MeritorQ: Low-Risk Investing with Sound Fundamentals
In this newsletter, we discuss the so called “low-risk” anomaly which posits that high beta (or high risk) stocks underperform low beta or (low risk stocks) over the long term i.e. there is NO extra return to be earned from owning riskier stocks. We show that this low-risk anomaly works in India as well. In this context, […]
Short read: Global Crossing Is Reborn…
If AI’s progress is indeed stalling, what do we make of the hundreds of billions of dollars being spent on GPU laden data centers by the hyperscalers, the likes Microsoft, Meta, Amazon and Google. Here’s Harris Kupperman, the author of the insightful newsletter Kuppy’s Korner, doing the math for us. And it doesn’t look good […]
Short read: What if A.I. Doesn’t Get Much Better Than This?
Last week, we featured Derek Thompson’e piece on how the AI boom is holding up the US economy and markets. The past few days have seen multiple setbacks to the AI narrative. First, the underwhelming response to OpenAI’s GPT-5. Then, its CEO Sam Altman acknowledged that we might be in an AI bubble. Earlier this week, a report from MIT showed […]
Short read: The hybrid human-Neanderthal fossils that shocked scientists
For decades the pre-conceived notion was that homo sapiens and Neanderthals had NOT interbred. Then a groundbreaking discovery in Romania in 2002 changed that. It is worth watching this short video from the BBC to understand just how comprehensively our view of our own evolution changed in the wake of that discovery. The remarkable Oase […]
From China+1 to India+1: Spooked manufacturers scout for foreign factories
Trump’s tariffs on India have driven a dramatic turnaround in India’s prospects of becoming a manufacturing hub. Just months ago, India was hoping to be the biggest beneficiary of the west reshoring its global supply chains away from China in the aftermath of the Covid experience of excessive reliance on Chinese manufacturing. Furthermore, India’s supposedly […]
Long read: China’s unemployed young adults who are pretending to have jobs
We hear from friends who visit China regularly that post-Covid many Chinese companies have moved to even bigger factories which are so modern that they make German and French factories look pre-historic. However, most of these factories are highly robotised and automated (again on a scale never seen before in any other country). The result […]
Long read: Profit in NY, loss in UP—what Jane Street ‘market manipulation’ did to Tier 2 & 3 India
Since the onset of Covid, a range of vested interests have worked collaboratively to create a construct in the Indian Futures & Options (F&O) market where the rich & the powerful can fleece the poor & the gullible on a colossal scale. To understand the sheer scale of this activity we joined the dots between […]
Short read: Ferrari Status
We have been accustomed to reading the now legendary blog posts by Morgan Housel at Collab Fund. Here’s Ted Lamade who writes a guest piece every now and then for the Collab Fund on a subject that all of us who have chased growth for the sake of growth can relate to. To drive home […]
Short read: Bankers of the East
Throughout Indian history, specific social groups have dominated the business landscape – Marwaris, Kacchis, Parsis, Sindhis, etc. This history has been captured by various books such as The Stories of Indian Business or Harish Damodaran’s India’s New Capitalists. Here’s a review of a new book by Raman Mahadevan called Fortune Seekers, which dives deep into one such […]
Short read: In Mohammed Siraj, the Pasmanda Muslims have a hero
India’s memorable win against England at the Oval a fortnight ago has broader ramifications beyond the cricket field. In particular, one specific community in India has had plenty to cheer about as one of their community members has done the country proud. Amana Begam writes for The Print: “There’s a subtle radicalism in a name […]
Long read: How AI Conquered the US Economy: A Visual FAQ
Trump’s trade policy was widely expected to be negative for the US economy and markets, some even suggesting a stagflationary scenario for the US as tariffs create inflation which in turn eat into consumer spending and hence drag on growth. Yet, neither has panned out and markets continue to be on a tear, hitting all-time […]
Long read: Living with the face-clawing sloth bear that scares tigers
Did you know that the world’s deadliest bear lives in the forests of India? The BBC’s Sophie Hardach tells us that the Indian sloth bear is such a deadly animal that even the Royal Bengal Tiger is scared of it. Ms Hardach writes: “Sloth bears (named due to their long claws and teeth, supposedly resembling […]
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