Three Longs & Three Shorts

Sep 2021

Week 4
Week 3
Week 2
Week 1

Short Read

Published on 26 Sep, 2021

What modern India owes its maharajahs...

As regular readers of the Mint Lounge, we miss Manu Pillai’s engaging column with a refreshingly different take on...

Published on 26 Sep, 2021

A Quiet EV Revolution is Brewing In India’s Hinte...

Whilst India’s lack of charging infrastructure is said to be a hinderance for a more widespread adoption of electric...

Published on 26 Sep, 2021

The chip shortage could turn into a chip oversupply by ...

Our appreciation of TSMC’s success is enhanced when seen in the context of the heavily cyclical nature of the...

Long Read

Published on 26 Sep, 2021

The Complete History & Strategy of TSMC...

Podcasts have increasingly become the primary source of learning for many, partly because of the convenience of...

Published on 26 Sep, 2021

Review of “Greed is Dead” by Sir John Kay & Si...

We read “Greed is Dead: Politics After Individualism” over our summer holidays and whilst we loved the book, we...

Published on 26 Sep, 2021

Will the pandemic threaten the future of big U.S. citie...

For a variety of reasons, several of us in Marcellus have been trying to think through what will happen to the...

Short Read

Published on 19 Sep, 2021

Speculation is the new luxury good...

The argument that cryptos are not backed by cashflows and hence have no intrinsic value has been countered by the...

Published on 19 Sep, 2021

How to think like a scientist – and why you shoul...

Whilst the article is meant for anyone and everyone to draw lessons from scientists on how to think, based on the...

Published on 19 Sep, 2021

Why Financial Manias Persist...

This is not exactly a review of William Bernstein’s recent book “The Delusion of Crowds” but the blog seems to...

Long Read

Published on 19 Sep, 2021

How a ‘fatally, tragically flawed’ paradigm has der...

Obesity has been growing as an epidemic of sorts across the world, especially in the rich world (12% of the population...

Published on 19 Sep, 2021

How Aristotle created the computer...

One of the most interesting things about technology is that it has two distinct strands to it. The obvious strand is...

Published on 19 Sep, 2021

Caste, ethnicity, religion – United colours of Indian...

Whilst it has been a lot of fun watching India beat England in England in the recent Test cricket series, the sports...

Short Read

Published on 12 Sep, 2021

Here’s Where Our Minds Sharpen in Old Age...

Some of us enjoy getting beaten hollow by our kids in a game of FIFA on the Playstation but we also get reminded at how...

Published on 12 Sep, 2021

Are you really sorted out?...

Here’s another gem from Anand Sridharan for more reasons than one, least of which is the cricketing analogy to drive...

Published on 12 Sep, 2021

MIT-designed project achieves major advance toward fusi...

The fight against climate change with adoption of clean energy has accelerated over the past decade with significant...

Long Read

Published on 12 Sep, 2021

Turn and Face the Strange...

Michael Mauboussin and Dan Callahan have been producing some brilliant research pieces off late for Morgan Stanley’s...

Published on 12 Sep, 2021

This is why all electric cars look exactly the same...

Since a electric car is a computer on wheels, this article by Alistair Charlton posits that all electric cars will look...

Published on 12 Sep, 2021

Jack Ma’s Bund Finance Summit Speech...

On 24th October 2020 Jack Ma gave a speech which seems to have catalysed a Chinese government crackdown on that...

Short Read

Published on 05 Sep, 2021

Why Zuckerberg Wants Us All in the ‘MetaverseR...

As the chart in this article shows, Google searches for ‘Metaverse’ shot through in August with references to it by...

Published on 05 Sep, 2021

Here’s why Robert Shiller’s two stock-market indexe...

Whilst PE multiples have limited ability to tell us anything about how richly or poorly valued a security is,...

Published on 05 Sep, 2021

Elon Musk’s Trip Through Hell: Inside the 2018 Scramb...

Elon Musk is among the richest people in the world today with his company Tesla’s shares soaring through last year....

Long Read

Published on 05 Sep, 2021

The perfectionism trap...

We’ve been trained as kids and we in turn teach our kids to strive for perfectionism in everything we do. This...

Published on 05 Sep, 2021

Unethical? Unnecessary? The COVID-19 vaccine booster de...

Science Magazine is a highly respected source and authoritative source which non-experts like us can use to understand...

Published on 05 Sep, 2021

An Afghan tragedy: the Pashtuns, the Taliban and the st...

Those who understand how closely the fates of Afghanistan, Pakistan and India are linked will enjoy reading this...

Aug 2021

Week 4
Week 3
Week 2
Week 1

Short Read

Published on 22 Aug, 2021

The coming battle over the metaverse...

Many of the digital aspects of our lives today would have seemed like science fiction even a couple of decades ago....

Published on 22 Aug, 2021

The Best Advantage in Life...

Warren Buffet talked about the ‘ovarian lottery’ i.e, the biggest influence on the average human’s life will be...

Published on 22 Aug, 2021

How Google bought Android...

How Google built and retains its monopoly in search and uses the cashflows from search to expand into adjacencies is a...

Long Read

Published on 22 Aug, 2021

“This Is Going to Change the World”...

This is a crazy story reminding us of the madness around the late nineties’ tech bubble, a story that got even the...

Published on 22 Aug, 2021

Patrick O’Shaughnessy interviews Carl Kawaja of Capit...

Patrick O’Shaughnessy is an American investor and the founder, Chairman, and CIO of O’Shaughnessy Asset...

Published on 22 Aug, 2021

Review of “No Rules Rule: Netflix and the Culture of ...

Whilst most of the American tech giants have had their fair share of hubristic scandals (around predatory tactics vis a...

Short Read

Published on 15 Aug, 2021

The Rushmore Yardstick...

We are living in a world of information overload and especially for an investor who seeks to build an informational...

Published on 15 Aug, 2021

How machine learning gave Australia an edge in the Toky...

Lots of interesting stories that have come out on the recently concluded Tokyo Olympics. But this one’s on a subject...

Published on 15 Aug, 2021

Necessary but corrosive: Lucy Kellaway on ambition...

Most successful people have been ambitious, especially in competitive fields. Yet some of us, like this author, have...

Long Read

Published on 15 Aug, 2021

Why Satan should chair your meetings...

There has been widespread concern about the effectiveness of office meetings from even before the pandemic. Now, with...

Published on 15 Aug, 2021

How FC Barcelona blew a fortune — and got worse...

For as long as we have been adults, Simon Kuper has been one of the most erudite football writers in the world. In this...

Published on 15 Aug, 2021

India must allow children to return to classrooms...

When Covid-19 hit the world in the opening months of 2020, most countries shut their schools. But then by the opening...

Short Read

Published on 08 Aug, 2021

Tokyo Olympics: India’s Hockey Win Holds Key Lesson F...

The two highlights of India’s Olympic campaign have to be the performance of our hockey teams, promising a path to...

Published on 08 Aug, 2021

Extracting Value Vs Creating Value...

Aaron Tang is a young Malaysia based founder of mr-stingy.com where he writes about optimizing time, money and...

Published on 08 Aug, 2021

The New Cold War...

Last week, we featured a piece on why China is smashing its tech industry which drew inferences from China’s...

Long Read

Published on 08 Aug, 2021

Everything Is a DCF Model...

The value of a business lies in the cashflows it generates over its life, adjusted for time value or what is called the...

Published on 08 Aug, 2021

A Scam Unfolds – Extract from ‘Absolute Power’...

Sucheta Dalal, the legendary financial journalist who has uncovered several mega scams – including the Harshad Mehta...

Published on 08 Aug, 2021

How the investment bubble in conventional power assets ...

Over the past five years Tony Seba has been one of the most prescient analysts of the shift from conventional energy...

Short Read

Published on 01 Aug, 2021

Invert, Always Invert...

In a recent podcast, Howard Marks recalled his chat with a pension fund manager who said that his fund was “never...

Published on 01 Aug, 2021

What it Means to be Rich...

Last week, we featured a piece by Morgan Housel on a perspective of wealth. Almost as a follow up, this week Ben...

Published on 01 Aug, 2021

Why is China smashing its tech industry?...

Just as India is celebrating its first big consumer tech IPO in Zomato, China is smashing its hugely successful tech...

Long Read

Published on 01 Aug, 2021

The Network Effects Manual: 13 Different Network Effect...

With Zomato’s listing, Indian investors are required to get their head around how to value businesses which don’t...

Published on 01 Aug, 2021

Ending shadow banking means ending modern central banki...

In last week’s ‘3 Longs & 3 Shorts’ we had quoted the great strategist Russell Napier’s point of view that...

Published on 01 Aug, 2021

Leaving burnout behind: the pain and pleasure of starti...

For decades Lucy Kellaway was, as a famous FT columnist, an assured source of weekly wit and wisdom for many of us at...

Jul 2021

Week 4
Week 3
Week 2
Week 1

Short Read

Published on 25 Jul, 2021

How Susceptible Are You to the Sunk Cost Fallacy?...

How many of us find it difficult to let go of a project even when it’s clear that there are better uses of our...

Published on 25 Jul, 2021

The true extent of America’s food monopolies, and...

The winner takes all business models built on network effects in the new age tech businesses are driving monopolisation...

Published on 25 Jul, 2021

The Highest Forms of Wealth...

We at Marcellus are in the business of wealth creation. But what underlying purpose does wealth creation serve often...

Long Read

Published on 25 Jul, 2021

Russell Napier: We Are Entering a Time of Financial Rep...

When it comes to stepping back and looking at the big picture through the lens of financial history to see patterns...

Published on 25 Jul, 2021

Reviews of Michael Lewis’ new book, “Premonition”...

Michael Lewis is the best non-fiction writer of the past 30 years. Not only does he write a book every other year, not...

Published on 25 Jul, 2021

The Impact of Intangibles on Base Rates...

In our first two pieces this week, we highlight the latest publications of the two of the very best writers of the past...

Short Read

Published on 18 Jul, 2021

The grit and greatness of Novak Djokovic...

Even the most ardent of Federer and Nadal fans have now conceded defeat in the G.O.A.T debate, acknowledging the...

Published on 18 Jul, 2021

Beware the IP-Ohs...

Retail investor participation has skyrocketed across the world as seen with the surge in accounts at Robinhood and...

Published on 18 Jul, 2021

A litre of petrol takes up 30% of average daily income ...

Social media is flooded with memes about the record high fuel prices in India. Whilst high fuel prices has been a...

Long Read

Published on 18 Jul, 2021

Master Series: David Rolfe...

If you enjoy learning from other investors, John Garrett’s Masters Invest website is a goldmine with a vast library...

Published on 18 Jul, 2021

Cricket is having its Moneyball moment...

Michael Lewis’ blockbuster bestseller “Moneyball” not only immortalised baseball coach Billie Bean’s use of...

Published on 18 Jul, 2021

Semiconductors could be the new oil – here’s why...

A lot of people these days say that “Data is the new oil”. Whilst the sentiment they are trying to convey – that...

Short Read

Published on 11 Jul, 2021

Is gaming good for kids?...

With the schools on full term break and the monsoons in full swing here in Mumbai forcing the kids to stay indoors...

Published on 11 Jul, 2021

The medieval nuns’ guide to virtual travel...

With travel still restricted across the world, we are all longing to resume exploring the various wonderful places on...

Published on 11 Jul, 2021

ESG outperformance looks set to end, study suggests...

Here’s another piece on ESG investing. Increasing awareness about socially responsible investing has resulted in...

Long Read

Published on 11 Jul, 2021

Illusions of empire: Amartya Sen on what British rule r...

As William Darlymple noted recently, unlike the Germans who acknowledge the dark chapters in their history, the British...

Published on 11 Jul, 2021

16 Unbelievable Facts About the Markets...

Ever since he published the bestseller, ‘A Wealth of Commonsense” five years ago, Ben Carlson has been astounding...

Published on 11 Jul, 2021

A Major New Index Fund Should Unnerve Climate-Skeptical...

Thanks to the publicity created by Gamestop, the widespread perception is that the new generation of investors are...

Short Read

Published on 04 Jul, 2021

Explained: How ZyCov-D vaccine works, how it is differe...

As Marc Andreessen highlights in his essay, vaccine technology – the unprecedented pace at which it was developed and...

Published on 04 Jul, 2021

Technology saves the world...

Almost a decade ago, Marc Andreessen, the creator of the internet browser Netscape and more famously the founder of the...

Published on 04 Jul, 2021

Analysis: When do electric vehicles become cleaner than...

The rapid evolution of battery technology has made affordable electric vehicles (EV) a reality, providing a...

Long Read

Published on 04 Jul, 2021

Human Evolution Led to an Extreme Thirst for Water...

Experts have now long been predicting that the next wars will be fought on water. Dramatic as it may sound, access to...

Published on 04 Jul, 2021

What It’s Really Like to Be a Wall Street Whistleblow...

This is a riveting long read from the Institutional Investor on a subject that is of considerable interest to some of...

Published on 04 Jul, 2021

Quality Investing and Inflation and why Emerging Market...

We feature two different articles here from GMO. The first piece is a GMO newsletter which explains why investing in...

Jun 2021

Week 4
Week 3
Week 2
Week 1

Short Read

Published on 27 Jun, 2021

You Can Only Maintain So Many Close Friendships...

The lockdowns have curtailed our social lives and limited the number of people we engage with socially, nudging us to...

Published on 27 Jun, 2021

For Inflation Protection, Commodities Belong in the ...

Ben Carlson wrote a piece recently on 200 years of returns by asset class, which showed that commodities had indeed...

Published on 27 Jun, 2021

Idiots, Maniacs & the Complexities of Risk...

Most discussions around investments centre around returns and very little on the risk associated with those returns....

Long Read

Published on 27 Jun, 2021

Baillie Gifford: can a new generation keep riding the t...

Plenty has been written about Baillie Gifford, the Scottish investment firm’s success with technology stocks, much of...

Published on 27 Jun, 2021

To choose a career, I needed to do more than ‘follow ...

India has the youngest demographic not just in the contemporary world but also in the history of this planet: no...

Published on 27 Jun, 2021

The Feynman Learning Technique...

All of us are being told that we will have to work until 70 years of age and hence will have to reinvent ourselves 2-3x...

Short Read

Published on 20 Jun, 2021

I Was Taught From a Young Age to Protect My Dynastic We...

The recent ProPublica report showed how the wealthy contributed so little in taxes compared to the increase in their...

Published on 20 Jun, 2021

Milkha Singh: An unmatchable romance with a near miss...

Before the systematic path to the Indian team’s success in recent years, few athletes have managed to savour...

Published on 20 Jun, 2021

Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman: Never Trust Your Gut Un...

We are huge fans of Daniel Kahneman, as our work (and life) requires us to separate our instincts from the thoughtful...

Long Read

Published on 20 Jun, 2021

The full collection of the Nomad Investment Partnership...

As our clients, readers and well-wishers would know, we at Marcellus tend to be prolific in expressing our thoughts in...

Published on 20 Jun, 2021

Tiger Cubs: How Julian Robertson built a hedge fund dyn...

From talent management in cricket, let’s now move to talent management in the world of asset management. This piece...

Published on 20 Jun, 2021

How did India build their world-beating bench strength?...

Thirty years on the opening up of the Indian economy in 1991, we are seeing generational change taking place in...

Short Read

Published on 13 Jun, 2021

Getting the Goalpost to Stop Moving...

Morgan Housel is in fine form with this brilliant piece about how our happiness levels get dragged down by the weight...

Published on 13 Jun, 2021

The story of mRNA vaccines at the messaging edge of gen...

Pandemics much like wars and other calamaties have a brighter side to them. They tend to bring the best of human...

Published on 13 Jun, 2021

Why it is usually a mistake for investors to take profi...

Last week we featured a piece by James Anderson, a fund manager at Baillie Gifford, a more than a century old...

Long Read

Published on 13 Jun, 2021

Add Crypto to IndiaStack...

A lot of us fundamental-types tend to dismiss off crypto as a fad and hence unwittingly form a barrier to our...

Published on 13 Jun, 2021

Don’t Approach Life Like a Picky Eater...

In this piece, Arthur Brooks explains how you and I can have the right amount of neophilia i.e. openness to new...

Published on 13 Jun, 2021

The Indian megacity digging a million wells...

Most of us know that Bangalore has a water-scarcity issue as it is one of India’s few large cities not to be situated...

Short Read

Published on 06 Jun, 2021

The Brain-Changing Magic of New Experiences...

Many of us are craving to visit new places, for a more active social life meeting new people and in general...

Published on 06 Jun, 2021

How the World Ran Out of Everything...

Plenty has been written about the supply constraints the world is facing during the pandemic – semiconductor chips to...

Published on 06 Jun, 2021

Why Time Horizon Works...

You might have heard that people these days are getting all worked up about P/E multiples. Morgan Housel comes to their...

Long Read

Published on 06 Jun, 2021