Simplifying markets, trading, and investing. Everything you need to know to make your first investment.
Mar 27 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
What if we told you Nifty will expire somewhere between 23193 and 24006 on April 3rd, 2025?
No, a YouTube baba or WhatsApp University didn’t tell us that.
It’s from a legit research paper by Andrew Mack and Euan Sinclair that’s currently blowing up in the options world.👇(1/7)
The ATM straddle premium can be used to calculate the option's implied spot price at expiry.
Source: Retail Options Trading - Andrew Mack and Euan Sinclair, 2024. (2/7)
Mar 26 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
India will remove Google tax from 01 April.
Do you know what is Google tax? And is this in response to Trump’s potential reciprocal tariffs?
A quick thread!🧵 (1/8)
Google tax, or equalization levy, was first introduced by India in 2016 to tax the digital ad revenues of MNCs not based in India.
In 2020, India expanded the levy with a 2% tax on e-commerce revenues of non-Indian companies.
Other countries followed suit. (2/8)
Mar 21 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
The Nifty 50 has recovered 4.5% this week.
Reason: investors have been buying because Nifty's PE has fallen to what is perceived as a ‘fair valuation.’
But should you base your investments on Index PE? We have 3 reasons why index PE should be taken with a pinch of salt. (1/5)
1⃣The top 8 stocks make up ~50% of the Nifty 50 index, while the other 42 represent the other half. The index will reflect more about the few heavyweight stocks than the majority but low-weight stocks.
What about sectors? (2/5)
Mar 20 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
🚨 Big update on DigiLocker
You can soon view all your financial holdings in a single DigiLocker a/c.
Key feature: DigiLocker will automatically notify nominees upon the user's demise.
Nominees can access all holdings in one place & approach AMCs/brokers to claim assets.
🧵
DigiLocker, a digital wallet by the Govt of India, lets you store & access e-docs like Aadhaar, PAN, DL, birth/death certificates, insurance, bank & NPS statements - anytime, anywhere.
Now, you can also view MF folios & demat statements. These e-docs are valid as originals.
Mar 12 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
After becoming SEBI Chairperson, Tuhin Kanta Pandey's first public speech was on ‘India’s Growth Story: Opportunities & Prospects’. When a new leader takes charge, we look for their intent, vision & style. Here's what he said at the Moneycontrol-CNBC Global Wealth Summit. 🧵👇
Background
Tuhin Kanta Pandey is a 1987 batch IAS officer. In his 30+ yrs of experience, he served as Union Finance & Revenue Secretary and was with DIPAM & NITI Aayog.
He holds a Master’s in Economics from Punjab University & an MBA from the University of Birmingham (UK).
Mar 11 • 10 tweets • 3 min read
IndusInd Bank shares dropped 27% today.
Here👇 is a quick thread on everything you need to know about what is happening with IndusInd Bank.🧵
(1/10)
IndusInd Bank noted some discrepancies that could hit its net worth by 2.35%. How?
Banks typically hedge their overnight derivative positions. If a bank has to make USD payments tomorrow, it would hedge the position today to avoid INR losses at the time of the payment. (2/10)
Mar 8 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
If you have watched Scam 1992 or The Big Bull, you probably know about the Harshad Mehta scam.
But do you know the reforms that India saw because of that scam?
Here’s a quick thread🧵👇(1/8)
Dematerialization.
Mehta would get multiple loans against the same set of shares from multiple banks. He could do that because shares were traded in physical form at that time.
Dematerialization has eliminated the scope for pledging the same share with multiple lenders. (2/8)
Mar 4 • 11 tweets • 2 min read
Nassim Nicholas Taleb introduced The Lindy Effect in his book Antifragile in 2012.
The theory suggests that the chances of a new tech/idea to survive increase as their age increases.
With indices down ~20%, now might be a good time to study the Lindy Effect on the markets. 👇🧵(1/11)
We wanted to see if there was any connection between a business's age and its likelihood of survival.
If the Lindy Effect works on stocks, older stocks are more likely to emerge fine from the current downturn. Here’s how we went about it and what we found. (2/11)
Feb 24 • 15 tweets • 4 min read
Warren Buffett has completed 60 years of running Berkshire Hathaway. As usual, he wrote an annual letter to Berkshire’s shareholders, and it is filled with investment nuggets and wisdom.
We spent the weekend deep-diving into it; here👇 is everything you need to know.🧵 (1/15)
Buffett starts by discussing mistakes but doesn’t give details. In the past, he has listed his mistakes as and when they happened.
But he also mentions “pleasant surprises in both the potential of the business as well as the ability and fidelity of the manager.” (2/15)
Feb 15 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Moats can be of different types.
Here’s a thread🧵 of a few Indian businesses with different types of moats. (1/6)
Brand Moat: Nestle Maggi enjoys unbeaten brand loyalty in instant noodles.
Remember how it was banned in 2015 due to a health scare? Yet, when it was re-launched only months later, it reclaimed 60%+ market share very quickly. Maggi’s taste and brand loyalty are its moat. (2/6)
Feb 2 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Budget 2025: When less is more.
Can someone earning ₹12.75 lakh take home more than someone earning ₹13 lakh?
Yes—at least to some extent.
Here’s a thread 🧵
Take ‘A’, who earns an annual salary of 12.75 lakhs. ‘A’ gets a standard deduction (SD) of 75,000, making the taxable income Rs 12 lakh.
Tax liability after Budget 2025: Nil
Here, ‘A’ is getting a full rebate on tax liability as the income is 12 lakhs or less.
Feb 1 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Union Budget 2025: A big relief for the middle class.
No income tax till 12 lakhs under the new tax regime.
You can save more than a lakh based on your income level.
How much will you save in taxes? Read this thread🧵👇. (1/6)
You have zero tax liability for up to 12 lakhs, but it doesn't mean income up to 12 lakhs is tax-exempt.
If you earn 12 lakhs or less, you will get a full rebate on your tax outgo.
If you earn over 12 lakhs, all your income above 4 lakhs is taxable.
A few examples👇. (2/6)
Jan 27 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
The Nasdaq, Nvidia, Microsoft, and other prominent AI stocks fell on Friday.
A hedge-fund-backed AI lab has emerged in China that could give them all a run for their money.
You guessed it right. It is DeepSeek.
What’s so special about it? (1/7)🧵
DeepSeek makes LLM models just like OpenAI, Google, and Meta.
What has stunned the US Big Tech is that its latest LLM model, the DeepSeek-V3, was built for less than $6 million😮.
How much is OpenAI spending on its LLM models? $5 billion a year! (2/7)
Jan 25 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
Do you know the difference between a luxury car and a brick?
You would pay a premium for a Rolls Royce but not for bricks🧱.
Premium pricing enables businesses to make more profits, but what can make bricks profitable? (1/7)🧵
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway acquired Acme Bricks in 2000.
Acme was not a Chanel or Rolls Royce that could command hefty prices. These luxury brands can hike prices, and customers will still buy them.
But brickmakers can’t do that. So, what was Acme’s edge? (2/7)
Jan 23 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
Are you waiting for RBI rate cuts to buy a home? Whether you are a potential home loan borrower or already have one, you need to know these relatively new rules on EMIs that could save you significant amounts in interest.
Especially after RBI intervened in 2023, giving more flexibility to borrowers.
Here’s a thread🧵
These rules are for floating-rate personal loans.
Interest rates on floating-rate loans depend on benchmark rates (like RBI's repo rate). For many years, when interest rates went up, the EMI amount stayed the same, but the loan tenure increased.
It’s a relief when rates fall but tough when they rise — but that’s part of the deal.
Jan 20 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
Say you made 20% each on large-cap and SME stocks—the same returns. But would you treat them the same?
We bet your answer is a big no—and rightly so! The risk taken for each is worlds apart.
Now think of mutual funds: schemes within the same category can deliver similar returns but would have taken different risks to achieve them. How do you compare?
Risk-adjusted returns! As per SEBI's new circular, it is now mandatory for mutual funds to share it publicly.
A thread 🧵
SEBI believes the ‘Risk-Adjusted Return’ (RAR) gives a holistic picture of a mutual fund's performance. It shows how much return a scheme generates for each unit of risk taken.
That’s why all equity funds must display RARs to be shown as an ‘information ratio.’
Jan 17 • 10 tweets • 3 min read
Coldplay will do 5 concerts in India.
Concerts usually spur local economic activity. Maybe that’s why Argentina hosted 10 Coldplay gigs in 2022.
But the Coldplay concert did something else in Argentina - it introduced the ‘Coldplay Dollars.’
What are Coldplay Dollars?🧵(1/10)
Let’s say a ticket to a Coldplay concert in Argentina was USD 100.
1 USD was roughly 170 Pesos at that time.
So, Argentines had to basically pay 17000 pesos. However, they were charged 22100 pesos😮.
That’s 30% higher. Why so?
(2/10)
Jan 14 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
Cultures change, and traditions fade away, but the millennia-old Kumbh Mela soldiers on.
The government has spent 7000 crores to host 40 crore people in a tent city with 1.6 lakh tents on the banks of the Ganga for the Mela!
Check out the Mela’s mind-boggling economics!🧵(1/7)
The scale is unprecedented.
The Kumbh Mela started on 13th Jan 2025. The 40-day Mela is expected to draw 40 crore people to Prayagraj, a city of 60 lakh residents.
The tent city for the Mela is spread over 40,000 hectares, almost as big as 7,500 football fields🤯. (2/7)
Jan 13 • 10 tweets • 3 min read
Imagine this situation: A joint demat or mutual fund account is opened. Say one of the joint account holders passes away. Who gets the share of the deceased account holder? - The legal heirs of the deceased holder or the surviving joint account holder?
SEBI recently clarified this in its circular. It also addressed another important matter: Can a nominee access the funds of an investor who becomes incapacitated?
A thread 🧵
Earlier, there were disputes in the case of joint account holding —legal heirs claimed they had a right over the deceased holder’s share.
In 2021, SEBI stepped in and made things clear: the surviving joint holders would get possession of the assets.
Now, SEBI again highlights the same rule in its new circular, ending the confusion once and for all! This applies to mutual fund units as well.
Jan 9 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
It is the results season again.
Companies will start releasing their Q3 results for the current financial year.
The information they share could be overwhelming.
But you could look at these five things to get a fair idea of how a company did. 🧵(1/8)
Revenue growth:
Check the percentage growth in revenues. Also, look for factors that contribute to growth.
🔹Volume growth for FMCG
🔹Revenue per user for telecom
🔹Revenue per room for hotels
🔹Revenue per seat for airlines
🔹Order book size for IT and infra companies (2/8)
Jan 8 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
Last year, the US stock market index—the S&P 500—delivered a 28.9% return. But an Indian investor would have made 33.09% on the same index.
If ‘Rupee depreciation’ was your first thought, you're correct. In the last one year, the Rupee depreciated by about 3.19% against the Dollar and stood at 85.8 as of Jan 6, 2025.
Here's a refresher on how exchange rates affect your returns from foreign investments and what happened in the past 🧵
What is the impact of rupee depreciation?
- Rupee depreciation means relative dollar appreciation.
- So, your investment in dollars is worth more when converted to Rupees.