Cliff Notes of the book: Willpower – Roy F. Baumeister & John Tierney

Willpower: Merged [Introduction & Chapter 1: Is Willpower More than a Metaphor?] [Chapter 2: Where Does The Power in the Willpower Come From] [Chapter 3: A Brief History of the To-Do list, from God to Drew Carey] [Chapter 4: Decision Fatigue] [Chapter 5: Where Have All the Dollars Gone?] [Chapter 6: Can Willpower Be Strengthened?] [Chapter 7: Outsmarting Yourself in the Hour of Darkness] [Chapter 8: Did a Higher Power Help Eric Clapton and Mary Karr Stop Drinking] [Chapter 9: […]

Alpha Trader: The Mindset, Methodology and Mathematics of Professional Trading

This is a cliff notes version of the book written by Brent Donnelly Table of Contents Part One: Why Do Some Traders Succeed, But Most Fail   Chapter 1: Know Yourself Chapter 2: If it was easy, it wouldn’t Pay So Well Chapter 3: Understanding Success Chapter 4: So You’re Saying There’s a Chance? Part Two: The Alpha Trader Mindset   Chapter 5: Level Up Chapter 6: Kryptonite Chapter 7: Smart People Do Stupid Things   Part Three: Methodology And […]

Breakout in Market Breadth

There has been a marked improvement in ‘breadth’ of the market over the last few trading sessions. The improvement in breadth comes after a long period of time and is a welcome change and has to be construed as bullish. It would mean that ‘buy the dip’ mentality has now set in; that in and of itself is a huge sentiment shift in favour of the bulls.

India’s Gig Economy – Part 2

Media attention is currently focused on the two food delivery start ups, Swiggy and Zomato. Both have raised billions of dollars via venture capital funding. The valuations seem to be vaulting higher almost once a quarter, at the very least. What’s the catch? The short answer is there isn’t any. Consumers love food delivery and the restaurants hate it. I have serious doubts of how profitable the food delivery business is, the odds are that it is a ‘cash burn’ […]

India’s Gig Economy

One doesn’t read of India’s economy having transformed from a traditional one to a ‘Gig Economy’. The mainstream media seems unable to overcome its obsession with periodic economic data releases comprising of inflation, manufacturing data etc. For the uninitiated, the words ‘Gig Economy’ refer to temporary jobs that are offered to independent contractors (freelancers), that replace the erstwhile ‘full-time’ jobs. A ‘Gig Economy’ undermines and is many ways contrary to the traditional economy wherein there are full-time jobs involving a […]

Should We Be Buying the Dip?

Nifty OHLC The Nifty OHLC (Open, High, Low, Close) chart for the current calendar year is shown above. The intra-day and closing basis high / low has also been highlighted. Year-to-Date (YTD) and on a closing basis, the Nifty 50 is up by just 0.19 percent. In other words, we are back where we began the year. On any trading day, what matters is the close. The closing price of the Nifty 50 on any trading day is the ‘verdict’, […]

2018: Well Begun is Half Done

The calendar year 2018 has begun with a bang. It’s off to the races, almost immediately. I’ll start with the returns for the year 2017. (Readers can click on any of the images for a magnified view) During the year 2017, how many of the benchmark components clocked returns that beat the benchmark and how does it compare with earlier years? That is shown below for both, the Nifty 50 and the Nifty 500. It shows the breadth of the returns kaleidoscope. The […]

Investing Ideas – 3 of 2018

Before I get to the post, I need to clarify a couple of things. Over the last three months, I have changed my selection criteria for recommending stocks. While I believe the markets (globally) have entered the ‘euphoria’ phase of the current move, there is no way of knowing how long this period will last and how stretched it will be. Hence, I am loath to timing the market. As we enter another earnings season, an additional cause for caution […]

Investing Idea – 2 of 2018

CONCOR Graph Container Corporation of India (CONCOR) is a Navratna Public Sector Enterprise (PSE) whose object is to provide efficient and reliable multimodal logistics and support for the country’s Export-Import (EXIM), and domestic trade and commerce. The shareholding pattern and Key Metrics are shown below: CONCOR Shareholding Pattern CONCOR Key Metrics Investment Thesis CONCOR  is a multimodal player in the Indian logistics ecosystem. How does one interpret the word ‘multimodal’? Multimodal would mean one that involves several modes of transport. […]

Investing Idea – 1 of 2018

NLC India Limited NLC India Limited (NLC) is the new name for the public sector behemoth Neyveli Lignite Corporation Limited. Existing Business NLC operates two primary segments, (1) Mines and (2) Power. Under the Mines segment, the company is presently working four lignite mines in the state of Tamil Nadu and one lignite mine in the state of Rajasthan. Under the Power segment, NLC is operating four thermal power stations at Neyveli (Tamil Nadu). At the same time, NLC is […]