Special Report

Every new market cycle always brings out new so-called experts who tout new strategies to try to succeed in the battle of the market. New books are written, new newsletters are printed, and new websites tout newfound secrets and supposedly new ways to succeed in the market.

However, few survive very long and are gone before we ever get to see a sustained track record of success. And just like any other field such as sports, music, business, medicine, art, etc., there are the few who excel above all others. It’s no different when it comes to the stock market. Jesse Livermore, in spite of creating multi-million dollar fortunes several times and losing it every time, is known as one of the greatest stock speculator of all times.

By shorting stocks during the 1929 stock market crash, Livermore made so much money that he was worth more than $100 million. Adjusted for inflation that’s more than a billion dollars today.

Edwin Lefèvre’s Reminiscences of a Stock Operator is a brilliant first-person account of the career of “Lawrence Livingston”, who is a slightly fictionalized version of Jesse Livermore. It’s an entertaining book and contains many great lessons based on Livermore’s career.

So why are we talking about a speculator and his riches in a value investing newsletter? That’s because as an investor, it’s more important to know what NOT to do in the stock market than what to do.

After declaring bankruptcy twice in his career, Livermore had this advice: “Being broke is a very efficient educational agency.” You learn little from your winners because they often take care of themselves. It’s the losers that will teach you lessons to last a lifetime. And as long as you don’t make the same mistake twice, you always have the opportunity to try again.

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After failing the 5th class exam for the third time, the two best friends Ram and Shyam got really depressed. Having to repeat the year in the same class for the fourth time wasn’t very comforting even though they would have each other’s company.

Shyam proposed, “I can’t take this humiliation anymore. Let’s end this suffering. I am thinking of suicide.”

Ram responded, “Are you crazy? If we die now, we’ll have to start all over again from kindergarten in the next life!”

Perhaps you didn’t find the joke so funny but it had me rolling on the floor laughing. When I came to my senses I realized I had been doing the same thing in my life as far as reading books was concerned.

Whenever I lost interest in a book midway, an emotion of guilt arose, especially if the book was recommended by an important person or someone whom I respect. Having read 10-20 percent of a book, it would become really difficult to leave it in between and move on the next one even though I wasn’t enjoying the book. Why?
[Read more…] about Life 2.0: The Unfinished Books

In 1969, Warren Buffett decided to close down his 100-member investment partnership and offered to return the money to the investors. However, for those who wanted to stay invested in stock market, Buffett advised them to take their cash to Sequoia Fund run by Bill Ruane.

Warren Buffett recognizes Ruane as one of the Superinvestors of Graham-and-Doddsville. He wrote, “When I wound up the Buffett Partnership, I asked Bill Ruane if he would set up a fund to handle all of our partners, so he set up the Sequoia Fund…Bill was the only person I recommended to my partners.”

Bill Ruane and Buffett knew each other from the time they studied under Benjamin Graham at Columbia University. Ruane was also Buffett’s stock broker in the 1960s.

Ruane is one of his generation’s most successful money managers. Sequoia fund has recorded one of the best long-term track records on Wall Street since its inception. In the 45-year period from its inception in 1970 to 2015, the fund earned an annualized return of 14.7% versus the S&P 500’s annualized return of 10.9%. It’s one of the very few funds which has managed to outperform the S&P 500 for four decades.

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Do you know the most powerful currency in the world? Well, it is not what you think – it’s not US Dollars (USD).

But if you had enough USD in your bank, you could buy anything you want. That’s what the purpose of currency is, right? Yeah, that way it is USD but I am talking metaphorically here.

“Meta …what?”, You would probably say with a confused look.

Currency gives you an option to exchange it for whatever you want. So the most stable, sought after, and accepted way of exchanging wealth should be the most powerful currency. Isn’t it?

But the world is changing fast. Today we’re turning to a new economy where the most powerful currencies isn’t money. Not anymore.
[Read more…] about Life 2.0: The Most Powerful Currency

Scientists say that water constitutes 70% of human body. Of course a quantum physicist would argue that 99.99% of our bodies is nothing but empty space. But I guess whatever is left out from that empty space, 70% of that is water.

From a great skin to fat loss, the benefits of drinking adequate water are universally known. I am not going to harp on the benefits of drinking sufficient water every day. There is enough information on the Internet and hundreds of books have already been written, read and forgotten on this subject.

In this post I am going to share my finding based on a 3-months long personal experiment to increase my daily water intake.

According to one scientific study you should drink 0.033 of a litre of water per day for every kilogram of bodyweight. So if you weigh 65 kg, that is 65 * 0.033 = 2.145 litre of water per day. But that’s bare minimum.

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