Dara Shikoh
I wander the streets of Delhi
seeking my name
Dara—the scholar, the Sufi
Shahjahan’s licit heritor
I was trapped and assassinated
by my own treacherous brother
I see, masters of Delhi
have named streets
after murderous Aurangzeb
but Dara Shikoh
the people’s prince
no one remembers, no one cares.
– from Caravan
Some off beat reads for the weekend:
How Disney got investors for Disneyland (Smithsonian)
A matter of Modi ministry (Open)
Article 370:The untold story (IndianDefenceReview)
J&K Bank shares hit by rumours of NPAs of 2500 Crores (Moneylife)
The dream time of the world cup (Roads&Kingdoms)
Travelogue:A Scorpio to Himachal (TeamBHP)
Status symbols in Pakistan (Dawn)
Why its so hard for men to see misogyny (Slate)
Dads who do dishes raise ambitious daughters (NYMag)
Europe’s Ukrainian life line (GeorgeSoros)
How to become a Crorepati with normal income (NDTV)
Vaastu Shastra- Tips (IREF)
Laundry wars of Silicon Valley (NYMag)
Mumbai locals start crime fighting trend (MumbaiMirror)
Hedge fund investors are not as dumb as they look (Bloomberg)
There are three broad categories of investment strategy that I advocate:
- bargain purchase
- increase value
- double-digit cap rate.
Bargain purchase is the purchase of real estate for at least 20% below current market value.
In the increase-value strategy, you buy a property for its current market value, but you select only properties with some unrealized potential. Then, immediately after purchase, you make whatever changes are necessary to increase the value of the property. In general, you must increase the value by at least 20% within six months in order for the strategy to be worthwhile.
Double-digit cap rate means that you buy the building on terms that it has a capitalization rate of 10% or more. The capitalization rate is the net operating income (rent minus operating expenses but before debt service) divided by the purchase price. In other words, it is the cash-on-cash rate of return you would get if you owned the property free and clear. In the absence of a bargain purchase, double-digit cap rates are very hard to find. They generally only occur temporarily in depressed markets or in small market niches.
The most common real estate investment strategy, however, is one which I condemn: buying properties which the investor believes will soon increase in value due to market-wide appreciation. This is, in fact, pure speculation. No one knows which areas will appreciate. Many billions have been made by investors pursuing this strategy, but they were simply lucky.-wrote John Reed
Some stuff that I am reading today morning:
Why did Reliance buy Network 18 when it already owned it? (CapitalMind)
Exits galore as Reliance takes over TV18 (Mint)
To make a killing on Wall Street, start meditating (Bloomberg)
Air Asia India ticket sales opens today (ET)
Big bang capital reforms on cards (BS)
The fund that never goes up (TRB)
How to make an online will in India (BasuNivesh)
Why investors should be cautious about India (CNN)
Margins don’t matter when picking stocks (MillenialInvest)
Information is cheap,meaning is expensive (RPSeaWright)