Safal Niveshak

Wit. Wisdom. Value Investing.

Steve Jobs Resigns from Apple: Lessons for Indian Investors

iPods, iPads, and iPhones would have baffled the German social scientist Max Weber, who died in 1920.

The father of modern sociology, however, would surely have understood something about the man behind those futuristic gadgets.

Weber defined the ‘charismatic leader’ as one whose influence stems from almost preternatural insights and imagination, and who inspires devotional loyalty from his followers.

This definition adds up to an uncanny description of Steve Jobs of Apple.

Weber also argued that organizations structured around a charismatic leader are doomed to lose their vigor after the great one leaves the scene.
[Read more…] about Steve Jobs Resigns from Apple: Lessons for Indian Investors

The Stock Market Nonsense Called ‘Consensus’

The spread of business channels and other financial media has had grave consequences for investors over the past few years.

One of them is the need to justify each and every move of the market.

The other is the tendency to buy or sell stocks first and think about the rationale of buying/selling later.

The third, and the worst, consequence for investors of watching business channels and reading financial media has been the nonsensical focus on the movement of the Sensex or the Nifty.
[Read more…] about The Stock Market Nonsense Called ‘Consensus’

Tuesday Morning Reads

A few interesting items for your reading pleasure:

What are you reading?

This is Not a Time for Heroism

“If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs, then you probably haven’t been following global financial markets over the past few weeks.” Thus went the first paragraph of a report I recently read on Bloomberg.

The dizzying price volatility – across asset classes and indifferent to national borders – might be taken as evidence that the market has lost its anchor to fundamentals.


Data Source: Yahoo Finance
[Read more…] about This is Not a Time for Heroism

Investing in Stock Markets? Take Care of Your Most Precious Resource

One of the three resources – apart from your brain and willingness – you need to become a successful investor yourself is – Time.

Time is precious…even more precious than money, simply because you cannot save it.

You cannot set aside time for future use as you can money, food, fuel, or a number of other things.

Any attempt to save time by not using it is futile. What happens if you sleep eight hours and try to save the rest of the day by doing nothing? At the end of the day, the unused hours are gone forever.
[Read more…] about Investing in Stock Markets? Take Care of Your Most Precious Resource

Look Mama, Who Caused Our Financial Crisis!


The equation is simple.

Single Education (MBA/Engineering) = Ego (I can do nothing wrong).

Double education (MBA + Engineering) = Super Ego (I’m doing everything right).

Greed = I, me, myself!

Double education + Greed = I’m doing everything right…for myself!

If you haven’t already, sign up for our daily e-letter, The Safal Niveshak Post, and claim a Free copy of our Special Report – “10 Big Lies You’ve Been Told About Investing” – to be released on 20th August 2011. The Safal Niveshak Post covers deep insights on investing to help you navigate the stock markets with confidence. It’s free, and I’m sure you’ll get a lot out of it. Click here to sign up.

Are You an Investor or a Speculator?

What separates an investor from a speculator?

Of course they look different. While an investor is generally calm and composed, a speculator is mostly agitated!

Anyways, the serious answer is – It’s not what they choose to buy but how they choose it.

At one price, any stock could be a speculation; at another (lower) price, it can become an investment.

And in the hands of different people, the same stock – even at the same price – could be either a speculation or an investment. It all depends on how they understood it and how honestly they assessed their own limitations.
[Read more…] about Are You an Investor or a Speculator?

Wednesday Morning Reads

A few interesting items for your reading pleasure:

  • Oh-ho! ‘India least favoured equity market in emerging economies’ (The Economic Times)
  • Just do it! Cohan Says Close Wall Street Casino Cut Pay In Half (The Big Picture)
  • Nice read. Authenticity (The Big Picture )
  • Wow! Gold’s climb is perfectly rational (CNN Money)
  • Hmm. The moral decay of our society is as bad at the top as the Bottom (The Telegraph)
  • ’Fine’ art of corruption. DLF fined Rs 630 cr for unfair practices, realty reels under shocks (The Economic Times)
  • Nice read. Breaking and entering (Mint)
  • Ouch! Jim Rogers: Higher food prices will spark riots soon (Moneynews)

What are you reading?

How to Invest In Stocks When Fear Runs High

Stock markets have received heavy pounding over the past few weeks as escalating fears over the global economic outlook is pushing investors into safer assets like gold.

The stampede out of equities has spared few sectors or individual stocks and has wiped out hundreds of billions of dollars of market value across the world, including India.

This isn’t any banking or stock market crisis that we are facing. Neither it is anymore a government crisis.

Instead, what we are facing now is a ‘crisis of confidence’.
[Read more…] about How to Invest In Stocks When Fear Runs High