One of the drawbacks we face as Indian investors is that most financial literature (books etc) are US based and as such, their learnings may or may not apply in the Indian context
This book, Bulls,Bears & Others Beasts-A Story of the Indian Stock Market-by Santosh Nair does a wonderful job by filling in this gap.
The book traces the journey of a trader who trades for a living in the Indian Stock market over the last 25 years.
All the events that transpired since then-Harshad Mehta Scam,Ketan Parikh scam,Satyam scandal,bear raids,corruption,promoter shenanigans etc are covered faithfully in the book.
Some of the events mentioned in the book were eye-openers for me-how “The Old Fox” hammered Suzlon’s shares in Oct 2008 was one of them.
One phrase I loved in the book was a financial analyst talking about Company’s financials-“All milk is adulterated.The difference is in the degree”
This book ought to be compulsory reading for people wanting to know how the Indian stock markets really work.
4 replies on “Book Review: Bulls,Bears & Other Beasts”
read this book after your review. my first encounter with you. superb review and a superb book. a must read for anyone investing in the indian stock market. Shocking too!
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It was a wonderful book…can you suggest some more books to read which apply to Indian context??
Completed this book yesterday. Like it. I found a striking similarity between nsel scam mentioned in this book and the soybean oil fraud linked with american express in 60s which made warren buffet to invest in American express. Here are my highlights from both this book
The price of soybean oil collapsed. De Angelis’s lenders, holding the now-worthless warehouse receipts, hired investigators and turned to American Express, issuer of the receipts, to recoup their $150 to $175 million in losses. And American Express—caught holding tanks full of nothing but worthless seawater—saw its stock plummet. The story began to hit the newspapers. – From the book snowball
But the full extent of the scam became clear only a few days later when the exchange began checking the warehouses for the commodities stocked in them. The majority of the receipts turned out to be fake as the quantity of the goods in the warehouses was just a fraction of what was mentioned on the receipts. – from this book