Confessions of a Value Investor !

For a long time, Mr. Warren Buffett held the post of the best long time investor. His investing philosphy is simple. He would identify a company that he thinks would do well in future, make sure that the managers running the company are good and invest heavily in them. Finally he would wait and wait and wait ... Over a period of time (he is still waiting) his investment would sit there, multiply under the ever increasing compound interest.

But I guess very soon there would be a new long term investor .. ME (Mr. Buffett is still waiting with his stocks). I wanted to be someone who would invest for a short period, turn inventory and make quick buck. I wanted to buy stocks, make intra-day trades mostly or hold on for atmost a week and cash in. But looking at the current movements in the Indian stock market, I am bound to become a long term investor. I simply can not sell they reach the levels I bought them at. This is indeed a bad investing philosphy considering that I might end up with a lot more loss than if I had had a stop-loss figure and exited in time.

Discliamer:
I hold Mr. Buffett in vey high regard and I wish someday I could get even 1% of what he is today. This post is just to indicate that Indian Stock Markets are very very volatile at this moment.

P.S.: I want to go and work for him some day ... :)

If someone is interested in reading about Charlie Munger (he is the low-profile partner of Mr. Buffett) ... here are a few interesting links ...
Link 1 | Link 2 | Link 3

CAPTCHA aka Word Verification

CAPTCHA aka "completely automated public Turing test to tell computers and humans apart" is awesome. It helps people (rather website owners) filter out real, lame and unsuspicious users from automated bots. The concept is very simple. They display a word, obscure it with putting some graphic effects, adding lines, dots etc. and then display it at the authentication point on a website. They assume that machines a.k.a. bots won't be able to read it and a human would be able to. To authnticate yourself, you need to read and decipher whats on it and enter your credentials.

I would agree to disagree here. Its ok that you skem the thing so bad that a machine can not read it but sometimes (more often than not), its obscured so bad that I have hard times reading it. I have to refresh the page 5-6 times to get a comprehensible image and proceed. May be I am a machine, may be I am a bot and may be its about time I got my eyesight checked?

There are arguments both in the favour and against the technology and since I hate CAPTCHA, I would tend to favour the ones against it ;)

A detailed discription can be found on Captcha and Wikipedia.

Mario and Nintendo Amusement Park

Ever since I bought a controller for my laptop, I have been hooked onto old NES games ... Mario and Contra to name a few.

Further I think I am a Google stud and can search for anything ... I was searching for Mario vids and came across this page on Wikipedia. Needless to say vids were forgotten and werent thought about again for some time.

I also came across Nintendo Amusement Park. This is a place where students from ITP created "a real life obstacle course which a player jumps through using a power assist harness" based on the popular Mario series. They call this "Physically Augmented Reality". I wish I was in NY :( I want to try this so dearly ...

I posted about Ben Mario Piano long time back and it has helped me get a few hits... Here is a reference to it yet again.

:(

This article makes me sick ! There are people in dire need of help and few "doctors" are striking against something that is not relevant.

I hope some of them are reading this .. !

Things I Live By !

These are the things I plan to live by ...

1. If we have agreed on a time and you fail to turn up, I will leave.
2. When I call you, if you do not pick up in four rings, I will drop the call.
3. I will wear what I feel like. Do not push me for wearning anything other than shorts if I am not in office.

200*

Thursday, May 25, 2006

200 Not Out !

Sunday, January 18, 2004

Ok, Finally a BLOG.

I have been thinking about it since quite some time now when one fine day Aakash's BLOG became popular.

Will try to post stuff and see what else can you use the BLOGs for except for getting famous ;)

Aye Saala ... !!!

Movie: Rang De Basanti
Lyrics: Prasoon Joshi
Singer: Naresh Iyer and AR Rehman

Aye Saala...
Abhi Abhi, Huaa Yaqeen,
Ki Aag Hai, Mujh Mein Kahi
Hui Subaah, Main Chal Gaya
Suraj Ko Main, Nigal Gaya
Ruu-Ba-Ruu Roshni
Heyy - 2

Jo Gumshuda, Sa Khwaab Tha
Voh Mil Gaya, Voh Khil Gaya
Woh Loha Tha, Pighal Gaya
Kichhaa Kichhaa, Machal Gaya
Sitaar Mein, Badal Gaya
Ruu-Ba-Ruu Roshni Heyy - 2

(Dhuaan Chhataa Khula Gagan Mera
Nayi Dagar Naya Safar Mera
Jo Ban Sake Tu Hamsafar Mera
Nazar Mila Zara) - 2

Aandhiyon Se Jaghad Rahi Hai Lau Meri
Ab Mashaalon Si Bhad Rahi Hai Lau Meri
Naamo Nishaan, Rahe Na Rahe
Ye Kaaravaan, Rahe Na Rahe
Ujaale Mein, Pee Gaya
Roshan Huaa, Jee Gaya
Kyon Sehte Rahe
Ruu-Ba-Ruu Roshni
Heyy - 2

Dhuaan Chhataa Khula Gagan Mera
Nayi Dagar Naya Safar Mera
Jo Ban Sake Tu Hamsafar Mera
Nazar Mila Zara
Ruu-Ba-Ruu Roshni - 2
Heyy

Aye Saala - 4

Bridging the Gaps !

Bridging the Gaps !
2006 May: En Route to Yanker Pass, Himachal Pradesh

There were umpteen number of similar bridges connecting places, people and lives. A lesson to be learnt? May be !

More interesting and random clicks can be found at 04p050. (Advertising ;0)

Bridging the Gaps !

Bridging the Gaps !
2006 May: En Route to Yanker Pass, Himachal Pradesh

There were umpteen number of similar bridges connecting places, people and lives. A lesson to be learnt? May be !

The Sunlight !

The Sun trying to peep through the Clouds
2006 May: Yanker Pass, Himachal Pradesh

Reservation and Strikes

Yes you want to protest, you want to make yourself heard, there are million other ways to do it. A bandh is certainly not the way to go. If everyone who thought that he is being exploited came on the roads and summoned a bandh, there would be bandhs 24 x 7, 12 months a year.

I know doctors study real hard and have a lot of brains but apart from making themselves heard and getting the media attention what are the things that we stand to loose?

1. Disruption of normal life. It might just be another day for striking medicos but for some it might be a matter of life and death. Someone could be on the way to his interview and he can not reach there. Why? Because some doctors are protesting.

2. Loss of Public Money. There are some people who would pay taxes. The money that comes from taxes is used for making doctors, paying policemen, erecting infrastructure. When a certain group of people decides to strike, they are wasting important resources.

3. Students themselves. I know they are the best brains in the country and can do no wrong but what about the time that they have wasted on all this hoopla? I think it would be the 13th day tomorrow. We are talking about 13 days of missing classes, 13 days of utter disrespect, 13 days of neglect towards the patients and 13 days of shame.

Ofcourse there are more things to say but maybe later...

P.S.: Before some doctor decides to burn my effigy and gimme some kinda erratic medicine, here is the disclaimer in bold. I am against resevation based on social grounds.

From Tables to CSS

A complete redesign of the Blog and the Website is keeping me busy now a days. I hope to complete eveything before I start working.

I am trying to eliminate (or minimize) the use of tables in my pages and port everything to CSS. And in process, I might come up with a new design.

Need loads of luck :D (As if people actually read the blog :D)

Sensex down more than 800 points !

When people throughout India were talking about Da Vinci Code, Reservations and Elections, something significant happened. The sensex tumbled by more than 800 points in a single day. Going by the records, this is the single largest intra day fall ever recorded in history (in terms of absolute numbers though)

I am not a finance person, I would not have detailed account and analysis on the situation but since I proclaim all the time that I have huge amount of common sense, I can talk about something that appealed to me. To start with it was a very good time to invest. Since most of the stocks were down by 4-5% than their regular values, an excellent oppurtunity exists. Further since markets are going down by this huge amount, they are bound to bouce back (Newton's law). And finally with all the other investment oppurtunities being unattractive, equity markets is the in thing.

So why did the sensex tumble like it has never done before? It was attributed intially to global dip in stock prices. Then somehow there was a report that FIIs would be charged 40% interest and then to top everything else, the metals were doing badly. As they say a cascading effect setup in the market and the results are for everyone to see.

I would again say that I am not a finance guy but I think the entire stock market depending on just FII is bad for health. Is there a mechanism by which we limit the participation of FII in the bourses?

Open Letter to the People of the World

I do not have a Million Dollar Homepage where I could sell pixels, I don't have One Red Paper Clip which I could trade, I don't have a soul that I could auction on the web, I don't have any pets called Toby that I could threaten to kill, I don't know how to run an adsense fraud and make millions sitting at home ... but I do know one thing. I want an iPod !

This is an open appeal to the people of the world (going by the stats, world consists of two visitors I have on this blog) - Please donate me an ipod. All I am asking for is just one ipod 1 GB shuffle - nothing more and nothing less. And if you can not donate, get me one if you are coming from US. I checked on amazon, one iPod Shuffle 1GB is only $99 in US. I could have bought it here but It is not available here. They say its out of stock. And according to ebay, if it was available, it would be atleast Rs. 7000.

If there is humanity, if there is god in the world and angels in the heaven and satan in hell, if there are enough millionaires left around, if there are flights connecting India and US, please please get me an ipod. I have a friend who is supposed to give me a gift upto the value of Rs. 3333. And thats my budget :D

And now ... Google NoteBook

Welcome to yet another service from Google. Google Notebook. Google Notebook is a nifty little tool that can be used to keep notes !

I don't know about other people but I have a habit of saving my thoughts all the time. I have an assorted collection of text files, doc files, html files, chits, post-its and what not with all my notes and random thoughts on em. I was wondering how to organize them. Yesterday only I saved a few as drafts on this very blog. Google Notebook might be the answer ...

The installation is easy. You download a 140 odd Kb file from their server, install it and you are done. It also informs that you can uninstall it from Add/Remove Programs any time you want and on top of everything else, it's very small and fast.

One of the best things about Google Notebook is universal accessibility. You could save your notes and view them anywhere in the world. All you need is Microsoft Internet Explorer and a Google Account. Once a notebook is created, it’s kept as private and no one has an access to the. Of course these notebooks can be made public also. You can just send an url to a public notebook to other people and let them view your notebook. My public notebook is located here.

However, Notebook is still in the Beta stage and they are working on it. Few features are still under development. Search - the backbone, is not functional as yet. They say "Search will be available in a few days".

Yet another handy tool from Google and yet another reason I want to work with them someday :)

"The" Da Vinci Code

Ever since Dan Brown published this piece of fiction/non-fiction/truth/fact etc. the world has split into two parts. First we have the people who think Dan Brown rocks for having written such a great book. And the second group is of the opinion that Dan Brown should rot in hell for even thinking about the Christ and Christians like that.

And just to get it on record, I am not against Christ, Christians or Christianity.

After the standard disclaimer about my religious intentions, I think that all the gung-ho about the book and now the movie is uncalled for. I mean the guy wrote what he thought could mint him fast cash. He did a good work at it and in my humble opinion he should be left alone.

I think there are far greater and graver problems in the world than thinking about the negative impact of the book/movie on the "people of the god". Why can't the protestors spend some time in helping people who can do away with some help rather than burning all those candles in the Vatican?

Further did these protestors ever think about the results of these protests? At least people like me would be even more curious to go and watch the movie, think about it, talk about it to everyone I know. They are giving huge huge publicity to the movie even before it hits the cinemas here in India.

And finally my last two cents is about the protest itself. I know a person living next door to me who would openly criticize Hindu god. Do we expect Iskon guys, Hindu priests, politicians, religious preachers to assemble in his yard and light candles and tie black bands across the arms, legs, faces and everywhere? Can we really do something about everyone who has a different opinion from masses? Why cant we leave the author, producer, director, everyone alone and let people decide for themselves if its worth watching or not? I think its time to grow up!!!!

Lost - at Yahoo Poker

One of the good things about Yahoo is the Yahoo Games service. You can login there and play a large number of games online with real people for free. Ever since I learnt Poker, I have been playing it online at Yahoo.

The results have been dissappointing. I have played about 50 rounds there and have won just one. May be I am a bad player, may be its difficult, my be I dont understand the game and the dynamics, may be I have an IQ of 33, may be I should go back to good old Teen Pattee...

Anyways the problem with playing online remains the fact that you can not see other people and guess what they are trying to do. A lot of people would have bluff written all over their faces when they would lie (something like the Top Secret files marked as CONFIDENTIAL in bold and capitals). This should be a good practise in knowing when to fold, when to bet and stuff. I would also know about the odds and ends of the game and hope to learn the game some day ... !

Me @ Yanker Pass (12500 feet) ...

Me, Myself and the Mountains
2006 May: Yanker Pass, Himachal Pradesh

This place is 12,500 feet above the sea level. Clicked by Mohit Jain.

The day for Junk Food

During my trek, we were given "simple, nutritious and vegetarion meal" only. It lasted around 9 days and we fled the trek after that. Coming back to Delhi, I was longing for some treatment to my tummy.

So I went and had the following within a span of 15 minutes ...
1. Half Plate Chowmein
2. Double Egg Roll
3. 20 odd GolGappe aka Pani Puri aka Puchka
4. 200 ml. fresly squezeed Orange Juice
5. Pakodes

And right now I feel good about life and food. :)

Poker .. :)

Ever since I heard that Bill Gates and Warren Buffet are poker players, I wanted to learn this game. I downloaded a few eBooks, went to a few online tutorials but it didn't help.

Finally on my trek to Yanker Pass, I finally learnt the Art of Poker. Yes the "Art of Poker". According to a friend, the best thing about the game is the mathematical completeness. Further the returns can not exceed the amount you are ready to risk makes the game perfect.

I have heard a few stories about poker being the game for the salesmen, here I am, entering the game ... :D