Categories
BookReview

Book Review: Instant Millionaires

The Book ‘Instant Millionaires’ is written by Max Gunther who wrote the very popular ‘The Zurich Axioms‘ and ‘How to get Lucky

Everyone knows that its not easy nor quick to become rich.It’s a long hard slog of working,saving and investing to become a Millionaire.

This Book wonders if there is an alternative to that…is it possible to become rich instantly – other than winning a lottery ticket,marrying money or by being born into a rich family.

The Book then looks at various fields where people became very rich instantly…or atleast in a few (3/4) years.

The Book was originally published in 1973.So it does not cover ESOPs and our Silicon Valley kind of millionaires.

It covers areas like glamour,inventions,business etc where people went from penury to riches in a matter of years.

There is a lot of hindsight bias in the examples…it’s just that some people got lucky while others who were equally talented did not do so.

I was interested in this Book by the success of the employees and investors in Paytm…its incredible how they became “instantly rich” and got the kind of returns that otherwise takes decades to achieve.

Alas, the Book did not offer any insights on how to identify and exploit such opportunities…other than the common-sensical  “Be at the right place at the right time and do the right thing”

I would recommend this Book only for die-hard Max Gunther fans.

Categories
CoatTailing

Portfolio of Shyam Sekhar

This post is in continuation of my coat tailing series (see here)

To know what other top investors are  buying/holding/selling in India, subscribe to our Investor Wisdom Newsletter

Shyam Sekhar is a well known investor who invests in small caps and turn around situations

His significant portfolio holdings as on 30 June,2018 as per stock exchanges is as given below:

Company Name NSE Symbol/BSE Code Entity Value (In Crores)
Acrysil Ltd 524091 S.SHYAM 4.95
Ador Fontech Ltd 530431 S.SHYAM 3.8
Aries Agro Ltd ARIES S. SHYAM 3.91
Electrosteel Castings Ltd ELECTCAST S. SHYAM 9.3
Emmbi Industries Ltd EMMBI S. SHYAM 2.97
IVP Ltd IVP S.SHYAM 1.61
Jayant Agro Organics Ltd JAYAGROGN S.SHYAM 8.69
Linc Pen & Plastics Ltd LINCPEN S. SHYAM 8.21
Sarla Performance Fibers Ltd SARLAPOLY S.SHYAM 6.4
Singer India Ltd 505729 S.SHYAM 11.63
Categories
MegaTrends

Mega Trend: India’s Helmet Industry

Source: DRHP Filings of Studds Accessories Ltd

Categories
Links

Linkfest: 06 September, 2018

Some stuff I am reading today morning:

SEBI’s preposterous fight with FPIs (Mobis)

L&T Finance under scanner for use of IPO funds (MC)

Teen Patti is driving India’s mobile gaming industry (BQ)

Winning by changing the rules of business (Barry)

The disproportional power of anecdotes (Farnam Street)

A glimpse into the dark underbelly of Crypto Markets (Medium)

Value Investing in Bull Markets (Seth Klarman)

Concealed Emotions (Morgan Housel)

History of private mutual funds in India (Mint)

Private Equity Industry is based on fake news (Preston McSwain)

 

Categories
Plug

SME Stars Meet

We are thinking of hosting a SME Stars Meet in Mumbai tentatively on the second or fourth Saturday in Oct 2018.

The Meet will have around 7-10 Companies listed on the SME Exchanges making presentations.I do hope to line up some great companies to present at the event.

The Meet will be a half day event in the morning.The costs will be around 500 Rs.

Will go ahead only if we get a decent response.

For those interested,please email me at Alpha Ideas