Housekeeping information......

Dear Readers,
In last few months I have got lot of request from people asking me to analyze specific companies in their portfolio or recommend them a buy or sell decision on companies they are planning to buy or sell. I want to make it clear that I enjoy reading comments from everybody but I do not make any buy or sell recommendation. I can definitely look at the companies you email me and comment on any knowledge that I might have about those companies but I will never comment on buy or sell decisions. Those decisions depend on lot of factors like total size of investment, average time period of holding and an investors risk apetite with equity markets. I have no knowledge about you guys and hence refrain from making any calls. I would encourage all of you to use this blog as a starting point for your research. Analyze the companies mentioned on this blog and then make your own buy and sell decisions. Also feel free to criticize my research and any errors that you might spot in it. I am a student of equity markets and always welcome constructive criticism and encourage knowledge sharing. Please do not get upset if I do not provide you with a buy or sell decision. On the contrary, I encourage all of you to keep mailing me. I respond to all the emails that I get. I may be running late on some responses but please bear with me. I have made it a point to reply to all the emails I receive.

Another house keeping item is the increased ads on this blog. People who regularly visit this blog might have noticed that the amount of ads have increased on this blog in last few months. This is just to support myself financially. If these ads are being obstrusive for you guys then I sincerely apologize for that. I can look at reducing some of them if that's what you guys recommend.

Finally on the current status of stock markets. As I have said before in my post I am not a macro guy and refrain from making any comment on the broad direction of indices. I am a micro guy and focus at company level. From the available public records I have not yet noticed any material change in businesses of some of the companies discussed in past on this blog. I continue to hold stocks like ANG Auto, City Union Bank, Sundram Fasteners, Gateway Distriparks and Hindustan Tin in my portfolio. If I sell any of these stocks I will post it on the blog accordingly. I am a long term investor and don't panic by short term fluctuations in the market.

As usual feel free to drop me an email at secmoney@gmail.com
Regards,
Bargain Hunter

What does it takes to be a super investor?

Dear Readers,
I found a very intereting article on web from Mark Sellers. This is a small speech he gave to some Harvard students. It's his analysis on what does it takes to be a super investor like Warren Buffet. The link to the article is provided below for your reference. Hope everybody enjoys reading it.

http://www.beearly.com/pdfFiles/Sellers24102004.pdf

Regards,
Bargain Hunter

Current Market Upheveal...............

Last 2 weeks have been terrible for equity investors globally. The markets have crashed from the peak by almost 10 - 15% across major global indices. I am not going to suggest what an investor should do in this situation as this is a personal decision every investor should make based on the holdings in his portfolio, his time period for holding each investment and his ability to withstand risk. As Warren Buffett says

"Unless you can watch your stock holding decline by 50% without becoming panic-stricken, you should not be in the stock market"

I don't know what is going to happen tomorrow or even after 3 months in the market. I am not a macro guy. I think it is futile to predict the direction of Sensex or Nifty on a daily or weekly basis. However I try to focus very sharply on the companies I intend to buy. My holding period is generally 3 years so I am not worried about daily fluctuations in the market. I try to understand the business of a company and make a judgement based on my research and whatever limited business acumen I have.

While it is sad that many retail investors might have lost lot of their savings in this market crash; I sincerely hope they understand that stock market should not be treated as a casino where they can gamble on a daily basis.

On a side note..........for all those readers who read this blog regularly I want to add that in the recent crash I have added to my position of ANG Auto and Gateway Distriparks Ltd.

Regards,
Bargain Hunter

Ways to generate investment ideas........

In the last 4 months that I have been writing this blog I have realized that it is very difficult to find quality investment ideas on a daily basis. I have been able to discover only 5 stocks (City Union Bank, Gateway Distriparks, Sundram Fasteners, ANG Auto and Hindustan Tin Works) as potential investment opportunities. In this blog I wanted to share with you guys various things that an investor can do to generate his own ideas.

1) Read business newspapers like Economic Times, The Mint, Business Standard and Business Line on a regularly basis. I know it will be difficult to read all the 4 papers on a daily basis but one can go over the newspapers website during weekends and try to read as much as possible. The best thing is it is free of cost if you read them on the web.

2) Scan the "52 week low" list in the market info section of livemint.com The link is provided below for your convenience.

http://finance.livemint.com/market.asp?pagename=52WeekLow

Stock prices of good companies fall from time to time for various reasons. A good way to make money in stock markets is to buy solid businesses with sound fundamentals when they are at 52 week low.

3) Get a membership to Capital Ideas Online. It is free. This website provides investment ideas submitted by members of their investment club on a regular basis. Membership to the website is limited to 200 people only. Membership can be obtained by submitting your own investment ideas as per their format. If you cannot get a real time membership get a delayed access membership. This is available to everybody. Regularly reading the ideas and comments posted on this website can teach you a lot about investment and stock valuation. The link to the website is mentioned below

http://www.capitalideasonline.com/

4) Regularly read reports published by various industry associations, trade organizations and central government departments for understanding the macro picture. Most of these are available free from their websites.

This is just a small list of free resources that I have been able to compile. There may be lot more paid services that individuals can subscribe to find great investment ideas. If you guys feel there is something more that can be added to this list please drop me a line and I will do the needful.

Regards,
Bargain Hunter