About

Why this site

Dr. Feynman, on the difference between knowing the name of something and understanding it:

“See that bird? It’s a brown-throated thrush, but in Germany it’s called a halzenfugel, and in Chinese they call it a chung ling and even if you know all those names for it, you still know nothing about the bird. You only know something about people; what they call the bird. Now that thrush sings, and teaches its young to fly, and flies so many miles away during the summer across the country, and nobody knows how it finds its way.” [source]

Tune into any financial news channel and investing in equities sounds like an arcane field only PhDs in Economics and those steeped in fort architecture (moats anyone?) are qualified to operate in. The talking heads on CNBC hold court on what is likely to happen in the market, on an hourly basis with references to central bank actions and currency movements in far-off countries. It can be intimidating for any prospective investors.

Fact is, in investing, like in life, there are some core concepts that every person irrespective of educational background and finance know-how can understand and indeed internalise. The biggest determinant of investing success is in identifying and calming our own behavioural biases.

This site is an attempt to distill key learnings on my two passions: improving the mind and body, and investing in the stock market.

A lot of the key messages on this site have been long propounded by the world’s best in their respective fields. My mission is to understand them from first principles and summarise in a manner that helps me and readers understand it better.

If any post does not make sense because it’s shrouded in jargon, means, I either did a shoddy job writing it, or do not understand it very well myself. Please feel free to call me out on such instances.

About me

My name is Anoop, and I’ve been an investor in the Indian equity markets since 2006. After graduating from The Indian School of Business, I was a management consultant for nine years working on corporate strategy and operational improvement initiatives across sectors for clients in India, South East Asia, Asia-Pacific, North & Latin America. Since then I’ve been handling Strategy and Operations leadership roles.

The text book basics of investing have come from business school and two levels of the CFA certification. But the education continues till date through insight-rich books and informational websites. The real learning however, has been from actually investing in the markets, on my own behalf and for friends and family. To observe how the variability of the markets affects decision-making, to resist chasing what’s hot for fear of missing out and to second guess carefully made decisions, and to be constantly amazed at how little I know.

You queries and feedback are welcome. Use the contact form below or email me thecalminvestor [at] gmail [dot] com

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