The Beginning

To start with, a quick introduction. I am a late 30s Indian, working and (mostly) settled in London for the best part of the last 15 years. Immediately after completing my undergrad from IIT Delhi, I moved to London to start my professional career as a young Analyst at one of the big global Management Consulting firms. 4 years of immense learning and enjoyment later, for some reason I figured it was time to do something different.

So different, in fact, that the first few days of this new job felt like jumping into a swimming pool without having any prior knowledge of swimming. I don’t mean actual practical knowhow, I mean without even having ever read about the concept of swimming. With no prior training, education, or even any active interest, I had quit my prior job as a management consultant to begin a career as Investment Analyst at one of the most reputed and oldest London Hedge Funds. At the beginning, my remit was almost as impressive as my lack of knowledge — I was to help the team analyse and invest in companies across the entirety of the European continent and India. Just the 1,000 or so stocks to get up to speed on, then!

In any case, in-spite of my initial misgivings, here I am, somehow celebrating my 10th year in the industry, lucky enough to have been recently given the responsibility of Deputy Portfolio Manager. Along the way, I have learned more than I could possibly imagine — not just professionally, but also personally.

Helpfully, in these 10 years, I have also enjoyed my work-life more than I could have possibly imagined. Its not always been easy, all too often there been long periods of utter despair at Mr Market’s irrationality, (in hindsight, most of the time, the Market wasn’t irrational, simply prescient) compounded by the pressures of underperforming your benchmark (most of my years in the industry have been spent helping manage a Long-Only product where our performance was benchmarked against an Index on an ongoing basis).

Despite this incessant, minute-by-minute, never ending competition / examination, or maybe because of it, my job has always been thoroughly enjoyable. For that, I am eternally grateful to God. The joy of being able to interact and speak with so many of the world’s finest minds across such a wide cross-section of society — CEOs, politicians, policy makers, bankers, journalists, lawyers or sometimes, even union leaders —has been the singular most exhilarating part of this journey. In some sense, this job has been an ongoing education in all manners of things — how the world operates politically, economically, socially; what drives successful individuals, and sometimes what causes their downfall; what drives markets, when to take markets on, and most importantly, when to not; how to face up to your mistakes and how to not get carried away by the odd success, etc. Markets are not only a great educator in all that is related to finance, they are in fact even better at teaching you about life.

This never-ending education has kept me on my toes since Day 1 of my career as an Investor, and continues to do so even today. I still find myself dreaming about our investee companies’ results, or worse still, waking up at 3AM ahead of important results days (when our companies report their quarterly / annual results). It is this pressure that makes this job so rewarding, yet so challenging.

But at the core of it all lies the intellectual curiosity and drive to “discover” the next investment idea, the next addition to the Portfolio to help you outcompete that most insidious competitor of all, Mr Market. The thrill of finding a new potential investment is still strong enough that it sometimes occupies entire evenings, or even weekends! It’s like discovering a new diamond hidden in the rough, an almost exhilarating experience.

So here I am, lucky enough to have a job I still enjoy immensely, and one which has rewarded me beyond my wildest hopes or dreams in all manner of ways.

So why this blog? Partly because it feels like a good, way of structuring my own ongoing experiences and lessons for my own benefit. But also, partly because it also feels like a good way of sharing my perspectives with other existing or future investors, with hopefully some benefit to them!

What will this blog contain?
I intend to regularly share my ideal investment portfolio, whose performance I will measure and report regularly both in an absolute and relative sense. From time to time, I will also share my perspectives on markets more broadly, and also on the basic concepts of Investing, which I have found helped me improve as an Investor during my career. My approach is mostly guided by fundamentals, so you’re not likely to find the next “hot” trading tip here. But for those investors seeking to build a long-term, Buy-and-Hold type portfolio, I do hope to add considerable value over time.

At all stages, I welcome any feedback and questions, so please keep the dialogue going, it will make this a much more enjoyable process for me.

Here’s to a new beginning!