No, I have not been wishing that or whining about it. I have heard several of my friends wish that they had done that. Short of knowing the future, it would have been impossible to time the market that well.I too have losses due to the market drop. However I am not dissapointed or wishing otherwise. It has nothing to do with being brave and more to do with being rational based on my approach. This...

Update 29th - I missed an important point when i posted on 28th. The data for the index is non-stationary. What it means that the underlying composition of the index is not fixed and the various other parameters such as interest rates, inflation are changing too. As a result the index of 1995 is not the same as the index of 2008. One must be careful from drawing too many conclusions from the data....

06/27some more observations from an outsider- i have generally noticed that the younger crowd is more attracted to trading. that does not mean older people dont trade. just that if you talk to 100 young guys who are interested in stock market, a sizeable numbers would be into trading- A lot of my friends who are into trading have a bias for action. There is the thrill of being right and knowing tha...

I have had love affairs with Gujarat gas, concor, asian paints, Blue star etc in the past. The original thesis when investing in these stocks played out and the final results were far better than what I had expected.Then like all affairs, it was time to part. A few of these stocks got overvalued and I moved on.Now unlike old girlfriends, there is no harm in revisiting these old relationships from t...

I have been reviewing the results of some companies and a few points are standing out- raw material cost, over heads and labor costs are now increasing faster than sales- Net margins are stable or coming down. Profit growth has slowed- Debt may start getting repriced soon. As a result interest costs could start increasingMaybe this is not news. However the above has the following implications- valu...