Archives for 2022

[Notes] Latticework: The New Investing

Latticework is unlike most other investment books I have ever read. It presents strong arguments to underscore the importance of a multidisciplinary approach to investing.

Drawing from multidisciplinary focus, Hagstrom takes us through some key principles from a number of disciplines such as psychology, physics, biology, social sciences, literature and philosophy. He then applies these theories to investing and the stock market.

Hagstrom makes a case that a successful stock picker must be ready to shift models and look at the markets from different vantage points with the passage of time. Instead of working like an analyst – plugging factual information into excel models – investors need to regard the insights or models from other disciplines too.

The task of the investor, Hagstrom argues in Latticework, is to be well-read and always be open to a new perspective of the world.

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[Transcript] The One Percent Show: Ramesh Damani

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Ramesh Damani is a member of the Bombay Stock Exchange and one of the most successful investors in India. A proponent of the Buffett style of value investing, Mr. Damani is one of the most well-read and erudite investors I’ve known in India. He holds a bachelor’s degree in commerce from HR College in Mumbai, and a master’s degree in business administration from California State University. Charlie Munger has been quoted as saying, I constantly see people rise in life who are not the smartest, sometimes not even the most diligent, but they are learning machines. They go to bed every night a little wiser than they were when they got up and boy, does that help, particularly when you have a long run ahead of you. Mr. Damani is among the smartest investors India has seen. He’s also one of the most diligent and he is a learning machine. In fact, he’s a wizard par excellence of Dalal Street.

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[Transcript] The One Percent Show: Samit Vartak

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Samit Vartak is the founding partner and Chief Investment Officer of SageOne Investment Managers. Samit is a CFA charter holder, and MBA from Olin School of Business of the Washington University in St. Louis, and holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree with honors from Sardar Patel College of Engineering, Mumbai University. I have known Samit for the past five years and have had tremendous respect for not just as money management skills, but for the kind of person he is. It’s like if I were a money manager, I would have wanted to be like him, hardworking, talented and successful, yet quiet and composed at all times. And also as physically fit as he is despite the stresses of his work.

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My Notes on Howard Marks’s Latest Memo: I Beg to Differ

The Sketchbook of Wisdom: Special Rs 200 Discount till 31st July 2022

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 and claim Rs 200 discount. Offer valid till 31st July 2022.

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

It was titled “I Beg to Differ.”

It’s a wonderful take on how investors must think and act differently and independently, if they aim to achieve superior investment results.

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

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Stay safe.

With respect,
– Vishal

Safal Niveshak is 11 Years Old

The Sketchbook of Wisdom: ₹200 Discount till 31st July

This is a story from January 15, 2009. It’s not my story, but an inspiring one.

US Airways Flight 1549 on its way from New York City’s LaGuardia Airport to Charlotte, North Carolina, struck a flock of birds shortly after take-off, losing all engine power.

Unable to reach any airport for an emergency landing due to their low altitude, pilots Chesley ‘Sully’ Sullenberger and Jeffrey Skiles glided the plane in the Hudson River. All 155 people on board were rescued by nearby boats, with only a few serious injuries.

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My Advice to a Young Investor – Part 3

The Sketchbook of Wisdom: Did you get your copy?

This is the third part of this unintended series on my single biggest advice to a 26-year-old investor.

First, she asked – What advice would I offer to a 26-year-old to do well in her career?

I offered this advice – Play games that you can win.

Then, she asked – How do I know which games to play where I can win?

I offered this advice – First, try to answer this question: ‘What do I desire?’ Then, do a few things that you desire to do, maybe 2 or 3, and then gradually you will gravitate towards the number one out of those 2 or 3. Keep learning, keep exploring, and you should find that one game that would become the only that you would like to be in. And once you have found that game you should play, start playing, get better at it over time, and you should win – not against others but along with others who are also playing that game.

Anyways, then she asked – But how do I get over the fear to even start playing the game that I can win?

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[Transcript] The One Percent Show: Rajeev Thakkar

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Rajiv Thakkar is the Chief Investment Officer and director at PPFAS Asset Management. Rajeev started his career in the investment banking business in 1994. Then moved to fixed income before landing in the equity space at PPFAS, where he has been working for the last 20 plus years. He is a chartered accountant, cost accountant and CFA charter holder. Rajiv is a strong believer in the School of value investing, and is heavily influenced by Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger is approach. I have known him for the past eight years, and apart from his investing insights, I look up to him for his calm demeanour and meditative approach, which though is unusual for money managers of his stature, but looks normal, given the school of thought he comes from, which is value investing.

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[Transcript] The One Percent Show: Kuntal Shah

Kuntal Shah is a partner at Oaklane Capital, co-founder at Needle.ai, and a board member at Flame University. An electronics engineer by qualification, Kuntal bhai is a first-generation entrepreneur, a business leader and a prominent value investor with three decades of experience spanning various aspects of the capital market.

I look up to him as a fountain of knowledge and wisdom, especially when it comes to investing, business analysis and the economy. I’ve had the opportunity to learn from him and his experiences, through his various talks and presentations, and I must thank him for all the wisdom he has shared over the years.

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My Advice to a Young Investor – Part 2

The Sketchbook of Wisdom: Did you get your copy?

This is in continuation of the previous post on my single biggest advice to a 26-year-old investment analyst on what she should be doing to do well in her career as an analyst and an investor.

My advice to her was this – Play games that you can win.

After reading the post, she came back with a follow-up question – But how do I know which games to play where I can win?

This was another important question. And since I knew this would come, I was better prepared this time.

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My Advice to a Young Investor – Part 1

The Sketchbook of Wisdom: Did you get your copy?

I met a 26-year-old investment analyst yesterday, who sought my single biggest advice to, well, a 26-year-old investment analyst, on what she should be doing to do well in her career as an analyst and an investor.

Despite being involved in this work for the past 11 years of offering advice even when I am not asked for, her question led me to think, and so I sought some time to get back to her with my response.

There are, after all, so many things I can advise to a young investor or analyst, based on what I have learned in the past 17 years, that is, since I was 26 myself –

Invest with an inner scorecard – Don’t change who you are to fit in.
Have courage, even in the face of adversity – and there are a lot of adversities you would face in investing.
Accept whatever outcome you attain, for what’s in your control is how you react to the outcome, and never the outcome itself – you can either rue over a bad outcome or take it as a lesson and move on.
Keep learning, for nothing builds an investor’s career better than continuous learning. Learn from your own experiences and mistakes but more importantly from the experiences and mistakes of others.
Avoid predictions, because you are rarely going to make a correct one. Also work with the intellectual humility that you know nothing, even if you are the smartest person around.
Be patient, like a grasshopper, for that is how wealth is created.

All this is very useful advice. But since I have to offer just one advice as requested by that young investment analyst, it would be something that I learned from Charlie Munger and Warren Buffett many years ago –

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