like these, is, “How do I learn day trading in stocks?”

I ask, “Why do you want to day trade?”

The answer often is, “To make money, obviously.”

I ask, “Why do you think you can make money day trading?”

There is generally a pause, and then this reply, “I see so many people making money day trading.”

Well, the answer to the question “Can I make money day trading?” is “Of course, you can.*”

But like you read those product advertisements with an asterisk and a small text saying “* Conditions apply,” this also applies to day trading in stocks.

A Simple Online Stock Portfolio Tracker

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In my past communications, I have written about the idea of avoiding online portfolio trackers, given the amount of irrelevant information that you get to see when you log into such trackers, and the unwanted action such noise may lead you to.

As an alternative, I have advised maintaining simple excel based trackers. Since you must enter data manually here, that may keep you away from tinkering much with it.

Welcome to The Money School: Teaching Kids About Money – Part 1

Given how important financial skills are to navigating life, it is surprising that our schools do not teach children about money.

How many of us look back at our childhood and wish we would have been taught more about money? A lot of people graduate from college without any idea how to manage their money or balance their bank account. Maybe you were one of them.

Now that you have learned more about managing your money well, I am sure you want to help your kids not make the same mistakes. But then, even when many parents know it is important to teach their children about money matters at a young age, most do not know where to start or how to go about it.

I have been through this situation wherein, despite knowing what to teach my kids about money, I lacked the structure and skills to teach them in the way they would learn best, that is, through a medium they would like.

From Hubris to Humility

Here is my latest podcast on why it is important for you to beware of hubris, whether in investing or life, so that you can keep yourself from risking too much in a view of the future that may turn out to be wrong. Let me know how you find it, and your feedback and suggestions to improve the same.

Audio

Listen on Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher

[Read more…]

The Limits of Numbers in Life and Investing

My son Chaitanya was born today, ten years ago. He was two months premature. His birth weight just 1.4 kg – 60% lesser than the average birth weight of 3.5 kg – and he spent the first three weeks of his life in an ICU.

We were not allowed inside the ICU for the risk of infection to the newborns, and so the nurse used to “display” our son from behind two glass doors for the first one week. Even my wife was not allowed entry to the ICU for the first week. Every time we asked how the baby was doing, the nurse would pull out her clipboard and dictate to us his ‘quantitative status’ – his heart rate, temperature, oxygen level, infection level, etc.

A week after Chaitanya’s birth, when my wife was first allowed to meet him, she realized he was lying still in his incubator which the nurse said was fine as he was too weak for any movement. Even his eyes were still. “He will be like that for a few more days, ma’am,” the nurse told my wife, “till he gains some strength.”

How I Invest (And Why You Should Not Care)

I tweeted this yesterday –

I keep my equity investing simple –

1. High quality + simple businesses only
2. Rarely buy, very very very rarely sell
3. Equal sizing of positions at cost
4. <15 stocks + <3 MFs
5. No AGMs, no concalls, only annual reports

Has worked really well for me for the past 18+ years.

— safalniveshak.com (@safalniveshak) May 26, 2021

The response the tweet received was beyond my expectations. Check out the tweet, a lot of questions people asked, and my responses. Hope they are of some help to you.

Two Monks and One Big Lesson in Life and Investing

Two Buddhist monks, a senior and a junior, were walking through the forest. They came across a river flowing through their path. To continue their journey, they had to swim through the river and cross to the other side.

There was a woman who was sitting at the bank of the river. She did not know how to swim and requested the monks to carry her to the other side.

Buddhist monks take a vow of celibacy. They are not supposed to even look at women, let alone carry them. The junior monk politely refused. But the senior monk put the woman on his back, swam across the river, and dropped her safely to the other side – without saying a word.

Image Source: Isha
The junior monk was aghast that the older monk had broken his vow but did not say anything. An hour passed as they traveled on. Then two hours. Then three. Finally, the agitated junior monk could stand it no longer, and asked, “Why did you carry that woman when we took a vow as monks not to touch women?”