Shrewd Investor
Hello Readers,
Does one have to really be shrewd to make money in the stock market?
I don’t think so.
I am not a shrewd investor and after reading this blog if you feel ‘I am’ then you know who is shrewd 🙂 Jokes apart.
First things first, what’s shrewd? Shrewd is one who is opportunistic and takes advantage of others in difficult situations by making them bend on their knees. Often in these kinds of scenarios, the other party is not happy with the deal and its negotiation.
When I bought a distressed investment in Danaos Corp in Sept 2020 which turned out to be an 8-bagger, I thought it would be my biggest success (by quantum and multiplication) so far.
But the very same day I bought into Danaos, one of their existing private equity investors Cerebrus Capital Management was heading for the exit doors and placed a block order to sell the entire stake which at that time was close to 15%. As per public records, they had a payday of approximately 200% on their investment.
I was not that knowledgeable to understand that it’s great for my investors and me since the company is coming out of distress. Also, my money did not go to the company but it helped some of Danaos shipping existing investors to exit. I don’t know whether they made a profit or a loss. In most equity transactions you never know the counterparties.
At that time, my primary goal was to double my investor’s wealth with this investment. But as they say “Man proposes, God disposes”. God had much greater plans.
Now why not being a shrewd investor bothers me ?
Because I found many billionaires are humble, focused, and hard-working. There will definitely be shrewd billionaires but I enjoy drawing my inspiration from people like Warren Buffett, Peter Lynch, Narayan Murthy, and spiritual masters like Swamy Chinmayananda, J. Krishnamoorthy, Akhandananada Saraswati, R S Goenka.
Now why are these prominent personalities not shrewd? Because they shared everything they preached, they practiced their principles throughout their life and now they had nothing to hide. They never hated anyone. They never blame anyone in their life for their failures. They were endlessly curious and infinitely vast.
They were very open about their life’s mistakes, lessons, and learnings.
How can this help to be a successful stock picker ?
The ultimate truth of life is no one is pitching against anyone. Remember the Sultan movie dialogue when Salman Khan was in the ring fighting … “I am only fighting against my own low tendencies and this is true for each one of us.”
In the game of life, I am the only player and this is a solo race and I need to win over my runner-up behavior.
I meet many CEOs, Founders, and investors and I sense how they think being shrewd is great for living a good life and they also have much bigger wealth to prove their thesis and behavior. I wish them all the best. I am also sure that some of my investee companies’ CEO and Founders might be shrewd too. There is nothing wrong with that behaviour too but it does not suit me. It’s not my normal behavior.
What's the purpose of writing these blogs...
Purposely to reveal the truth about my life and investing philosophy not to have someone read it but if they do get time to read they must know more about me, my investing skills, and my behavior so they get more comfortable with entrusting their hard-earned savings to Client First Capital. Today it might be a small sum but tomorrow it will be Millions and knowing me more will certainly help.
What's the good news ?
The good news is even if you are not shrewd still by just acting against the crowd you can have a good life whether in the field of investment (irrespective of the asset class) or in business or in personal relations.
"Good guys do not finish last"
Thank you for reading and I hope you liked it.
Bhuvan Gupta
About the Author
Bhuvan
Gupta
(Founder and CEO – CFMC, CFCL)
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