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Sold off some of the laggards like Suzlon, Reliance Communications (not sure how the 2G scam will hit this stock) and Punj Lloyd (holding on to a bit of the stock).

Bought 3I Infotech & Noida Toll Bridge for the first time. Increased my holdings in Graphite India & MIC Electronics.

With the 1:1 bonus shares issued by Dabur & TVS motors, the portfolio looks good

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The BSE Sensex was around 18000 when Reliance Power came out with its IPO in February 2008.  The crash that followed the listing brought the markets down to around 8000.  It was the bloodiest bloodbath i ever experienced as an investor in the market.  I took that opportunity to buy a lot of good companies at ridiculous prices; and raked in good profits when the markets bounced back a year later.

More than 2 years later, we are staring at a similar situation.  The markets are hovering close to 20500.  The Public Sector Unit, Coal India is set to come with its mega 15,000 crore IPO.  The markets are at their all time highs. The pundits have been predicting a cooling down for some time now.

Will we see a correction again post the Coal India IPO launch?  Am watching from the sidelines to pick up some good bargain.

Above images courtesy: Topnews

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Happened to lay my hands on the audio file of this book and managed to finish the audio / book in 2 days flat. Its obviously an advantage getting the audio of books so that i can just transfer the files to my mp3 player and listen to them on my travels to work. Holding a book in hand; trying to read them during rush hour is a chore and these audio books are indeed coming handy for me.

Philip Arthur Fisher was an American stock investor who wrote this book Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits way back in 1958.  Just like Benjamin Graham’s bible of investing, The Intelligent Investor, this book is also considered to be a must read for anyone planning to invest in the stock markets.

Philip Fisher is considered a pioneer in the field of growth investing. Morningstar has called him “one of the great investors of all time”. In Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits, Fisher said that the best time to sell a stock was “almost never”. His most famous investment was his purchase of Motorola, a company he bought in 1955 when it was a radio manufacturer and held until his death in 2004.

Perhaps the best-known of Fisher’s followers is Warren Buffett who has said on some occasions that “he is 85% Graham and 15% Fisher”.  (source: Wikipedia)

Fisher goes on to give a lot of Do’s and Don’ts for investors.  A few of the Do’nts include

• Dont buy into promotional companies

• Dont ignore a good stock just because its traded over the counter

• Dont buy a stock just because you like the tone of its annual report

• Dont overstress diversification

• Dont be afraid to buying on a war scare

• Dont fail to consider time as well as price in buying a true growth stock

• Dont follow the crowd

Fisher also goes about sharing his ideas of how he goes about finding a growth stock.  Fisher talks about using the Scuttlebutt method to investing.  This means that the relative points of strength and weakness of each company in an industry can be obtained from a representative cross-section of the opinions of those who in one way or another are concerned with any particular company.  Also he talks about talking to the vendors, customers etc to find the correct information needed for your investment in that particular company.

Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits
Author – Philip Arthur Fisher
Pages – 271
Publisher – John Wiley & Sons

Above picture courtesy: Nickgogerty

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Sold off Asahi Songwon for a very good profit.  The below shown chart should give you an idea of how much the stock grew in the past 1 year.

Also bought more stocks of MIC Electronics & Graphite India

This year the dividend payout has been pretty good. Add to that bonus shares from both Dabur (1:1) and & TVS Motors (1:1)

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Peter Lynch is a Wall Street investor and a research consultant at Fidelity Investments, one of the biggest fund companies in the world. Unlike the Warren Buffett model of investing where diversification is not the norm and the investments are concentrated around a few good solid companies, Peter Lynch’s investment principle is to invest in what you know and to keep the basket of companies diverse and large.

He’s the one who coined the word, “ten bagger” which means an investment that is worth ten times its original buying price.  Lynch goes on to give pointers on how to pick up the ten baggers, the kind of companies to avoid, how to design a portfolio, the silliest things people say about stocks.

This book is one of the best books to read before entering the market. If you are someone who would like to enter the stock markets and get into equity, mutual funds etc, this book is a must read.

Read more about Peter Lynch at his Wikipedia page here

A list of all the books that i have read till now and am currently reading are on the right side of this blog.  Though not a prolific reader, this year i have been reading quite a few books.  With still 4 months to go for the end of the year, i hope to have read at least 12 books this year; which would mean a book every month.  Hmmm….not bad

One Up On Wall Street: How To Use What You Already Know To Make Money In The Market
Author – Peter Lynch
Pages – 304
Publisher – Simon & Schuster

Above picture courtesy: Bfanderson

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