Vishal Khandelwal

The Orangutan Theory

October 31, 2019

I am a big fan of Calvin and Hobbes comic strip. According to me, it’s the greatest comic ever created. Sadly, Bill Watterson, the creator of Calvin and Hobbes, developed an interest in other creative pursuits and stopped making Calvin and Hobbes after 1995.

For the uninitiated, Calvin is a 6-year-old boy who is a little too smart for his age. But judging by his performance at school, one would think of him as a slow learner. However, Calvin’s genius is revealed when Watternson lets you peek into the little boy’s life outside the classroom. The kid may not know basic mathematical operations like addition or multiplication but he can outsmart any adult when it comes to imagination. And let me remind you what Albert Einstein said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.”
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Investor Insights: Chetan Phalke

October 31, 2019

Chetan Phalke is the founding partner at Alpha Invesco, an investment advisory firm based in Pune. Chetan is actively involved in the financial markets for the last 13+ years. He prefers to look at undervalued investment opportunities that offer a reasonable risk-adjusted return over a period of time. Chetan received his masters in Economics from Fergusson College, Pune.

Behaviouronomics: Neomania

October 25, 2019

The first iPhone was released on June 29, 2007. Steve Jobs, dawning his showman hat, unveiled Mac’s revolutionary device with much hype and media coverage. The first iPhone had a touch screen, wifi and Bluetooth connectivity, a music player, a camera, an on-screen keyboard, and a browser to surf the Internet. In the first week, 300000 iPhones were sold.

Fast forward 12 years. Apple recently came out with the iPhone 11 Pro Max which is the 16th version since the first iPhone.
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Bookworm: Factfulness by Hans Rosling

October 8, 2019

A few years back, I wrote an essay on the mental model of Redundancy. In that article, I mentioned how Bill Gates reasoned using Redundancy that saving lives in Africa will contain the country’s population growth over the longer term. One reader pointed out that Gates’ insight originally came from another guy named Hans Rosling.

A little bit of research revealed that Hans Rosling had a decisive impact on how Bill Gates thought about his philanthropy work in African countries. No wonder, when Rosling’s book came out, Gates was among the first to publish a review. He wrote —

Hans, the brilliant global-health lecturer who died last year, gives you a breakthrough way of understanding basic truths about the world—how life is getting better, and where the world still needs to improve. And he weaves in unforgettable anecdotes from his life. It’s a fitting final word from a brilliant man, and one of the best books I’ve ever read.

Investor Insights: Jaideep Merchant

September 30, 2019

Jaideep has been part of the Indian equity markets for more than two decades. He has worked in Fund Management, Equity Research, and Dealing. He is managing portfolios at Janak Merchant Securities Pvt. Ltd., a company promoted by his family, for the past 14 years. Jaideep is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and is also a CFA Charter holder.

Disclaimer: Stocks/Examples quoted below should not be construed as recommendations.