Blog on Value Investing | Safal Niveshak

My Interview with Morgan Housel

Note: This interview was originally published in the April 2017 issue of our premium newsletter – Value Investing Almanack (VIA). To read more such interviews and other deep thoughts on value investing, business analysis and behavioral finance, click here to subscribe to VIA.

Morgan Housel - Value Investing Almanack

I sincerely believe in what Charlie Munger often says about envy, that it is a really stupid sin because it’s the only one you could never possibly have any fun at. I am lucky to have stayed away from this sin as far as investing and other aspects of life are concerned.

But if there is one, and just one, person who arouses this sin in me every time I read him is…Morgan Housel. And it’s for the simplicity of his thoughts that he puts across through his powerful writings. I have tried to emulate Morgan several times in my writing endeavor, but he raises the bar each time he publishes something new, more simple yet more powerful.

Morgan’s posts at The Collaborative Fund, where he is currently a partner, have been a great source of learning for me. I have also read him for years at his earlier stints at The Motley Fool and The Wall Street Journal.

Morgan is a two-time winner of the Best in Business award from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers and a two-time finalist for the Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism. He was selected by the Columbia Journalism Review for the Best Business Writing 2012 anthology. In 2013, he was a finalist for the Scripps Howard Award.

In this interview, Morgan shared with me his simple investing thought process, what gets most people into trouble in investing, and the people who have inspired him the most in his journey.

Let’s get started right here.

I Disclose

We are in a bull market, without doubt.

The index made up of subscribers to my investment newsletter The Safal Niveshak Post (let’s call it ‘SN Index’) has outperformed the BSE-Sensex and has crossed the critical resistance level of 36,000. The CAGR of this index over the past six years since it was launched has been 475%! This is given that it started with a base value of 1 (one) subscriber, which was me (see how good looking CAGRs are created!).

Anyways, given the buoyancy in the broader markets over the past few months, handsome gains have also been seen in the SN Index in recent times. Just over the past twelve months, the index has moved from 25,000 to 36,000 compared to the BSE-Sensex that has managed a rise from 28,000 to 32,000.

Given these stupendous, outperforming gains in the SN Index, it has also attracted a lot of new subscribers, many of whom may have come with a lot of expectations (not their mistake, but bull market’s). A lot of them have emailed me asking for my stock recommendation and money management services, while some have questioned my intention of teaching value investing instead of simply providing stock tips.

Anyways, some old timers tell me that the SN Index is heading rapidly towards the 50,000 mark (it’s their love for me, I know) while some have also quoted a figure of 100,000 to be reached by the end of 2018 (now that’s irrational exuberance, you see).

[Read more…] about I Disclose

How to Teach Kids the Value of Money

Warren Buffett is undoubtedly a famous man. And he is not just famous for his riches, but also for his rejection of the trappings of wealth. As we all know, he lives in the same house he had bought in 1958 for US$ 31,500, and his annual salary of US$ 100,000 is far less than what most CEOs (including many in India) earn.

But there’s one aspect of Buffett that many people don’t know much about. And that is about how he has brought up his kids when it comes to the subject of money.

Over the years, several interviews with his kids have revealed how Buffett’s message to them on money was loud and clear as they were growing up. And it was that money wasn’t what mattered in life. Instead, it was finding something you loved to do and then doing it.

In his book, “Life Is What You Make Of It,” Peter Buffett, a musician and the youngest son of senior Buffett writes about the values he absorbed growing up as the son of Warren Buffett and his late mother, Susan Buffett, and the path he has pursued to identify and pursue his passions in life.

He also writes about things like requiring children to do chores and letting them solve problems on their own instead of bailing them out. But he warns that children will pick up on their parents’ true beliefs about money – no matter what a parent says about money.

Safal Niveshak Stock Analysis Excel Version 3.0

A few readers have accused me in the past of being a sadist who wants them to do the dirty work of analyzing companies on their own, instead of simply recommending stocks like so many other blogs do.

But I’d rather give you a compass instead of a map, for you can confuse the map with the territory and lose your life’s savings walking that path.

In this pursuit of handing you another compass, here is Version 3.0 of my Stock Analysis Excel Sheet that you can download on your computer, read through the instructions to follow a few simple steps, and then analyze not just the past performance of a company but also arrive at its approximate intrinsic value range.

And unlike the previous versions where you were required to enter most data manually, this latest version feeds in data automatically from Screener.in website, which subsequently feeds into my sheets on financial analyses and intrinsic value calculations. So you must thank Screener’s creators and my friends Ayush and Pratyush before thanking me. 🙂

StockScan: Accelya Kale Solutions Ltd.

Here’s my StockScan report on Accelya Kale Solutions Ltd., leading software solutions provider to the airline and travel industry.

Please note that this is NOT an investment advice to buy or sell shares. This is just my analysis of the company’s business and not a stock advice. It’s important that you make your own decision.

StockScan is just my effort to compress my thoughts on a business in a single page, that forces me to focus on the most important things, and exclude the noise that too much information and analysis may bring.

Click here, if you cannot read or download the report above.

Statutory Warning: This is NOT an investment advice to buy or sell shares. Make your own decision. I do not own the stock, but my analysis may be biased, and wrong. I, Vishal Khandelwal, am a registered Research Analyst as per SEBI (Research Analyst) Regulations, 2014 (Registration No. INH000000578).

The Art of Reading Balance Sheet (Video)

For all my warnings against watching business TV over the years (I don’t want to get started on the reasons again), I was on at ET Now yesterday to speak about long-term investing (yes, long-term investing…on business TV!). I also talked about one of my favourite subjects i.e., reading annual reports and specifically the Balance Sheet.

Here is the video of the chat (click here if you are not able to watch the video below) –

Combine this with my earlier posts on how to master analyzing the Balance Sheet – Part 1 and Part 2.

In the above chat, I talked about the annual reports of Avenue Supermarts, Symphony, and Info Edge – all of which I have analyzed and written about recently (Disclosure – I don’t own any of these stocks).

On being asked in the interview about my all-time favourite ‘annual reports,’ I mentioned Asian Paints and Titan (Disclosure – I own both these stocks, so big bias here).

Hope you find value in what I spoke, but also understand that my views were always on the annual reports and underlying businesses and never on the respective stocks.

Statutory Warning: This is NOT an investment advice to buy or sell shares. Please make your own decision, as blindly acting on anyone else’s research and opinions can be injurious to your wealth. My analysis may be biased, and wrong. I have been wrong many times in the past. I am a registered Research Analyst as per SEBI (Research Analyst) Regulations, 2014 (Registration No. INH000000578).

Latticework of Mental Models: Fundamental Attribution Error

The first impression is the last impression. I am sure you’ve heard this advice numerous times especially from the communication skill experts. But the more I studied psychology, stronger became my belief that there’s quite a bit of truth in this saying. However, if you’re into the business of working with people, it’s the first impression you shouldn’t trust.

Had I gone with my first impressions about some of the strangers I met in my life, I wouldn’t have found my best friends. If you look back in your life and trace the history of your relationships with your best buddies, you would tend to agree with me on this. In fact, go ahead and ask your old friends about how they thought of you (in the first meeting) as a prospective candidate for a long-term friendship.

Whenever we meet someone for the first time, we have a natural tendency to attribute his behaviour to his personality. If that stranger’s behaviour is cold and unresponsive, we jump to the conclusion that he is either shy or introvert or perhaps arrogant. Whereas an individual who seems warm and lively makes you believe that the guy is an extrovert.

Sometimes you may be right, but often you are falling for what is known as the Fundamental Attribution Error. This error is the result of people’s tendency to place an overemphasis on internal characteristics (personality) to explain someone else’s behaviour in a given situation rather than considering the external factors guiding that situation.

Imagine It’s September 2007

Imagine it’s September 2007. The world seems safer, for we have not seen much of Donald Trump or Kim Jong Un. We have an opportunity to trademark brands like Uber, WhatsApp, Quora and Instagram as they do not even exist. Twitter and iPhone are less than a year old. Steve Jobs, Robin Williams, and Michael Jackson still walk the planet.

Imagine it’s September 2007. Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers are still in business. Ramalinga Raju, along with his accountants, is still creating fictitious cash at Satyam. The market caps of Eicher Motors and Page Industries are less than 2% of what they would be ten years later. And those of DLF and Suzlon are 6x and 24x respectively of what they will be when you are ten years older. The BSE-Sensex is just four months away from peaking before crashing by 50%, though it is still 50% of what it will be after ten years.

When I imagine it’s September 2007, I am ten years younger, and stupider. I am busy writing stock recommendation reports for my employer, whom I am going to leave in another three years. The idea of Safal Niveshak does not exist in my, or anyone else’s, mind. Nobody knows me or trolls me (wow!).

Annual Report Review: Info Edge

Here is my review of the FY17 annual report of India’s leading online classifieds company, Info Edge.

Click here to download the PDF review (7 MB file), or click the image below.

Info Edge Annual Report FY17 Analysis (SafalNiveshak.com)

Let me know your thoughts and questions on this review in the Comments section of this post, plus any additional thoughts from your own review of Info Edge’s FY17 annual report.

Click here to read past annual report reviews

Statutory Warning: This is NOT an investment advice to buy or sell shares. Please make your own decision, as blindly acting on anyone else’s research and opinions can be injurious to your wealth. I do not own the stock, but my analysis may be biased, and wrong. I have been wrong many times in the past. I am a registered Research Analyst as per SEBI (Research Analyst) Regulations, 2014 (Registration No. INH000000578).

The J-Curve Model of Thinking, Living, and Investing

My friend Ravi came home for lunch last weekend. He looked dejected.

“It’s a bull market, Ravi!” I said trying to cheer him up, but he was in no mood to give away his dejection.

“I’m nearing forty, Vishal, and that makes me depressed.”

“Why Ravi? You should be happy that you’ve already left your dumb forty years behind!” I said jokingly.

“Be serious, Vishal! I mean, forty years have passed and it seems I have not achieved much in life. My salary is good but not great, I am travelling long hours every day for my job, my investment portfolio size is still a far cry from what I want to retire with, my stocks are doing well but not as well like what my other friends’ stocks are doing, and my dream of writing a bestseller novel is still a dream.”

“Wow! And you are nearing forty!” I said with a smile.

“You don’t have to remind me that!” Ravi replied with a smirk.

“Ravi, how much would you rate your life so far on a scale of one to ten?”