If you think about it, we successfully multitask a lot of the time. Walking and talking on the phone for example. When we drive we can’t just focus on the steering wheel or the rear view mirror.
Our moms and grandmoms multi tasked seemingly effortlessly. Just think of a typical day in their lives when they were married, had kids, and had a home to run.
I don’t think they would say sorry no tiffin box for you today because I have to run the laundry.
We need to define “multi tasking” properly before deciding if we can do it or not.
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And it’s not easy to develop a conviction to hold on to things that should be held. There are these “demons” that will enter the mind of the investor, which will prevent them from holding on to what will turn out to be an outstanding stock.
Demon # 1: The market is too expensive, so I should sell this business. This demon shifts the investor’s focus from the economics of the underlying business to the markets.
Are HDFC Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank quality companies? If so, then did they become so without taking credit risk? Answer: No.
There is risk in everything. If, for example, you refuse to take credit risk while investing in bonds, you will only buy treasuries. But treasury bonds are highly risky in the sense that they almost guarantee a long term mediocre (or even negative) real return after inflation.
Technically speaking it’s possible. In a tobacco litigation scenario, if courts decide against the company and award huge damages, then litigants can go after all its assets.
But the taint of tobacco is removed from non tobacco assets if they are separated from the tobacco operations with ITC tobacco having no stake in them.
In the US something analogous happened when tobacco companies massively increased dividend payout ratios thereby protecting payouts to shareholders from litigation awards.
Take the examples of Uber and Airbnb for example. When they started out, they not only took on entrenched players (taxi operators and hotels), they also took on regulations.
Indeed, if you read the history of these companies, you will find that they pretty much broke the laws that existed in their early days.
Then I update them on my thinking about this business, management and valuation. This year, I spoke that (which I won't discuss here) and also about some additional lessons. Listing them here:
The importance of distinguishing between things that are under your control and those that you cannot control.
Incidentally, lots of other stuff can be done with this data. For example, if we know P/E and P/B, then we can derive E/B or ROE. And plot it over a period of time. It will be quite revealing if you do that.
AAA bond yields and their comparison with E/P (the reciprocal of P/E or earnings yield) will also be useful.