Latest / The Morning Brief / The Art of Investing
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: This podcast is brought to you in association with BSC
- 0:04Speaker 1: and its investor awareness initiatives.
- 0:09Speaker 1: Investing holds different meanings for different people. For many, it's
- 0:14Speaker 1: simply a process of making money for some. It's a
- 0:18Speaker 1: lot more philosophical and then there are those who find
- 0:22Speaker 1: a spiritual meaning in it. These days, we are hearing
- 0:25Speaker 1: a lot about investing, being in art and then there
- 0:28Speaker 1: is plenty of debate around that too. We are about
- 0:32Speaker 1: to find that and a lot more from two accomplished
- 0:35Speaker 1: practitioners in the field of investing.
- 0:38Speaker 1: They need no detailed introduction to the investing community, having
- 0:43Speaker 1: managed public money for decades. What these gentlemen buy and
- 0:48Speaker 1: sell is watch closely in the market, listen on because
- 0:52Speaker 1: this promises to be a great conversation.
- 0:56Speaker 1: I am Nishant Vasudevan, the markets editor of the Economic
- 1:00Speaker 1: Times and your host in this episode.
- 1:14Speaker 1: First, I'm pleased to welcome Kenneth Andrey founder and Cio
- 1:18Speaker 1: of Old Bridge capital management.
- 1:22Speaker 1: Welcome Kenneth Hi. Not to start with for many people
- 1:26Speaker 1: in the investment industry. The the process of investing typically
- 1:30Speaker 1: starts with uh with numbers and ratios and spreadsheets and
- 1:34Speaker 1: other things for you as an investment practitioner. When does
- 1:39Speaker 1: this science evolve to or something like an art.
- 1:42Speaker 2: Well, it's a mathematical introduction at the end of the
- 1:45Speaker 2: day and you get better at it after you have
- 1:48Speaker 2: been through years of experience with it. Right.
- 1:52Speaker 2: So my investing journey started almost 30 years ago and
- 1:55Speaker 2: I've been through a couple of bear market cycles and,
- 1:58Speaker 2: and a lot of bull market cycles. Uh and I
- 2:00Speaker 2: think experience has taught us everything. So the numbers ratios
- 2:04Speaker 2: deductions of how a company will grow, et cetera would
- 2:08Speaker 2: be completely meaningless if I haven't gone to see how
- 2:10Speaker 2: all of these ratios did, all of these structures did
- 2:13Speaker 2: well uh did in the past. So it's just a
- 2:16Speaker 2: accumulation of experiences that you have. That is what brought
- 2:19Speaker 2: us to this stage.
- 2:20Speaker 2: Uh So yes, there's a science behind it and there's
- 2:22Speaker 2: a math behind it. The art comes with experience,
- 2:26Speaker 1: right, correct. Perfect. As a, as a fund manager, as
- 2:29Speaker 1: an investor, was there a big turning point in your
- 2:33Speaker 1: life that that changed your approach towards investing, you know,
- 2:37Speaker 1: that moment of epiphany, you know, where you feel felt that,
- 2:41Speaker 1: you know, this is what you know, I shouldn't be
- 2:44Speaker 1: doing or this is what I should be doing.
- 2:46Speaker 2: So it was that effective journey in year 2000 all
- 2:50Speaker 2: the way from 1997 to 2000 where nothing went wrong.
- 2:54Speaker 2: And in 2000 to 2003, everything went wrong. It was
- 2:58Speaker 2: that journey between, between buying value,
- 3:02Speaker 2: ok? To believing that growth would uh to buying growth
- 3:07Speaker 2: at any price or holding on to growth at any price.
- 3:09Speaker 2: And the cycle that came after that, it was a
- 3:14Speaker 2: significantly large learning experience and that's what's made me what
- 3:18Speaker 2: I am today,
- 3:19Speaker 1: right? Many people in the market will be familiar with
- 3:23Speaker 1: your portfolio. Uh They kind of might be knowing your
- 3:26Speaker 1: stocks by heart, but very few might be knowing about
- 3:30Speaker 1: your stock selection process. Basically, how do you identify a stock?
- 3:34Speaker 1: When do you decide to buy it? And how much
- 3:36Speaker 1: do you buy it?
- 3:37Speaker 1: Now, it would be helpful for our listeners if you
- 3:40Speaker 1: could elaborate with some kind of an example, something that
- 3:43Speaker 1: you've done in the past, have you kind of how,
- 3:45Speaker 1: how does the entire process work for you?
- 3:48Speaker 2: So, so fundamentally, we try to buy capital efficiency at
- 3:51Speaker 2: a price and that's where the art of investing actually goes,
- 3:54Speaker 2: right? Capital efficiency. Everyone knows how a business is managed.
- 3:58Speaker 2: Everyone can calculate the Roe and Roc of the business, right?
- 4:01Speaker 2: But if the Roc and the Roe or capital efficiency
- 4:04Speaker 2: is very high in most contexts or in most environments,
- 4:08Speaker 2: you end up paying a, a very large price for it. OK.
- 4:12Speaker 2: A great business is always available at a great price.
- 4:15Speaker 2: So what we try to do is try and find
- 4:17Speaker 2: a great business in an industry which is not doing
- 4:20Speaker 2: very well.
- 4:21Speaker 2: The company's profitability is also not great, but it is
- 4:24Speaker 2: better than the rest. And that's where we like to
- 4:27Speaker 2: step in simply as an investor. What I'd like to
- 4:30Speaker 2: see in multiple markets. So that is which company or
- 4:34Speaker 2: its stock in a 52 week low. That's my go
- 4:37Speaker 2: to place. Ok. So capital efficiency of one of the
- 4:41Speaker 2: best businesses in a down cycle is a time where
- 4:43Speaker 2: you get it at that at a reasonable price.
- 4:46Speaker 2: Uh That that's a short and the long form of,
- 4:49Speaker 2: of what the process is all about.
- 4:52Speaker 1: Uh uh Could you elaborate that, you know, for, in, in,
- 4:54Speaker 1: in terms of an example that you know, something has
- 4:57Speaker 1: worked well for you in the past.
- 4:59Speaker 2: So let's put a, let's put a case of something
- 5:01Speaker 2: that we've done and it's held us in relatively good
- 5:04Speaker 2: stead since we started our journey, right? Largest airline debuted at,
- 5:09Speaker 2: at the next amount of market cap when the industry
- 5:11Speaker 2: had four or five participants at that point in time,
- 5:14Speaker 2: right, a very attractive business, a cost leader, profitable, generating
- 5:19Speaker 2: cash flows in an industry which was which you would
- 5:22Speaker 2: always find businesses struggle to generate cash flows and then
- 5:26Speaker 2: you hit a down cycle this business on every single parameter.
- 5:31Speaker 2: OK. And traded at a valuation which is much lower
- 5:34Speaker 2: than we've ever seen it before. OK. And continued its
- 5:37Speaker 2: ability to be the cost leader today. The metrics is
- 5:40Speaker 2: completely changed. So aviation and in India, India's largest aviation
- 5:44Speaker 2: company is today the second largest in terms of market
- 5:47Speaker 2: capitalization in the world.
- 5:48Speaker 2: OK. Has got cash on its balance sheet is something
- 5:51Speaker 2: that the word and something that this industry has never seen,
- 5:55Speaker 2: probably globally, you've probably seen it one or two companies,
- 5:58Speaker 2: but in Indian company has that and one of the
- 6:01Speaker 2: most important things is the marketplace is completely consolidated.
- 6:04Speaker 2: So you got the price right when you got and
- 6:07Speaker 2: and it still holds itself in good stead in in
- 6:10Speaker 2: the entire competitive framework in its within its industry,
- 6:13Speaker 1: right? So, so yeah, so everybody focuses on buying a stock,
- 6:17Speaker 1: you know, when to buy, when to you know the
- 6:20Speaker 1: timing of the purchase, the price of the purchase. But
- 6:24Speaker 1: there is very little literature on selling part of it,
- 6:27Speaker 1: which
- 6:28Speaker 1: typically tends to be a lot more complicated. How do
- 6:31Speaker 1: you think about this entire approach of selling
- 6:33Speaker 2: well, when
- 6:34Speaker 2: an industry does well, the last common denominator in that
- 6:38Speaker 2: industry or the smallest company in that industry starts doing
- 6:40Speaker 2: extremely well. Now think about it this way when everyone
- 6:44Speaker 2: in an industry makes money, you are heading towards hyper
- 6:47Speaker 2: competitive competition, right? Because the largest company is investing in
- 6:51Speaker 2: the smallest companies investing, which means more capacity is coming in.
- 6:55Speaker 2: Quite contrary to what most investors would like to believe
- 6:59Speaker 2: that any industry where everyone makes money is a great
- 7:03Speaker 2: place to be in. We hate being in a place
- 7:06Speaker 2: where every single participant in an industry is profitable or
- 7:11Speaker 2: is making money and reinvesting its money back into that industry.
- 7:15Speaker 2: That's our side discipline, quantitatively putting it together
- 7:19Speaker 1: in the, in the recent past. Have you come across
- 7:22Speaker 1: any such set up in an industry
- 7:25Speaker 1: which is kind of gone through this kind of a
- 7:27Speaker 1: phase and where you felt that, you know, there is
- 7:29Speaker 1: going to be a, there's going to be a fair
- 7:31Speaker 1: bit of competition and you think that it's a time
- 7:33Speaker 1: to kind of move. So
- 7:35Speaker 2: let me give you a sense of what happened in 2006,
- 7:38Speaker 2: 7 and eight, right? And you see some similarities of
- 7:41Speaker 2: that lay out in today's environment though. What happened in
- 7:43Speaker 2: 67 and eight, we had this big boom in infrastructure
- 7:47Speaker 2: and every company that was out there was setting up
- 7:49Speaker 2: was bidding.
- 7:51Speaker 2: What is
- 7:53Speaker 2: so the higher order book, higher market gap, more ability
- 7:56Speaker 2: to raise money, more ability to raise money, higher ability
- 8:00Speaker 2: to take more contracts.
- 8:02Speaker 2: Ok. And that became the most inefficient part of the marketplace.
- 8:06Speaker 2: At that point in time, capital is usually available. Companies
- 8:09Speaker 2: want to say company want to build auto book because
- 8:12Speaker 2: the minute you want to build auto book, you're getting
- 8:13Speaker 2: market cap. The minute you get market cap, you have
- 8:16Speaker 2: to demonstrate the ability to get a higher order book,
- 8:19Speaker 2: which is the first structure of deterioration of
- 8:23Speaker 2: margins. When you have deterioration of margin. There's someone who
- 8:26Speaker 2: is going to come and be big below your price,
- 8:29Speaker 2: something similar took place. And, and within our portfolios at
- 8:32Speaker 2: the asset management company, we we basically build out a
- 8:35Speaker 2: structure around pharmaceuticals which are outwardly facing. Ok. And the
- 8:41Speaker 2: Indian manufacturers actually consolidated the global space in terms of
- 8:45Speaker 2: generic manufacturing.
- 8:47Speaker 2: Ok. That's the consolidation part. What are you seeing bringing
- 8:49Speaker 2: is the fragmentation part in the infrastructure, infrastructure business. Now
- 8:54Speaker 2: timing this is completely different. Yeah, you you will have
- 8:57Speaker 2: to work to see that you do not sell too
- 8:59Speaker 2: early into a cycle like this.
- 9:01Speaker 1: Perfect Kenneth. The other question that we have in mind
- 9:05Speaker 1: is generally, you know, you are a stock picker and
- 9:09Speaker 1: the biases normally tend to be the smaller caps. The
- 9:13Speaker 1: general perception over there is that the corporate governance standards
- 9:16Speaker 1: are not the best in my in this entire space.
- 9:21Speaker 1: So for you as a fund manager, what comes first?
- 9:23Speaker 1: Is it the price or the corporate governance? So
- 9:26Speaker 2: again, the corporate governance can be quantified. OK. Uh Now
- 9:30Speaker 2: let me put it this way, take a portfolio in
- 9:32Speaker 2: our company
- 9:34Speaker 2: and see if it's attracting the right talent.
- 9:38Speaker 2: OK? And it is getting incremental market share in its industry.
- 9:42Speaker 2: OK? It was attracting the right talent
- 9:45Speaker 2: and it's getting higher market share. Now, how can two
- 9:48Speaker 2: of these things be wrong if it's got bad governance?
- 9:51Speaker 2: So when I say you can quantify corporate governance, we
- 9:54Speaker 2: can actually quantify corporate governance out there.
- 9:58Speaker 2: Why am I talking about governance in, in a small
- 10:01Speaker 2: cap business? Right. So usually when you, when you look
- 10:05Speaker 2: at a business in a down cycle or, or you know,
- 10:07Speaker 2: in a down cycle and you try to capture a
- 10:09Speaker 2: great business in a down cycle, mostly investors, we keep
- 10:13Speaker 2: that space because they want industry to well and the
- 10:16Speaker 2: company to actually grow well.
- 10:18Speaker 2: And when there is no ownership in that entire business,
- 10:20Speaker 2: because going through a rough patch, you usually get them
- 10:23Speaker 2: at mid cap market caps, mid cap market caps, right?
- 10:28Speaker 2: And I think that's a great entry point for all
- 10:29Speaker 2: of us.
- 10:31Speaker 2: So while a portfolio kind of represents a small cap
- 10:35Speaker 2: and mid cap is bias, they usually the largest companies
- 10:39Speaker 2: in their categories, just they represent their market capitalization because
- 10:43Speaker 2: they're going through a weak cycle.
- 10:45Speaker 2: OK? So when we invest, we don't compromise on corporate governance. OK?
- 10:51Speaker 2: And we try to find this pricing which you most
- 10:53Speaker 2: most often than not usually get it in this space
- 10:58Speaker 2: or this these kind of companies. And that's what we,
- 11:01Speaker 2: we try to, I try to enable with the process.
- 11:04Speaker 1: Yeah. So Kenneth, you know, investing tends to be, it's
- 11:07Speaker 1: it's tricky people kind of, you know, it is subjective,
- 11:11Speaker 1: but according to you in investing, what is the skill
- 11:15Speaker 1: that is the most overrated and what is the skill
- 11:17Speaker 1: that is the most underrated?
- 11:19Speaker 2: Okay, the most underrated skill I would think is patience.
- 11:23Speaker 2: Ok. Nobody likes to wait on the stock. Uh Nobody
- 11:27Speaker 2: wants to buy it at its appropriate time.
- 11:30Speaker 2: Ok. And that's what I think most investors almost always forget.
- 11:36Speaker 2: Ok. And it's happened with me as a beginner investor.
- 11:39Speaker 2: I just didn't have the patience to, to wait on
- 11:41Speaker 2: a stock or to find it a little cheaper and
- 11:44Speaker 2: to understand what makes a good business.
- 11:47Speaker 2: Ok. And I think the most overrated part of investing
- 11:50Speaker 2: is gut feel.
- 11:52Speaker 2: OK? Our intuition
- 11:55Speaker 2: because what drives intuition and what drives gut feel has
- 11:58Speaker 2: to be quantitative at the back end?
- 12:01Speaker 2: OK. You can't wake up one day and say that
- 12:04Speaker 2: intuitively. I think this company will do well because this
- 12:07Speaker 2: is a limited amount of data that I have. So
- 12:09Speaker 2: you have to watch a business for an extremely long
- 12:12Speaker 2: period of time.
- 12:13Speaker 2: OK. And that will drive intuition,
- 12:16Speaker 1: right? Uh Kenneth, before we wind up this discussion, our
- 12:21Speaker 1: listeners would want to get some wisdom from you on
- 12:24Speaker 1: some kind of advice from you on investing. Uh If
- 12:28Speaker 1: you were to give them one good advice, one solid advice,
- 12:31Speaker 1: what would that be?
- 12:33Speaker 2: I think everyone is in the process of finding the
- 12:36Speaker 2: next
- 12:38Speaker 2: big winner in the market cycle like this side.
- 12:41Speaker 2: So if you're trying to find a value where it exists, none,
- 12:45Speaker 2: OK. Don't go searching for it. And I think this
- 12:48Speaker 2: is very contextual and I learned it in 2017, 18,
- 12:51Speaker 2: despite all the years in of, of investing into 2017
- 12:55Speaker 2: and 18, we went into a market cycle where I
- 12:58Speaker 2: went looking for value as they exist. Not right. So
- 13:01Speaker 2: you want to tread a little carefully, have that patience
- 13:04Speaker 2: and the discipline to stay away from things you don't know.
- 13:07Speaker 2: Ok. And, and in a market environment like this, I
- 13:11Speaker 2: don't think there's any value that you to search out. Yes,
- 13:14Speaker 2: there are businesses that will grow, there are businesses that
- 13:17Speaker 2: will keep you safe and there are businesses that will
- 13:19Speaker 2: compound capital. They are all out there. So you just
- 13:22Speaker 2: have the discipline to wait till it comes to your price.
- 13:25Speaker 1: Thank you, Kenneth. Thank you for talking to us. Thank
- 13:28Speaker 1: you for this great discussion. It was nice having you
- 13:31Speaker 1: and I'm sure our listeners have benefited a lot from this.
- 13:35Speaker 2: Thanks. Thanks for having me on the show.
- 13:37Speaker 1: Now. I would like to welcome Sunil Singhania, founder of
- 13:41Speaker 1: a asset management. Welcome Sunil. So thank you for having me. So,
- 13:46Speaker 1: so basically, you know, people know about Sunil Singhania portfolios,
- 13:50Speaker 1: about the stocks, you own, etcetera,
- 13:53Speaker 1: but they don't know much about your stock selection process. Basically,
- 13:57Speaker 1: how do you identify a stock? How do you buy
- 14:00Speaker 1: a stock? How much, how much do you buy? I mean,
- 14:03Speaker 1: if it would be nice if you could tell our
- 14:05Speaker 1: listeners about this entire process, probably through an example of
- 14:09Speaker 1: something how, how a past some kind of a pick.
- 14:12Speaker 1: So when we set up a backers, we had a very,
- 14:16Speaker 1: very clear investment philosophy, you know, very quickly I can
- 14:19Speaker 1: run you through the investment philosophies of first is we
- 14:21Speaker 1: don't allocate, we invest, you know, we are not going
- 14:24Speaker 1: to invest in a company just because, you know, you
- 14:26Speaker 1: want to have an exposure to the particular sector or something,
- 14:29Speaker 1: we would like to individually on merit, look at each company. Secondly,
- 14:34Speaker 1: at least from our perspective, we are very, very balance
- 14:36Speaker 1: sheet focus. So we don't look at loss making companies.
- 14:39Speaker 1: So for us, the return on capital employed is sector.
- 14:42Speaker 1: And therefore, you know, typically we invest only in companies
- 14:45Speaker 1: with the Roc or Roe is at least 14 15%.
- 14:49Speaker 1: The second important criteria for us is the profit growth.
- 14:52Speaker 1: And therefore, typically we look at companies which can double
- 14:55Speaker 1: profit ideally in four years, a maximum of five years,
- 14:59Speaker 1: which is a 14 to 18% cagle growth. Because you know,
- 15:02Speaker 1: if the profits double the value of the business will
- 15:04Speaker 1: automatically double. The third thing we look at which is
- 15:08Speaker 1: in the current kind of an environment which is, you know, disruptions.
- 15:11Speaker 1: Then the other thing is, you know, the valuation, our
- 15:15Speaker 1: view is that the best company is not necessarily the
- 15:17Speaker 1: best stock. So if you remember four or five years back,
- 15:20Speaker 1: we had come out with a note called bubble in
- 15:22Speaker 1: quality and our view was that yes, quality is good.
- 15:25Speaker 1: But at what price? So you know, if a company
- 15:27Speaker 1: is trading at 7080 P multiple growing at 10%
- 15:31Speaker 1: I don't think that investor is going to make returns
- 15:33Speaker 1: out of it. So we are very conscious about the valuations.
- 15:36Speaker 1: So I think all said and done, these are the
- 15:38Speaker 1: key criteria which we look at recently, we bought an
- 15:41Speaker 1: auto ancillary company called sh it was ignored, but it
- 15:45Speaker 1: clicked all the boxes, you know, and I think so
- 15:47Speaker 1: far touch wood, it's been going very well, very, you know,
- 15:50Speaker 1: evaluation focused investment of 24 25% and growing also decent,
- 15:56Speaker 1: you know, this is just an example, but I'm just
- 15:58Speaker 1: giving a broad perspective of how we look at things
- 16:02Speaker 1: great. So as a as an investor, as a fund manager,
- 16:05Speaker 1: what has been the biggest turning point in your life,
- 16:09Speaker 1: you know, that is kind of changed your approach towards investing. No,
- 16:13Speaker 1: I think two or three things, one is obviously joining
- 16:16Speaker 1: a mutual fund and basically, you know, getting into the
- 16:21Speaker 1: groove as far as long term investing is concerned. Second,
- 16:24Speaker 1: as I said, you know, we all learn from our mistakes.
- 16:27Speaker 1: So many times you end up selling early
- 16:31Speaker 1: and those were huge lessons. You know, I think in
- 16:33Speaker 1: the case of Bajaj finance, we were large investors. When
- 16:36Speaker 1: I was in reliance mutual fund, we made good money,
- 16:39Speaker 1: but we sold early and from there on the stock
- 16:41Speaker 1: has multiplied 50 times. And I think from a turning
- 16:44Speaker 1: point perspective, I think the biggest I would say learning
- 16:49Speaker 1: is that if you are investing in equity,
- 16:52Speaker 1: you have to be positive on the economy or vice versa.
- 16:55Speaker 1: If you are positive on the economy, then only you
- 16:57Speaker 1: should be investing in equities. And I think that is
- 16:59Speaker 1: what we have basically tried to do
- 17:02Speaker 1: so beyond ratios and the balance sheets and and you know,
- 17:05Speaker 1: the industry prospects. Do you also look at the so
- 17:09Speaker 1: the softer aspects in your investment uh checklist? So Nishan
- 17:13Speaker 1: in a in a mid size or smaller company, obviously
- 17:17Speaker 1: meeting the company makes a big difference in a mid
- 17:19Speaker 1: to small size company. The management becomes very important because
- 17:24Speaker 1: the second layer and the third layer might be might
- 17:26Speaker 1: not be as strong as the top layer.
- 17:28Speaker 1: And therefore meeting companies become very, very important hygiene factors.
- 17:32Speaker 1: You know, we do company visits when we do company visits,
- 17:35Speaker 1: we come to know, you know how they are treating people.
- 17:37Speaker 1: What is the cleanliness? What is the, you know, the
- 17:40Speaker 1: whole quality aspect that becomes very important. Obviously, when we
- 17:44Speaker 1: go through multiple year balance sheets, you know, they are
- 17:47Speaker 1: compliance in terms of taxation.
- 17:50Speaker 1: There any red flags by the auditors. I think those
- 17:53Speaker 1: are again, things which we have to basically look at.
- 17:55Speaker 1: And more importantly, you know, if you have a history
- 17:58Speaker 1: of the company over the last 1015, 20 years, then
- 18:01Speaker 1: you know how the company has behaved in different cycles.
- 18:04Speaker 1: I think that also helps now. So most investors, you know,
- 18:08Speaker 1: at least the people who kind of, you know, who
- 18:10Speaker 1: has started off the entire focus is on buying the
- 18:14Speaker 1: timing of the purchase, the price of the purchase.
- 18:17Speaker 1: But there is very little discussion on when to sell.
- 18:21Speaker 1: Uh What is your philosophy in this?
- 18:24Speaker 1: No, I completely agree with you. I think uh when
- 18:27Speaker 1: to sell, how much to sell, whether to sell food,
- 18:30Speaker 1: whether to sell partial is always a concern or a
- 18:32Speaker 1: question or uh I would say an uncertain kind of
- 18:36Speaker 1: a decision from our perspective. There are three reasons why
- 18:39Speaker 1: we would sell a stock first is if we go
- 18:42Speaker 1: wrong in our hypothesis, you know, so we invested in
- 18:44Speaker 1: a company based on particular assumptions or hypothesis and that
- 18:48Speaker 1: is not turning out well,
- 18:49Speaker 1: maybe the sector has gone, you know, worse than what
- 18:52Speaker 1: we expected. The company is not performing the way we expected.
- 18:56Speaker 1: So I think the earlier you realize and the earlier
- 18:58Speaker 1: you sell out, the better, you know, then you should
- 19:01Speaker 1: not look at whether you would want to wait for
- 19:03Speaker 1: a pop up or not. I think you have to
- 19:05Speaker 1: sell second is a lot of times, you know, you
- 19:08Speaker 1: go right and the stock moves much beyond what you
- 19:12Speaker 1: would expect is to be the fair. Value.
- 19:14Speaker 1: See, ultimately, we are investors, we are investing from a
- 19:16Speaker 1: 345 years perspective. But if you feel that, you know,
- 19:20Speaker 1: in the next two years, the stock has discounted what
- 19:23Speaker 1: you thought was uh possible in 4 to 5 years
- 19:27Speaker 1: without any significant improvement in fundamentals, you would want to
- 19:30Speaker 1: book profits. And the third important uh decision is, you know,
- 19:35Speaker 1: capital is limited.
- 19:37Speaker 1: So if you have something in the portfolio and you
- 19:39Speaker 1: come across something else, which is looking much better than
- 19:43Speaker 1: what you already have in the portfolio. Obviously, you would
- 19:45Speaker 1: like to switch, you know. So these are the three
- 19:47Speaker 1: main reasons why we would sell a stock. And what
- 19:50Speaker 1: according to you is the most overrated part of investing
- 19:54Speaker 1: as a, as a profession and what is the most
- 19:56Speaker 1: underrated skill required? I mean, that is not being talked about.
- 20:01Speaker 1: I see one thing is every investor I just said
- 20:05Speaker 1: would have a different way of investing. I would say
- 20:08Speaker 1: that the most overrated is, you know, trying to figure
- 20:13Speaker 1: out when to buy, when to sell on a daily basis.
- 20:16Speaker 1: You know, it just adds to the noise, it doesn't
- 20:19Speaker 1: add to the returns. I think the most underrated is
- 20:22Speaker 1: the compounding effect,
- 20:24Speaker 1: you know, in reliance when I was managing growth fund,
- 20:27Speaker 1: we became 100 X in 100 years in sorry, 21 years,
- 20:31Speaker 1: but that was a keg of only 20 to 23%
- 20:35Speaker 1: which is great. But it doesn't look very big, but
- 20:38Speaker 1: when you see 100 X in 21 years, that looks very,
- 20:40Speaker 1: very big. I think investors instead of looking at who
- 20:44Speaker 1: did the best in the last one year and switching
- 20:47Speaker 1: from one fund to the other fund, I think more
- 20:50Speaker 1: than that they should find someone who would be very
- 20:52Speaker 1: consistent
- 20:53Speaker 1: and we would keep on just adding to the returns. Yeah. Yeah,
- 20:57Speaker 1: soon as that's a, that's a great point, you know,
- 20:59Speaker 1: to actually, you know, stick to a particular investment and
- 21:02Speaker 1: you know, stay with it, you know, so that allowing
- 21:04Speaker 1: it to allowing it to compound assets. So before we
- 21:08Speaker 1: uh wind up this discussion, you know, our listeners would
- 21:11Speaker 1: want to know your some important advice on investing. What
- 21:15Speaker 1: would you add?
- 21:16Speaker 1: See, investing one has to be first positive on the
- 21:20Speaker 1: underlying country and the and the asset class. So I
- 21:24Speaker 1: think if you are positive that India is going to
- 21:26Speaker 1: grow from four trillion to eight over the next eight years,
- 21:29Speaker 1: then you should definitely invest in equity. Second is, you know,
- 21:32Speaker 1: don't try to maximize return every day. I think equity
- 21:36Speaker 1: is ultimately investing in companies and your returns are going
- 21:39Speaker 1: to be commensurate with the earnings growth of the company.
- 21:42Speaker 1: I think the other thing is you have to give
- 21:44Speaker 1: time to your investments. You know, you can't invest for
- 21:47Speaker 1: one month, two months and six months and then get
- 21:49Speaker 1: scared because of some event uh because then you will
- 21:52Speaker 1: be entering at the wrong time and uh exiting at
- 21:54Speaker 1: the wrong time. More importantly in this today's world where
- 21:58Speaker 1: knowledge and information has become a commodity. I think don't microanalysis,
- 22:02Speaker 1: micro analyze everything, you know, something or the other will
- 22:05Speaker 1: be wrong in some part of the world.
- 22:07Speaker 1: I think that doesn't mean that you get negative and
- 22:10Speaker 1: not disillusioned from investing. I think you have to just
- 22:13Speaker 1: look at the broad perspective. And as I said, be
- 22:16Speaker 1: confident on the country you are investing on the asset
- 22:18Speaker 1: class or you will make money.
- 22:21Speaker 1: Great, great. Thank you, Sunil for joining in. It was
- 22:24Speaker 1: great talking to you. I'm sure our listeners would have benefit. No, no.
- 22:28Speaker 1: Thanks a lot. And thanks for having me. It was
- 22:30Speaker 1: a pleasure sharing uh my experience with your viewers. I
- 22:33Speaker 1: hope uh they find it useful. Thank you
- 22:36Speaker 1: with this. We wrap up our episode. The key takeaway
- 22:40Speaker 1: from both conversations is that money is not just about
- 22:43Speaker 1: getting lucky. It's more about having proper systems in place
- 22:48Speaker 1: that need to be followed with a lot of discipline
- 22:51Speaker 1: and patience. Thank you once again, Kenneth and Sunil for
- 22:55Speaker 1: joining us in this conversation and a big thank you
- 22:58Speaker 1: to our listeners.
- 23:01Speaker 1: This episode was produced by Vinai Joshi and the sound
- 23:05Speaker 1: was designed by Amrit Regi.
- 23:07Speaker 1: This is your host, Nishan Vasudevan, signing off. Thank you
- 23:11Speaker 1: and stay tuned.