Breaking Investment Stereotypes with Rajkumar Singhal

My guest for today is William Green. William is the author of very popular book   Richer, Wiser, Happier: How the World’s Greatest Investors Win in Markets and Life 

Over the last quarter of a century, he has interviewed many of the world’s best investors, exploring in depth the question of what qualities and insights enable them to achieve enduring success. He’s written extensively about investing for many publications and has also given many talks about the lessons we can learn from the most successful investors, not only about how to invest but about how to improve our thinking.

Green has written for many leading publications in the US and Europe, including The New Yorker, Time, Fortune, Forbes, Barron’s, Bloomberg Markets,  and The Economist. He has reported in places as diverse as China, India, Japan, the Philippines, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, the US, Mexico, England, France, Monaco, Poland, Italy, and Russia. He has interviewed presidents and prime ministers including our own Manmohan Singh, inventors, criminals, prize-winning authors, the CEOs of some of the world’s largest companies, and countless billionaires.

He also worked closely with a renowned hedge fund manager, Guy Spier, helping him to write his much-praised 2014 memoir, The Education of a Value Investor: My Transformative Quest for Wealth, Wisdom, and Enlightenment. Green also wrote and edited The Great Minds of Investing, which features short profiles of 33 renowned investors, along with stunning portraits created by Michael O’Brien, one of America’s preeminent photographers.

Born and raised in London, Green was educated at Eton College, studied English literature at Oxford University, and received a Master’s degree from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. He lives in New York with his wife, Lauren, and their children, Henry and Madeleine.

Show Notes:

0:00-8:15 : Introduction

08:15-15:32 : About his book - ‘Richer, Wiser, Happier’

15:32-22:37 : Important things William has learnt from successful people & their traits

22:37-37:21 : The 'Art of subtraction' & how it has helped & impacted William

37:21-42:26 : Role played by insights as well as luck for great investors

42:26-49:06 : What's it like to meet billionaires - there is a combination of arrogance, pride, vulnerability, fragility etc

49:06-53:51 : What drives Warren Buffett and his partnership with Charlie Munger for 50 odd years

53:51-1:00:19 : How does one balance between the concept of diversification and concentration

1:00:19-1:10:09 : How do great investors think through the market cycles, the chaos, the calmness

1:10:09-1:19:14 : Investment done by any person that has fascinated William

1:19:14-1:29:04 : Happiness quotient of rich & wise people

1:29:04-1:42:01 : Advice to 20 year self

1:42:01-1:50:40 : How does William bring himself back to normality after being with these rich people

My guest for today is Vikas Khemani. Vikas is Founder & CEO of Carnelian Asset Management. He has ~25 years of capital markets experience, before founding Carnelian, he was CEO of Edelweiss Securities Ltd, where he spent 17 years incubating & building several businesses to leadership position including Institutional Equities and Equity Research. he enjoys strong relationships with Corporate India and is associated with several Industry bodies & committees including the CII National Council on Corporate Governance, FICCI Capital Markets Committee, Executive Council of Bombay Management Association. He is also a member of Young Presidents Organization (YPO), a global forum for entrepreneurs and CEOs and was awarded Young Professional Achievers Award for the service sector by the ICAI in 2014. His passion for investing took shape during his college days and continues to drive him.

Besides being an avid reader and poker player, Vikas enjoys yoga, meditation and has been running marathons since the last 15 years

This episode is brought to you by multipie.co where we believe Investing is an ignored life skill. Multipie is building up a platform where people can form communities and learn, share , collaborate on growing their wealth using the right tools. We want your hard earned money to work for you.

Show Notes:

00:00-02:40 Introduction

02:40-04:06 Vikas's EBC Trek Experience

04:06-10:11 About Vikas & Carnelian journey

10:11-13:55 Vikas's perspective on his tweet - "The desire to perform all the time is usually a barrier to performing over time."

13:55-18:02 Carnelian strategy and the shift in their strategy

18:02-21:40 Sector within Manufacturing sector where Vikas sees more potential

21:40-25:11 Does Vikas classify himself as a contrarian investor & when is big money made according to him

25:11-30:20 Vikas's best and worst investments

30:20-32:20 What is worse - 'Buying a wrong company' or 'selling a good company early'

32:20-35:34 Vikas's view on the financial sector

35:34-39:21 Vikas's view on the Reliance Industries

39:21-43:12 Investing lessons one learns from Poker

43:12-47:44 Vikas's view on digital businesses in India & their valuation

47:44-49:58 Stocks to avoid

49:58-53:00 Breaking Stereotypes

53:00-56:30 Healthy habits that one can incorporate in their daily life

56:30-1:00:10 How does Vikas make sure he is right on his spiritual track too

01:00:10-1:01:10 Book recommendation

1:01:10-1:02:30 Vikas's personal investment asset allocation

1:02:30-1:04:50 Regrets & things Vikas is looking forward to in life going ahead

1:04:50-1:07:01 Advice to 20 year self

My guest for today is Pravin Jadhav. Pravin Jadhav, or PJ is Founder & CEO of Raise Financial Services. He is known in the startup & technology ecosystem for building products from scratch and scaling them up from zero. Prior to Raise, Pravin was the Founder, Managing Director, and CEO of Paytm Money, where he built the product and company from zero to become India's largest investment platform.

In his previous roles, Pravin was Chief Growth & Product Officer at Servify, Head of Growth at Freecharge, and led product for Mobile and eCommerce at Rediff. He has 2 decades of experience across verticals like Invest-tech, Payments, eCommerce, Online Advertising, Social, Search, and Mobile.

This episode is brought to you by multipie.co where we believe Investing is an ignored life skill. Multipie is building up a platform where people can form communities and learn, share , collaborate on growing their wealth using the right tools. We want your hard earned money to work for you.

Show Notes:

0:00-2:27 Introduction.

02:27:00-8:54 PJ's journey.

08:54-15:00 What is PJ currently doing, how is it different from Paytm Money ?

15:00-22:49 How does PJ reconcile between traders & investors data sets?

22:49-28:52 How does Dhan's vision fit into the next phase of the broking industry?

28:52-33:22 How does PJ balance between the customer feedback and feature release?

33:22-38:01 Investor behaviour changes seen in recent times.

38:01-39:17 There are two applications by Raise - one for trading and other for investing, how does PJ reconcile and about branding?

39:17-43:59 Personal investment asset allocation of PJ.

43:59-49:14 Views on 'social meets investing'.

49:14-51:32 What makes PJ so active on social media? It's upsides & downsides.

51:32-58:50 How is PJ preparing himself ,being part of a startup, amidst the market slowing down ?

58:50-1:01:09 Breaking Stereotype according to PJ.

01:01:09-01:04:07 What advice will PJ give to his 20 year old self

My guest for today is Amit Jeswani who is founder and CIO of Stallion Asset Management. Amit is a double charter and has successfully completed his Chartered Financial Analyst (Virginia, USA) and Chartered Market Technician (New York, USA) certifications. A graduate in business with finance from Kingston University, London, he has been investing in the capital markets from the last 13 years, having started at a tender age of 16 alongside his father who was a stock broker. With humble beginnings, he started Stallion Asset as a Research Analyst firm, and with the trust of his clients, Stallion Asset has scaled up to become a Portfolio Management Service Firm. 

This episode is brought to you by multipie.co where we believe Investing is an ignored life skill. Multipie is building up a platform where people can form communities and learn, share , collaborate on growing their wealth using the right tools. We want your hard earned money to work for you.

Show Notes:

00.00- 2.09 mins: Introduction

2.10- 4.04 mins: Amit Jeswani’s life journey & what made him enter equity markets

4.05- 7.55 mins: 1st biggest mistake while investing

7.56- 11.18 mins: What made Amit become an active investor from an active trader

11.19- 19.09 mins: What are the major trends Amit is optimistic on

19.10- 22.43 mins: Views on emerging monopolies (market leaders)

22.44- 25.16 mins: Interpretation of recent FII selling in the market

25.17- 28.50 mins: Fed has started tightening the market, time to be conscious now?

28.51- 36.50 mins: Which industry will benefit the most from the growth trajectory of increasing per capita income in India?

36.51- 41.09 mins: What are the specific segments Amit is specifically bullish on under PLI schemes announced by the government?

41.10- 45.15mins: New-age tech companies having long term superior advantage

45.16- 49.10 mins: What risk factors & other metrics to consider while allocating capital

49.11- 52.23 mins: Does Amit use technical parameters along with the fundamental analysis while choosing stocks for the portfolio

52.54- 59.04 mins: How Indian markets will look like in the next 10 years?

59.05- 1.01.20 mins:  What advice will Amit give to his 20-year-old self?

1.01.21-1.04.54 mins:  Investment stereotypes according to Amit?

My guest for today is S Naren. Naren is the ED and CIO for ICICI Prudential AMC. Naren joined the AMC in 2004 as fund manager and has worked in various capacities in the investment function culminating in his taking over as the Chief Investment Officer. He oversees the entire investment function across the Mutual Fund and the International Advisory Business. He currently manages some of the flagship schemes of the ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund. 

After obtaining a B. Tech degree from IIT Chennai, Naren finished MBA in finance from IIM Kolkota and worked with financial service organizations like Refco Sify Securities India Pvt. Ltd., HDFC Securities Ltd. and Yoha Securities in various positions prior to joining ICICI Prudential AMC.

Naren has many laurels to his credit. He is a leading voice on the Indian economy/ equity markets across the investment and financial services fraternity. Mr. Naren was also a member of the esteemed panel of invitees for the Honorable Prime Minister’s Pre-Budget consultation meet for 2020. In recognition of his work, various leading investment authors have featured him through dedicated chapters in their investment books. He is widely recognized as India’s leading Mutual Fund and Capital Market Investment Guru

Mr. Sankaran Naren is also a member of the Committee on Equity matters at AMFI.

This episode is brought to you by multipie.co where we believe Investing is an ignored life skill. Multipie is building up a platform where people can form communities and learn, share , collaborate on growing their wealth using the right tools. We want your hard earned money to work for you.

Show Notes

0.42: Introduction

3.00: Investing philosophy of S Naren over the years

5.51: Naren’s point of view on how global banks control the stock markets

9.04: RBI’s inflation view

11.03: How is the commodity led inflation impacting India and the markets

13.23: Naren’s approach to asset allocation

16.41: Thoughts on various asset classes

20.26: Views on Indian and global equities

22.10: Understanding value investing and avoiding value trap

26.18: Naren’s perspective on the metal sector from a value investing point-of-view

28.45: Naren’s thesis on the Indian banking sector

31.50: Retail participation in the stock markets

34.49: Thoughts on the insurance sector

35.56: Thesis on the real-estate sector and REITs

37.38: Learnings from Howard marks and Michael Mauboussin

40.17: Naren explaining his statement “Investing is buying, sizing and selling”

42.09: Naren’s view point on India in the next decade

44.29: Naren’s personal investing journey

47.19: Outlook on the new growth loss making companies

49.36: Role of co-fund managers in the ICICI Prudential team

52.24: Challenges of having a small child at home and improvement in oneself

54.38: Naren’s view on the different stereotypes that investors have

59.17 Advice to your own 20 year self

My guest for today is Siddharth Bhaiya. Siddhartha is the Managing Director and Fund Manager at Aequitas Investment Consulting Private Limited, a boutique investment firm focusing primarily on PMS and AIF offerings. He is a qualified Chartered Accountant and the driving force behind Aequitas Investment and has over 20 years of experience into Equity research and Equity Fund Management. With Siddhartha’s multibagger and contrarian stock picking approach, Aequitas has delivered ~31% CAGR returns over the last 9 years leading to ~1020% absolute returns. He has been instrumental in taking Aequitas from a start-up to a $250 mn AUM with one of the best performance track record in the industry. He believes in generating outsized returns by investing in small cap undiscovered companies. With exposure across all market capitalization companies, he is a specialist in bottom-up stock selection. Siddhartha started his career as a Research Analyst with Sushil Finance and has worked with Stratcap Securities, Principal PNB AMC & Reliance Capital Asset Management (RCAM).

This episode is brought to you by multipie.co where we believe Investing is an ignored life skill. Multipie is building up a platform where people can form communities and learn, share , collaborate on growing their wealth using the right tools. We want your hard earned money to work for you.

Show Notes

0.48- 2.47 Introduction

2.48- 5.05 Why Siddharth’s bio says - “I am the next multibagger”

5.06- 10.31 Siddhartha’s life journey before starting Aequitas & what made him start his own fund management company

10.31- 11.54 Aequitas’s journey from getting its first cheque from initial clients

11.55- 16.58 Psychology of money & how to actually implement it?

16.59- 20.10 How can one learn to hold stocks even during drawdowns?

20.11- 29.26 How to identify multibaggers & consistently hold on to them for a long period to create wealth

29.27- 32.55 What does contrarian investing actually mean?

32.56-40.52 Detecting right cycles at the right time

40.53-43.28 Sectors/themes Siddhartha is bullish on

43:00 Why bullish on Infrastructure as a sectoral theme

43:29 How should individual react to FED hikes and recent drawdowns

49:55 Aequitas 5 year performance and how did Siddharth bounce back post Mar-20 drawdown

53:09 What did Siddharth learn from his mistakes about selling stocks early

55:44 Views on IPO listings in 2021 and if Siddharth likes any

59:10 Do as the promoter do - how to track promoter activity

1:00:00 Why should parents teach delayed gratification to kids

1:03:16 Stocks that changed Siddharth’s life - Bharti Airtel and Avanti Feeds

1:06:08 Why should investors NOT research ideas not in their valuation range

1:09:00 Why Gold should be part of investment allocation

1:13:44 We are in the business of making mistakes, not repeating them

1:18:00 Book recommendation for all - One up on Wall Street

We have a special episode today..we are bringing two of the world’s leading crypto experts as guests.

Anthony Pompliano

 Anthony “Pomp” Pompliano is an entrepreneur and technology investor. Most people simply call him “Pomp.” Pomp currently manages an investment portfolio valued at more than $500 million, including investments in many of the largest companies across the bitcoin and crypto industry.

Additionally, he hosts the popular podcast “The Pomp Podcast,” which has been downloaded more than 20 million times. Pomp also writes a daily letter that is read by more than 150,000 investors each morning. Lastly, Pomp’s interests lie at the intersection of finance, technology, entrepreneurship, and economics, which he tweets about extensively to his more than 700,000 followers.

Sumit Gupta, Co-Founder & CEO, CoinDCX

Sumit Gupta is Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of CoinDCX, India’s first crypto unicorn and the safest cryptocurrency exchange. As a pioneer in India’s crypto industry, Sumit has been instrumental in bringing the emerging asset class to the consciousness of India’s mainstream. In his role, Sumit is responsible for the overall strategy and growth of CoinDCX, and is the driving force behind the company’s vision to onboard 50 million Indians into crypto.

As co-chair of the Blockchain and Crypto Assets Council (BACC), a part of IAMAI, whose members are crypto exchanges operating in India, Sumit is an influential industry figure who advocates actively for better understanding and adoption of crypto. Together with his team at CoinDCX, Sumit is committed to democratizing access to crypto for India, empowering Indians to manage their digital wealth in an increasingly digital and decentralized future. Sumit holds an Undergraduate and Master’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay.

Show notes

00:20    Introduction of Multipie and the show

01:11    Introduction of Crypto + Pomp + Sumit

03:15    Monetary revolution v/s technology revolution

05:51    Comparing Bitcoin to Digital Gold

08:20    Bitcoin as an investment opportunity for retail investors

11:13    Sumit's views on how the Indian govt. has been regulating the space in the last 4-5 years

14:50    How do exchanges like CoinDCX manage to handle the volatility in the crypto space?

16:21    Pomp's take on launch of a Bitcoin ETF in the US

18:42    Will cryptocurrency be accepted world-wide?

24:28    Cultural revolution in this industry

27:24    Are NFTs coming out as an application of the technology?

30:19    Views on selecting a currency out of the 5000+ already in circulation

32:43    Smarter application of the cryptocurrency

34:11    Takeaways on Dogecoin

35:19    Explaining Central Bank Digital Currency

37:14    Advice to young crypto enthusiasts

40:20    Closing remarks for Pomp

40:46    Sumit's take on Bitcoin as an replacement to gold

43:47    Looing into the metaverse from an Indian view point

46:22    Where does India rank in the global crypto space?

48:34    How are the Indian investors reacting to the market volatility?

My guest for today is Hiren Ved. Hiren is the Co-Founder, Director, CEO, and CIO, Alchemy Capital Management. With over 30 years of experience in the Indian equities market and public market investing, Hiren Ved – has a long track record of alpha generation over 19 years. He has been Managing/advising funds worth 1 billion USD (as on 31 Dec 2021) across domestic and offshore mandates for Alchemy.

As the CIO of Alchemy Capital, he has developed a sustainable long term fundamental research-based investment philosophy that has helped in delivering consistent and superior long term returns for clients. This episode is brought to you by multipie.co where we believe Investing is an ignored life skill. Multipie is building up a platform where people can form communities and learn, share , collaborate on growing their wealth using the right tools. We want your hard earned money to work for you.

Show notes:

0:00 Introduction

2:43 What made Hiren Ved so fascinated towards stock markets?

7:10 What made Hiren from heading the equity research department to start his own PMS- Alchemy capital?

11:17 Hiren’s investing style - how it has evolved over the last 20+ years

14:25 What are several elements which made Hiren a successful investor & his key learnings from the market?

22:12 How to get exposure in different themes and different market cycles at the reasonably right time?

32:25 How does Hiren see the next 10 years in India?

48:41 What are the 3-4 sectors Hiren is bullish on?

59:30 Hiren’s view on recent drawdown in new-age tech companies & long-term view on new-age tech companies in India and globally.

1:13:35 Thoughts on impact of potential financial tightening in the US and India.

1:19:12 Hiren’s suggestion for new Investors

1:23:46 One important Investing stereotype which Hiren wants to break.

1:26:06 What does Hiren reads about except Equities & markets

1:30:41 What advice would Hiren give to his 20-year-old self?

My guest for today is Radhika Gupta. Radhika is Currently MD & CEO of Edelweiss Asset Management Limited. She is a graduate from the Management and Technology Program at the University of Pennsylvania (USA); with joint degrees in Economics from the Wharton School & Computer Science Engineering from the Moore School,

She has recently been elected as Vice Chairperson at AMFI.

Radhika started her career with McKinsey & Company, and then progressed to become a hedge fund manager with AQR Capital – One of the world’s largest Systematic Asset Managers.

She then moved to India to start her own venture named – Forefront Capital Management, an alternative asset management firm, which was acquired by Edelweiss in 2014.

A true global personality, having travelled across 4 continents, she is the founding President of the University of Pennsylvania Alumni Club, a member of the Global Leadership Council of the Management and Technology Program and a Board Member of the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI). A keen micro-blogger on Twitter and an avid Bridge player, her unique life story narrated in the video,  ‘The Girl with a Broken Neck’, has garnered over 1.8 L views.

This episode is brought to you by multipie.co where we believe Investing is an ignored life skill. Multipie is building up a platform where people can form communities and learn, share , collaborate on growing their wealth using the right tools. We want your hard earned money to work for you

Show notes:

0.35- 2.35: Radhika’s Introduction

2.36- 5.42: Radhika’s life journey

5.43- 9.07: Habits that Radhika shaped by living in Italy

9.08- 12.13: Thoughts on the importance of community

12.14- 16.05: View on Indian educational ecosystem

16.06- 19.10: Radhika’s experience of starting the career by trading mortgage loans, Ninja loans, CDOs, etc.

19.11- 23.06: Experience during the financial crisis in 2008 in India

23.07- 25.26: What made her move to India from the US

25.27- 28.32: Learnings from building her own company- Forefront capital

28.33- 30.23: How she lost money due to poor asset allocation during the financial crisis

30.24- 35.03: Journey from becoming one of youngest CEOs & being lost initially to now completing 5 years in industry & feeling settled now

35.04- 38.5: How Social media helped Radhika so much in her life

38.6- 43.36:  How are Debt index funds a better alternative to FDs

43.37- 47.55: What does Edelweiss look at before adding any company to their IPO fund

47.56- 52.04: The myths of Passive investing

52.05- 53.55: Is the retail interest towards markets structural?

53.56- 55.48: How can one have a portfolio which is very simple with an element thrill factor at the same time

55.49- 56.59: One habit that can help in becoming a better investor

57.00- 1.02.11: What can be done to increase women participation in financial services

1.02.11- 1.07.17: The importance of mental health in a workplace

1.07.18- 1.07.51: What advice she would give to her 20year old self

My guest for today is Aditi Kothari. Aditi Kothari Desai is the Vice Chairperson of DSP Investment Managers Pvt Ltd. (DSPIM). She also heads Sales, Marketing and E-Business and serves as a member of the Executive Committee. Aditi is passionate about the digitization of the financial sector and was instrumental in the launch of all DSP’s digital platforms. Aditi joined Merrill Lynch’s investment banking group in New York in 1998, primarily working on M&A activities in the Financial Institutions Group. Subsequently, she worked in DSP Merrill Lynch as part of the fixed income team where she and I worked together as well.  later she joined DSP Merrill Lynch Fund Managers in 2002 (now DSPIM). Aditi is a Trustee in the Hemendra Kothari Foundation as well as the Wildlife Conservation Trust. She is passionate about viewing and saving wildlife. Apart from being an Independent Director at Godrej Agrovet, she also serves on the Board of DASRA, a leading strategic philanthropy foundation in India.. Aditi holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

This episode is brought to you by multipie.co where we believe Investing is an ignored life skill. Multipie is building up a platform where people can form communities and learn, share , collaborate on growing their wealth using the right tools. We want your hard earned money to work for you

Show Notes

00.00-2.18: Introduction

2.19-4.15: Life Journey of Aditi kothari

4.16-5.26: What made Aditi enter Fixed income industry from Investment banking

5.27-9.17: Trajectory in mutual fund industry (How 90Mn$ fund turned into 1.2Bn$ in just a year)

9.18-12.53: How was the digital transaction platform built in DSP?

12.54-14.47:  Why DSP invested in smallcase?

14.48-18.46: View on future of digital platforms

18.47- 20.58: Which financial products have a high potential customer demand?

20.59- 23.11: Upcoming trends in the mutual fund industry.

23.12-26.58: What can be done to increase women participation in the financial markets?

26.59- 31.55: What financial independence actually means for women?

31.56- 33.19: Will the retail enthusiasm of directly investing in equities continue or will end with the bull market?

33.20- 34.36: Types of alternative asset classes

34.37- 34.31: Role of Aditi in philanthropy funds & trusts

34.32- 39.59: Advice to Aditi’s 20yr old self

40.00- 41.55: What motivates Aditi everyday?