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February 18, 2012

My personal ten commandments

I have a few thumb rules in investing which have helped me a lot of over time. These are not some universal  ten commandments but they have kept me out of trouble, especially the tenth one !
Thou shall not buy a stock on a broker or a TV channel’s advice
Thou shall not trade
Thou shall avoid predicting or investing based on short term forecasts or outlook
Thou shall not chase momentum stocks
Thou shall not invest in an IPO.
Thou shall not use leverage
Thou shall learn to live within means so as to have investible funds
Thou shall not buy gold, commodities or any kind of fancy and complicated instruments
Thou shall not chase returns – if it is too good to be true, it is a trap
Thou shall say ‘Yes Dear’ when asked by wife if she looks good in a dress  - most important rule to have  a happy married life J .
You can choose to ignore the first nine rules based on your personal style of investing, but if you ignore the tenth rule – do so at your own peril !!!

23 comments:

  1. As long as the 10th commandment is in place, you have a long way to go Rohit.

    Cheers !

    Ankur

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  2. Dont understnad what do u mean by gold is complicated investment. I don not think you have spent enough time understanding gold . I believe you are well aware of fractional banking system and how it is inflationary.
    Hope you undestand monetary role of gold/silver vs other industrial commodities.

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  3. Hi Rohit,

    Nothing related to this post.
    Sensex/Nifty has moved into 20 PEs.

    What do you suggest when lets say they reach 25 PE?

    Sell all your stocks OR stick to your undervalued stocks ignoring market levels OR buy deep out of the money puts on Nifty?
    What have you done in the past in this kinda situation?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Great post. All are equally important, including the 10th!!

    Abhishek
    http://valueinvstr.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  5. dear rohit
    great that u stick to all your commandments because u no longer is an individual. u r an enterprise with a portfolio, a greatmoat( value investor) and a great following.
    and u may not know that some of us made lifetime money reading ur blogs and using commonsense
    god bless
    we idolize u

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi Rohit:

    What valuation range would CRISIL be considered a buying range?
    Thanks,

    DI

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  7. Hi ankur
    i tend to the forget the 10th commandment sometimes, and unlike the market, i am immediately reminded of my error :)

    rgds
    rohit

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  8. Hi amber
    read the latest article on gold v/s equity by warren buffett in fortune to understand why equities are superior

    gold is non producing asset ..whereas equities produce cash flow. over the long term equities are the best performing asset unless you are staring at a complete collapse of the financial system

    rgds
    rohit

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  9. Hi anon
    frankly i dont look at the nifty PE that closely...as of yet none of my stocks are overvalued ..so i am ignoring what happens to the index

    rgds
    rohit

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  10. Hi abhishek
    thanks for the comment

    rgds
    rohit

    ReplyDelete
  11. Hi anon
    Wow !!! you are talking about me ? even i dont think so highly of myself. anyway thanks for comment.

    rgds
    rohit

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  12. Hi DI
    crisil has always seemed fully valued, but its intrinsic value keeps rising. i have held it since 2008 and have not been dissapointed. at the same time i will not buy at current price. maybe 20 times earning ?

    rgds
    rohit

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  13. i also have a considerable amount of my portfolio in crisil since a long time, what bother me is the intrinsic value is not rising at a good rate ?

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  14. Rohit please explain what is ULIP

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  15. Hi Rohit,

    If you won't buy CRISIL at current price, then don't you think that you should sell?

    ReplyDelete
  16. Thanks Rohit again for the nice recap of important points.

    Most important is the last one..:-)

    Vic

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  17. HI Rohit,

    Sesa- Sterlite Merger. Swap ratio is 3:5.
    I can buy 5 sterlite at Rs 590, sell 3 sesa in futures at Rs 687.. and make Rs 97 in the process..

    Am I missing something??
    What are risks other than event & time risk?
    Please suggest.

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  18. Awesome post! Thanks Rohit

    ReplyDelete
  19. Hi anon 1
    i think 20% annual growth in intrinsic value is good ..unless you have higher expectations

    anon 2 - ULIP is unit linked insurance plan. it is a hybrid of insurance and mutual funds. some portion of mutual fund return is used to offset the premium expense of the insurance piece

    rgds
    rohit

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  20. JK
    i will not buy as i already have a full portfolio position. company is increasing intrinsic value @ 20% p.a ..which is good enough for me to hold it

    rgds
    rohit

    ReplyDelete
  21. Hi vic
    thanks for the comment. yes ..10th point is very crucial :)

    JK - have not looked at the deal ..let me check

    mahesh - thanks for the complement

    rgds
    rohit

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  22. Hi JK
    the tentaive date for merger is Dec 2012 ..thats around 10 months from now. we dont have any approvals yet. so this profit is not really risk free..there is deal and time risk involved in this

    rgds
    rohit

    ReplyDelete
  23. May I have your email address
    Thanks
    ashokkeval@yahoo.com

    ReplyDelete

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