Investing

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Right before the year ends, I thought I’d share a handful of ideas I’ve read, learned, re-learned, and wrote about in the past twelve months. Here are 35 of them, in no particular order of importance. I hope you find these useful, as much as I did.

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

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.

If you liked this post, please share with others on WhatsApp, Twitter, LinkedIn. Or just email them the link to this post.

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With respect,
– Vishal

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

1. 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)
2. You must submit ONLY one report
3. Deadline for report submission is 20th November 2022
4. 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”
5. The stock must have a market capitalization of more than Rs 5,000 crore
6. 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.

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 –

1. Kama (Lust),
2. Krodha (Anger),
3. Moha (Delusion),
4. Lobha (Greed),
5. Mada (Pride),
6. Matsar (Envy),
7. Manas (Mind),
8. Buddhi (Intellect),
9. Chitta (Will), and
10. 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.