Read, Learn,Improve - 27-Aug-16

 

This may just prove to be positive for Indian pharmaceutical companies - Counterfeit pills, potentially from China, killed Prince, investigators now believe – Link here

Have you heard of Galapagos syndrome – well It explains how the country’s geography, history, and culture have come together to create a love for a technology that the rest of the world has all but forgotten. In case you wondering one such business here is bamboozle for you - Why Japan has more old-fashioned music stores than anywhere else in the world – Link here

DEUTSCHE BANK’S $10-BILLION SCANDAL - How a scheme to help Russians secretly funnel money offshore unraveled – Link here

98 personal data points that Facebook uses to target ads to you – Link here

How a British plan to convert an illiterate boy into a loyal maharaja failed – Link here

XXXI Olympics came to end last week, here is interesting take on what it takes to win medal - Letter from… Milton Keynes – Link here . In Stock market, investor pays attention to Top Management – their value system, habits, capability, etc – same thing goes for sports. If we want to win medals we probably need to clean up & bring in right people along with right culture – InGovern one of the top Corporate Governance and Advisory firm came up with full fledge report that looks at - Governance of Sports in India – 2016:01 – Link here , or alternatively you can read news-story on same report - Link here

The watchers - Alternative-data firms are shedding new light on corporate performance – Link here

Data Geeks Are Taking Over Economics – Link here

How to Stay Rich in Europe: Inherit Money for 700 Years – Link here

Accountancy’s Big Four need more competition - I myself have been wondering about this and hopefully we should have more competition, but it’s difficult market to break in – Link here

The Upside of Losing Half Your Money - The importance of extreme diversification – Link here

The Spectrum Auction: How Economists Saved the Day – Link here

The Man Who Woke Up One Morning and Forgot How to Read – Link here

Mapping the Greatest Empires of History – Link here

Read, Learn, Improve - 20-Aug-16

The Global Guru on Valuation Aswath Damodaran seldomly writes on valuation without numbers and when he does, it’s a treat in its own way - Investing and Valuation Lessons from the Renaissance – Link here

Bronze Trumps Silver? Counterfactual Thinking and the Olympics - Link here

Katsuyama Shakes Up Industry Even Before His IEX Exchange Opens – Link here

As a kid I was made aware about Bigfoot/Yeti through Bollywood & believed it to be true. Come internet age and satellite channel I was disappointed to learn this was purely fiction or rather imagination. But looks like there are always some people who continue to remain irrational or hopeful and create a business out of it estimate to be worth $10bn – move on unicorn, we have mega unicorn- The mystery of how a company set up to search for Bigfoot hit a $10 billion value – Link here

WTF is Experience Design? – Link here (don’t miss Acron video)

We humans love to predict future, almost majority of stock market participates are involved in doing the same which one should avoid. If one compares historic prediction vs reality, reality is often different. One would be compelled to say how did we miss this? Like since invention of the car, everyone has been predicting personal cars that can fly. I think very few people actually thought of automated cars prior to jumping to flying cars. Anyway here is food for thoughts on what would happen when automated cars hit the road - When Cars Fly – Link here

THE SPORTS LINCHPIN – Link here

What a well-known researcher discovered when he asked people to flip a coin on important life decisions – Link here

Cheating death - Science is getting to grips with ways to slow ageing. Rejoice, as long as the side-effects can be managed – Link here

The Rise of the Buy Side - Financial rewards for trading are down. Incentives for making markets are gone. And the business of bond trading has been turned on its head – Link here

Virtu Never Loses (Well, Almost Never) - In the history of electronic trading, no company has been as successful as this paradigm-changing market maker, which operates in more venues than it has employees – Link here

Things I’m Pretty Sure About - A few big lessons – Link here

Is it time for a world technology organization? – Link here

Mining the Ocean Floor: Good Idea? – Link here

How Progress Occurs – Link here

Here’s a Bunch of Data That Shows How Great The World is Doing – Link here

 

Read, Learn, Improve – 13-Aug-16

Hollywood is known for its VFX and animated movies that are larger the than life, at the same time cost of doing is also very high, as per one estimate on Quora, a 5 second shot would cost around $80,000 (now we know why movies cost so high). As per another website, Steven Spielberg’s Avatar had employed 1,844 people to work on its VFX, while Iron Man had 1,834 and Avenger’s had 1,514. Since most of the businesses are getting disrupted by tech, looks like this VFX industry is also rip for the same - Watch: Technology developed at MIT could make videos truly interactive – Link here – I clearly see two advantage of it. First most of the big studios like Sony & Disney’s of the world have their own studio, so this new tech would probably lower requirement of manpower. Second hopefully our very own Bollywood would start using more of VFX.

Indian Banking - In a Time For Change - Nandan Nilekani (ppt) – Link here

How Think Tanks  Amplify Corporate America’s Influence – Link here

The Insurance Industry Has Been Turned Upside Down by Catastrophe Bonds – Link Here

Economics of sports - its Really Hard to Make Money as an Olympian – Link here

The Decline of War - We are experiencing one of the least discussed, yet most remarkable cultural shifts of all time: war, one of our species’ most abiding and defining social practices, is at its lowest ebb ever – Link here

(Must read) Thirty Years Reflections on the Ten Attributes of Great Investors - Michael J. Mauboussin – Link here

Chinese scientists to pioneer first human CRISPR trial – Link here – and I am not sure whether to be happy or scared, just like knife can be used to chop vegetables or rob someone, CRISPR can be used either way.

Uber – Didi deal needs some more studying and here are few interesting insights - Ola’s non-compete pact with Didi tested in Uber China deal – Link here . However I found this insight to be very interesting - Chinese tech firms forced to choose their market: home or everywhere else – Link here – I wonder why Chinese govt would want their domestic company to choose between home or international market?, I mean, if china think of ruling world, its business that rules and one ought to be more support of home companies that become big globally.

Are Low-Skill Workers America's Next Great Economic Resource? – Link here

How to Read Financial News: Tips from Portfolio Managers – Link here

Walmart and the multichannel trap – Link here

The Eccentric Billionaire Who Ignores Investors to Get Them Rich – Link here

Looks Can Kill: The Deadly Results of Flawed Design – Link here – This is in continuation of design series, how design helps us do work efficiently or save life, but sometime it can backfire and cause harm.

 

Read,Learn,Improve - 6-Aug-16

(The long read) 1MDB: The inside story of the world’s biggest financial scandal – Link here

Why Is the Stock Market So High? Ask the Bond Market – Link here

Nixon's Failed Effort to Withhold His Tax Returns – Link here

Meet the most notorious member of the Haldiram Bhujiawala family – Link here

World is filled with amazing business and business model. China’s Cheating Husbands Fuel an Industry of ‘Mistress Dispellers’ – Link here –  Most likely readers are likely to assume something which is not the case. These days most of the people are educated and have understood stuff like black magic & stuff doesn’t work. Problem needs to be solved by brain and that’s what they are doing.

How Fintech is Digitally Disrupting the Financial World – Link here

The competitor Amazon never saw coming – Link here

Bitcoins Make Bank Robbery Great Again – Link here

(must read) Disrupting Your Own Happiness – Link here

Evidence-based investing requires less religion and more reason - Technical Analysis: The Market’s Oldest Religion – Link here

Less sex please, we're millennials – study – Link here – one wonders what happens to all consumption driven stock, that are partly driven by population growth?

The Time Everyone “Corrected” the World’s Smartest Woman – Link here

Israel Proves the Desalination Era Is Here - One of the driest countries on Earth now makes more freshwater than it needs – Link here

There are tonnes for scam going around, I guess it has been since ages, recently a study discovered that Flossing Might Be a Giant Scam -  Link here

(video) A 7-Circle Roundabout Looks Like It Should Be Pure Hell But Somehow Works Seamlessly – Link here

Mecca of sporting event Olympics are here and India is represented by its largest contingent ever. There are lots of event that India is participating for the first time, however 2 that stood out for me are Gymnastic and Athletics. In gymnastic India is represented by Dipa Karmakar – Read here & her story, she one of the only five women gymnasts in the world to have successfully completed the dangerous Produnova vault (one of the most riskiest, just google to know more about it).  Dhutee Chand would be competing n 100m sprint, whether she will win or not is altogether different debate, however her story of making it to Olympic platform is story of history being made on global level. Imagine you not allowed to compete because god/nature made you certain way. Read here , here and here

 

Read, Learn, Improve - 30-Jul-16

The Questions That Matter - And the questions that don’t – Link here

This Bull Market Is Powered by Your Indifference – Link here

This much I know: Daniel Kahneman - The 78-year-old Nobel prize-winning psychologist on his pessimistic mother, the delusion of investment bankers and the need for irony - Link here

Dumb Alpha: Trailing or Forward Earnings? – Link here

Dollar Shave Club: How Michael Dubin Created A Massively Successful Company and Re-Defined CPG – Link here

Is 2016 the Worst Year in History? – Link here

Feudal trap: Why do Indians fear prostitutes and traders? – Link here

Satan’s Credit Card: What The Mark Of The Beast Taught Me About The Future Of Money – Link here

Is Active Management Dead? Not Even Close – Link here

Platform wars: the final score – Apple vs Google – Link here

Best-Paid CEOs Run Some of Worst-Performing Companies – Link here & Link here

Most of hardcore long term investor are familiar with concept of behavioural finance/science, this article “Set It and Forget It: How Default Settings Rule the World” – Link here - is in continuation of authors earlier article “Too Human (Not) to Fail” – Link here

Driverless Cars Threaten to Crash Insurers’ Earnings - Technology may be decades away, but firms are already scrambling to figure out how to deal with expected decline in premiums as autos become safer – Link here

(info graphic) How Jeff Bezos Built his Amazon Empire – Link here

I have been following Game Of Thrones, House of Cards and few other shows, I use to always wonder how they the whole process of making it works and here it is all explained in 3mins – Link here

Read,Learn,Improve – 23-Jul-16

As per investopedia Gillette has 70% global market share of shaving blades, taking advantage of its strong market hold it has been resorting to strong price hike (my mach 3 was priced at 25% higher compared to last year). I use to always think its opportunity for new player entrant, however it would take deep pocket to do so (marketing & branding) and hence we never so any new entrant. However now things seems to be changing – Unilever recently announced acquisition of Dollar shave – Link here and Link here

Remodeling India’s Investment Treaty Regime – Link here

What’s Next for Artificial Intelligence – Link here

The Diderot Effect: Why We Want Things We Don’t Need – Link here

Which Countries Have the Most Immigrants? – Link here

Indian e-commerce in 10 charts – Link here

Think Less, Think Better – Link here

The $1.3-Billion Defence Deal That India and Japan Don’t Want to Admit is struggling – Link here

We’ve Just Witnessed One of the Least Volatile Economic Recoveries on Record – Link here

A race to the bottom: Can roboadvisors build real businesses? – Link here

The Myth of the Millennial Entrepreneur – Link here

A Dozen Things I’ve Learned from Elon Musk About Business and Investing – Link here

My boss shares amazing one line quotes on daily basis and yesterday he sent us this - " There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics” and if you remember the The Big Brexit crisis, it’s probably time to check facts that were shared by both Exit & Remain camp – Link here

Entertainment & Investment  – Rush is hollywood movie based on real life incidents/ rivalry between two Formula 1 race driver Niki lauda and James Hunt, go ahead and watch it - very intense and many learnings. There is one particular scene in the movie where Niki Lauda (World Chanpion) communicates his risk appetite clearly.  It’s raining very heavily and race track is as such dangerous with rain more so. If you don’t have time, watch scene here

Read, Learn, Improve - 16-Jul-16

There is new game in town called “Pokeman Go”, let’s just say it has taken pretty much whole developed nation by storm. To know why, simply understand it merges real world with virtual world. And this could probably be beginning of new revolution how we interact, socialize & entertain ourselves. Read more about it here - Pokémon Go isn’t a fad. It’s a beginning – Link here . People take drugs to escape reality of the world, could this or Virtual Reality Headset be an alternative?

My Crazy thought - Mind works in weird way and I had this absolutely crazy thought on why we gone need Virtual Reality Headset (Oculus rift, HTC Vive etc). For that matter many analyst, fund manager, investor, press everybody was surprised when Facebook announced to acquire Oculus rift. First let me be clear, I haven’t used it. However going by online review Link here , Link here, quality of oculus rift is very good – Link here, there are few problems which I think we may be able to solve it. However I think one of the interesting use I could think of was watching live sports /events – post bomb blast in turkey, attacks at various  part in EU, some people might be sacred to go out in public worrying terrorist might target it. Hence what if we can transmit live sport/event to a VR headset and give people experience of live sport in their living room. Just a thought.

The Harshad Mehta case: Where time has overtaken justice by a mile – Link here

Dan Ariely on the Power of Irrational Thinking – Link here

Nettie Stevens discovered XY sex chromosomes. She didn't get credit because she had two X’s. – Link here

Entertain Yourself (The bleak truth about how we spend our time) – Link here

A shopper’s manifesto: These three simple questions are the key to quitting fast fashion – Link here

Rural migrants aren’t the reason why India’s major cities are overcrowded, the apathetic government is – Link here

Why are we still waiting for the male pill? - Despite decades of promising research, the many men who want their own contraceptive pill still have nothing. One of them, Andy Extance, looks at the obstacles – practical, political, economic – and meets the people hoping to make male birth control a reality. – Link here

The World’s Most Powerful Stock Pickers Don’t Manage a Penny – Link here

The Laws of Capitalism are Being Rewritten – Link here

Meet the robots changing modern farming: Prospero, Aquarius and SW 6010 – Link here

Take a Simple Idea and Take It Seriously - When basic beats flashy – Link here

A Dozen Entries from the Venture Capital Devil’s Dictionary – Link here

Prince Oberyn Martell Vs Gregor Clegane in trial by combat- if you have been following Game of Thrones (GoT) that probably bough flashes of heart wrenching fight scenes. In case you haven’t seen GoT, I suggest you give it a try. Just remember in case if you get addicted there are 6 season ahead to finish, so consider yourself warned before beginning. Trial by combat is method where justice is served through fight, many of us know GoT is purely fictional, however many of plots are inspired by true events. Like Trial by combat read on - A Brief History of Trial by Combat – Link here to know more.

Credit Summit 2016, July 26, Mumbai – Agenda - complimentary invite - Register now Link here