The EMI Test: Why a Business Whose Customers Buy on Loan Rises and Falls With the Cost of Borrowing
A sweet shop and a flat builder can stand on the same street and feel the same news very differently. Here is a simple test for…
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Value investing
275 articles. Educational only: none of these is a research report or a recommendation.
Value investing
Value investing
The Shop in Someone Else’s Mall: How to Judge a Business That Depends on One Platform
Some businesses reach their customers through their own front door. Others reach them through a door that belongs to someone else. Here is how to tell…
Value investing
From Rs 200 to Rs 10: Why a Business That Cannot Set Its Own Price Must Win on Cost
Some businesses decide their own price. Others are simply told the price every morning. Here is how to tell the two apart, and why the second…
Value investing
The One-Man Shop: Why a Business That Cannot Run Without One Person Is Fragile
Some businesses are really one remarkable person with a shop around them. Here is why that is a hidden weakness, how great businesses plan for the…
Value investing
The Glossy Brochure: Why the Tone of a Company’s Annual Report Is Not Evidence
Philip Fisher warned in 1958 against falling for the tone of a company’s annual report. Here is what that means, why glossy words prove nothing, and…
Value investing
Don’t Buy the Poorer Cousins: Why the Leader and the Also-Ran in the Same Growing Field Rarely Share the Same Fate
When a whole field starts to grow, every business in it seems to ride the same wave. Basant Maheshwari says it does not work that way.…
Value investing
The Signboard Says Since 1952: Why a Business That Has Lasted Long Is Telling You Something
Every old shop in your town has already passed a test that no analyst can run for it. Here is how to read the age of…
Value investing
The Red Queen’s Race: Why Some Businesses Must Keep Running Just to Stay Where They Are
Some businesses spend big every single year and end up exactly where they began. Others spend a little and keep what they earn. Learning to tell…
Value investing
The Second Ledger: Why the Money You Never Made Can Teach You More Than the Money You Lost
Your broker's statement records every mistake that lost you money. It records nothing about the great opportunities you sold too early or never studied. Indian value…
Value investing
The Dog That Did Not Bark: What a Company Leaves Out Can Tell You as Much as What It Says
In a famous Sherlock Holmes story, the clue that solved the case was something that did not happen. The same habit, noticing what is missing, can…
Value investing
The Pilot’s Checklist: Why Even Experts Need a Short List Before They Act
In 1935 the best pilots in America crashed a brand-new bomber because of one forgotten step. The fix was not more training. It was a short…
Value investing
The Cheapest Money in Town: Why What a Bank Pays for Its Money Decides How Good the Bank Can Be
A bank is a shop that sells money, and the price it pays for the money it buys matters as much as the price it charges.…
Value investing
The Owner Eats Last: Who Gets Paid First When a Business Earns a Rupee
Suppliers, workers, lenders and the tax collector all take their share of a business's money before the owner sees a paisa. Seeing that queue shows why…
Value investing
Why, Why, Why, Why, Why: How to Get Past a Company’s First Explanation
When a company's profit falls, the first explanation is rarely the real one. A habit from a Japanese car factory shows how to keep asking why…
Value investing
Water and Diamonds: Why Something the World Cannot Do Without Can Still Be a Hard Business
Water keeps us alive, yet it sells for almost nothing. A diamond keeps nobody alive, yet it sells for a fortune. Here is what that old…
Value investing
The Month the Money Runs Short: What Families Never Stop Buying, and Why It Matters to a Business
When money runs short, a family stops buying some things at once and other things never. A business that sells the second kind has steadier sales.…
Value investing
The Three Sieves: How Chandrakant Sampat, India’s Original Value Investor, Narrowed a Whole Market to a Handful
A grandmother sifts flour through a sieve so that only the fine part passes. Chandrakant Sampat did the same with the stock market, using three plain…
Value investing
The Slowest Step in the Kitchen: Why a Business Can Only Move as Fast as Its Bottleneck
Every business is a chain of steps, and the whole chain can only run as fast as its slowest one. Knowing where that step is, and…
Value investing
Fix the Roof While the Sun Shines: What a Business Does With Its Best-Ever Year
Any business looks wonderful in a bumper year. The more useful question is what its owners do with the extra money: strengthen the business, or stretch…
Value investing
Who Is Standing at the Counter? How to Judge the Quality of the People a Business Sells To
Two pickle makers can report the same sales and the same profit, and still be very different businesses. The difference is who is standing at the…
Value investing
The Milkman’s Map: Why Customers Packed Close Together Make a Business Cheaper to Run
Two milk rounds, the same milk, the same price, the same forty customers. One earns a living and the other loses money. The difference is route…
Value investing
The Copy Test: Could a Rich Rival With Unlimited Money Copy This Business?
A simple question separates a strong business from one that only looks strong: if a rich rival tried to copy it tomorrow, what could the money…
Value investing
The Tiffin Lady’s Arithmetic: What It Costs a Business to Win a Customer, and What That Customer Is Worth Over the Years
Every business pays something to win a new customer. The quiet question is how long that customer stays and what they bring while they are there.…
Value investing
The Umbrella in the Cupboard: Why Spare Cash Lets a Strong Business Go Shopping When Everyone Else Is Panicking
Every household keeps an umbrella for the day it rains. A business keeps spare cash for the same reason. But the best businesses use that cash…
The securities quoted in these articles are for illustration only and are not recommendatory. Investment in securities market are subject to market risks. Read all the related documents carefully before investing.