So have completed the following books for the year till date.Will keep updating the thread as and when I finish them.
1. Trading in the Zone
One of the best books on trading and trading psychology that I have read. The 5 truths of trading discussed have formed an integral part.
2. The Greatest Trader Ever - Biography of Jeese Livermore
If there is one thing that I take away from this book is - No matter how great you are, if your personal life is not sorted, you will be screwed. Have peace in life.
3. Technical Analysis - by Capital Market team
One of the best books on TA. My conviction to not use it increased after reading this, but good basics nonetheless.
4. How to price and trade options - Al Sherbin
One of the best books on options. Drives home the point of being strategic without being directional, talks about probabilities and risks in an easy to understand way and discusses all the strategies one ever needs to make money.
5. The Zurich Axioms
One of the interesting books read this year. It gives you 12 major axioms and 16 minor axioms of speculating - The author defines both investing and trading as speculating. Some of the more important learnings are:
1. Jump when a ship starts to sink
2. Always take your profits at pre-determined levels - While I don't fully agree, but yes, there are conditions where it does make sense - The key is - Don't overstay the party
3. Never believe any forecasts or anyone who thinks he/she can predict future. Completely agreed
4. There are no patterns in the market - What goes on as pattern and charts are as useless as predictions - Ignore them. React to how the market is behaving
While there are other learnings as well, these are the ones i took out. Happy to discuss the book.
Book 6. A Zebra in lion country
Good one for investments in small and mid caps and . Key takeaways:
i. Compound Interest
ii. Mean Reversion
iii. Buying stocks with option value
iv. Most financial offerings are nothing but ponzi schemes
v. Every bad idea starts from a good one
7. Thinking in bets
Probably the 2nd best book I have read this year and definitely 1 of the top 10. The book talks about decision making while having half information - Life is Poker, not Chess. Key idea is to get rid of self serving bias, learn from success and failures both.
There is a framework for improving decisions here --> Stop blaming failures on luck and stop taking credit for success. There are skills/lack of skills in both and removing results from the process is the key to improve quality of decisions and as a result, the result itself.
8. Against the Gods
What a read on probability, risk and the history of the two.
Follows Cardano the Renaissance gambler, followed by Pascal the geometer and Fermat the lawyer, the monks of Port-Royal and the ministers of Newington, the notions man.
The man with the sprained brain, Daniel Bernoulli and his uncle Jacob, secretive Gauss and voluble Quetelet, von Neumann the playful and Morgenstern the ponderous, the religious de Moivre and the agnostic Knight, pithy Black and loquacious Scholes, Kenneth Arrow & Harry Markowitz
— all of them have transformed the perception of risk from chance of loss into opportunity for gain, from FATE and ORIGINAL DESIGN to sophisticated, probability-based forecasts of the future, and from helplessness to choice.
Key learning - The problem is not that men are unreasonable or even reasonable. It's that it looks just a little more mathematical and regular than it is; its exactitude is obvious, but its inexactitude is hidden; its wildness lies in wait.
How to live and prosper with this?
9. Disrupt and Conquer: How TTK Prestige Became a Billion-Dollar Company
A must read for anyone who wants to understand the consumers business in India - Much better than reading research reports. How TTK founded the company and how his grandson, TTJ, turned it around.
.. It's a lesson is building a business and more importantly, a brand. Key Learning:
1. Get down to the office every day. 2. Look at the details. Don’t see the big picture, look at the small picture. The big picture will look after itself.
3. Apply your common sense, and not just what you read in textbooks.
TTJ was always focused on profitability and he never chased size. This is one of the reasons the firm is valued so highly today.
They are high on innovation, not doing something new, but understanding pain
...points and solving it one by one.
TTJ himself is a passionate cook and a good engineer. The reason why they come up with new products which are successful.
A lot that new age, arm chair entrepreneurs can learn from this guy.
... And of course, the way they launched Skore condoms after losing their brands to P&G is a marketing lesson in itself.
DO yourself a favor, read the book. Much to learn from it about product development and launch, marketing and handling non-co-operative teams.
10. The Universal Principles of successful trading by Brent Penfold
Combines both maths and psychology and maintains a balance between the two - much required for trading. While the book underplays psychology, which I don't agree with, it doesn't fail to recognize it.
...The Book talks about six principles of trading - Preparation, Enlightenment, Trading Style, Markets, The Three Pillars and Trading, it's in Money Management where the book shines -One of the detailed treatment of managing trading positions.A worthwhile read just for this.
..The chapter is a must read for all traders, more so for option sellers. How much to risk each trade and how to reduce drawdowns are explained well.
Another key topic to learn in Risk of ruin and how to reduce it to ~0 and importance of +ve expectancy.
Time well spent here
11. Successful traders size their positions - Why and How
This one is on similar lines to Universal Principal of Successful Trading though very concise and well, not well researched.
The book talks about position sizing using three approaches - % of portfolio risk..
.. volatility using either ATR or IV using options and margin money as ways to size positions with one simple formula - Position Size = Value of Equity in the account X % measure of one of these risks measure/Value of risk/Vol Range/Margin.
..It further advocates using the least position size across all three methods to use . Also discusses portfolio risk and suggests keeping it ~12.5-15% (Value is not important, method is).
Active management is talked about as important after trade has been and he does discuss..
.. Scaling down and right sizing of trades very briefly as well.
Overall, if one can read van Thorp's book or Universal Principal as discussed in this thread, it can be be skipped. Not much depth. However, if you know the concepts already, can be a good refresher read at best.
12. Subscribed by Tien Tzuo
A good primer on Subscription economy and how it's changing the business all around the globe - From Adobe to Microsoft to Airlines to Electricity to Real Estate mapping and execution!
Book 14 - Small Giants: Companies That Choose to Be Great Instead of Big
Overall, the message that pops out it – Put employees first, enable them to do what you expect them to do instead of micromanage and do selective business which reduces stress.
Book 29 – Bad Money – Inside the NPA Mess and How It Threatens the Indian Banking System
A fantastic read on what’s wrong with the Indian public sector banks–Think the part where @kaul_vivek explains how well Axis has done after being just an investment for the govt. instead....
...of an enterprise to run captures the overall essence of the book.
Two sets of people it is a must read for – Traders and People working in these PSBs! Traders because they will understand how PSBs as a whole group operates. And for people working in PSBs so that..
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...they understand that while some people might be working well, as a whole, it’s doing a very, very poor job. Pains me to say because I was once an officer with the SBI!
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On this world's book day, I am listing some books which really changed the way I look at world and left a lasting impression, shaped the way I am today. And continue to do so.
1. Wings of Fire by Sir APK Abdul Kalam - This was probably the first book
..that really got under my skin. I think I was in 7th then and had just learnt English (We started english in class 5th then). It was a difficult read lead me to buy Oxford dictionary (the Concise version - Had money only for that. I got to meet him some time later on...
..when he was visiting Arunachal. There's no one who has shaped my journey as him.
2. Beating the Street - While this was not my first investing book, this left in me an impression which to date is still there - That common sense is the master of all.
Continuing with Retail thread, Constraints on goods movement and shortage of packaging material have crippled downstream processes.
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For Procurement and manufacturing, there are issued with fresh produce procurement since local mandis are shut. There is excess of milk and some players are increasing their use by 20%, but price crash has started happening across states.
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However, an even bigger issue is that there is a complete shortage of packaging material – While agri-commodities have inventory of 75-90 days, PM has only ~20 days of inventory. Labels, BOPP, cartons, ink not allowed to cross borders. See this -
Lockdown across the country has resulted in non-grocery retail businesses coming to a complete halt. Traditional retail has come to a halt except for stores stocking essentials.
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Estimates for losses ranges from USD 0.5-2 billion dollars due to closure of malls, stores and factory production. Job losses imminent 15 lakh modern retail stores in India employing 60 lakh people; several small players may have to shut shop.
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There are significant delays in delivering online orders, while being open for essentials during lockdown due to lack of complete clarity on definition of “essentials” and different interpretations by local bodies and authorities initial 2 days of lockdown witnessed...
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No industry is facing as big a challenge currently as Aviation. India has closed both its international as well as domestic borders till April 15th.
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For Domestic travel, yield has declined to 12-15%, forward bookings declined by ~35%. For international travel, it is expected to be down ~70% yoy for Q1/Q2 – 25% of all international travellers are foreigners and they are expected to be 0 for some time beyond the lockdown.
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With the belly capacity of passenger flights lost, Cargo operations are struggling to meet nominal demand especially for essential goods (food/ pharma). Some of the passenger flights are being operated for Cargo carriage. Forward booking permitted beyond April 15th, for now
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Movement of goods across the value chain is currently witnessing unprecedented hurdles due to supply side issues and lack of coordination
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Overall, only 20% of long distance capacities are being utilized. Volumes are down 75-80% from Feb levels. There is an acute shortage of drivers – More so because they don’t want to be stuck on road amidst no Dhaba/Food resources and also don’t want to face police harassment
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One direct fallout is that the problem is more prominent in finished goods compared to long distance movement – Interstate movement is hit more than intrastate ones. The biggest issues in the ecosystem is lack of driver support system.
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