Better Bets

“There are two requirements for success in Wall Street. One, you have to think correctly; and secondly, you have to think independently.” — Benjamin Graham

We recorded 3 episodes on Active Investing and hence decided to sum up all the options at hand and lessons learned in this final episode. 

"The biggest risk of all is not taking one." — Mellody Hobson

This episode covers the world of long-short hedge funds. These too are available for investors globally and if managed well, they could provide market-beating returns, especially in times of high volatility. 

The intent of this episode is to educate you in a way that helps you make an informed choice. The plethora of options can be a constraint for an uninformed investor, whereas it can be a toolkit for the informed one.

“Managers do not create large alphas by being conventional. They do so by taking the risk of being wrong and alone.” — Peter Bernstein

In Episode 2 of Season 2, we dive deep into the world of Active Investing. We discuss the pursuit of alpha generation i.e. beating the index, performance fees, expense ratios, importance of team and culture, and so much more. 

If you are invested in mutual funds, chances are really high that a good chunk of those will be Active in their strategy. And the themes covered in this session might just help out in making wise choices in personal portfolio management and future allocations.

“Unless an investor has access to ‘incredibly high-qualified professionals,’ they should be 100 percent passive – that includes almost all individual investors and most institutional investors”.

David F. Swensen, Chief investment officer at Yale University

Welcome to Season 2 of Better Bets.  In episode # 1, we dig into Passive Investing, its emerging dominance in the Fund Management space, and how it has benefitted millions of investors globally. If you are looking at a simple + effective strategy to make your money work in Equity Markets, then this episode is perfect for you.

Note #

We learned a lot from our Season 1 and it has been a joyride of sorts. This season, we are taking the coverage of the show and the production quality to 10 notches higher. Jai & I are committed to educating people to invest wisely and we intend to deliver on that purpose with a bang this time around. Thanks for all your support to date and we look forward to the journey ahead !!! 

"With a good perspective on history, we can have a better understanding of the past and present, and thus a clear vision of the future." — Carlos Slim Helu

2021 was a crazy year and it taught us both a lot of lessons, investing-related and personal too. More than the outcomes, it was self-education of sorts and hence we take this opportunity to share with you a few key learnings from a year gone by...

“Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks.” - Warren Buffet

Stock Investing gets exciting with changing times, but it tends to get tougher too. Especially today, when the disruptive forces are leading to rapid changes in the index constituents and powerhouses of yesterday are being reduced to a fraction of their past glories. The few that have survived the onslaught of technology and innovation, deserve a whole pod on them and the secrets behind their magic.

Few resources discussed -

Understanding Michael Porter - Joan Magretta

Harvard Business Review Video on the Five Forces

“Democracy cannot function or survive without a sufficient medium by which citizens remain informed and engaged in public policy debates.”

The last 2 years have seen the government use every tool in its arsenal to deal with the economic disruption that COVID brought onto the world. No wonder we see umpteen publications covering debates on Stimulus Checks, Money Printing, Tax Cuts, Interest Rate Cuts, Hyperinflation, and asset inflation as its aftermath. Hence it becomes increasingly important to understand these tools in detail and the tough choices government has to face on daily basis.

We have also shared below the links to the resources discussed in the pod #

- Pragmatic Capitalism Book 

- PragCap Blog's Recommended Reading 

- Ray Dalio's Youtube Video on 'How the Economic Machine Works'

"From a strictly economic point of view, buying gold in a major inflation and holding it probably presents the least risk of capital loss of any investment or speculation." - Henry Hazlitt, WSJ & New York Times Journalist

Gold has captured the attention and imagination of investors, speculators, hoarders, pirates, kings, bankers, and many more. Over centuries, it has played various roles i.e. long-term investment, store of value, medium of exchange, and inflation hedge. It's no wonder that hundreds of movies have been based on the pursuit of this glittering compound and hundred more books have been written to profit from its volatility or lack thereof. 

In today's episode, we discuss Gold as an Investment in modern times and supplement the argument with its antithesis too. We also discuss the options available to take exposure to this asset class. 

If we see gold prices go up from here, we hope to have played some role in contributing to the glittering asset class :) 

"If you don't have a competitive advantage, don't compete." - Jack Welch

We are very excited about doing our first Business Analysis on the pod. In this session, we break down Apple's Business Model, discuss its various moats along with Tim Cook's influence, and end with a financial overview.  Understanding Apple in depth cannot be covered in one podcast, but this will surely spark your interest in an expedition through the rabbit hole of the Technology Sector and Apple's dominance in it.

In this episode, we discuss the lottery business and the space it occupies in our society. We go into the weeds and talk about the profitability of this operation, the vulnerability of its targetted audience, the behavioral tendencies these products create, and how it lands up shaping the mindset of millions of Investors in modern times. Lottery may not have anything to do with investing, but Investing surely happens for many in a fashion similar to Lottery Ticket purchases.