Value Investing Lessons Relevant At All Times

• Futures trading strategies
  (Jul 29, 2010)In the previous week, we discussed the mechanics of trading futures, and provided some examples of how to trade them. This week, I'd like to talk about a few trading strategies that can be implemented through the use of futures contracts.
• How does Futures pricing work?
  (Jul 22, 2010)As I discussed in the previous week, a futures contract is an agreement to buy or sell an asset on a particular date in the future.
• Real estate: Have you looked at these key points?
  (Jul 15, 2010)The real estate pack has traditionally been a high beta play. Being cyclical in nature, the industry does not find favour amongst many value investors. The real estate pack as a whole is known for market outperformance when the economy is in boom.
• Introduction to Derivatives
  (Jul 15, 2010)What is a derivative? A derivative is a financial instrument that derives its value from another financial asset. For example, the value of a crude oil futures contract depends on the value of the underlying asset, which is crude oil itself.
• Key banking ratios-II: PSUs vs private
  (Mar 18, 2010)In one of our recent articles, we discussed about some of the key ratios relating to a bank's balance sheet statement.
• Key banking ratios: PSUs versus private
  (Jan 8, 2010)In one of our recent articles, we discussed about some of the key ratios relating to a bank's profit and loss statement. Just to brush up our readers, some of the ratios that were discussed included:
• A close cousin of the P/E ratio
  (Sep 3, 2009)Learning about stock market investing is a never-ending quest. There are several metrics that an investor can look at while selecting stocks. In this article, we discuss one of the many parameters that could help in making better investment decisions - Price-earnings to growth ratio (PEG ratio).
• One ratio every investor must understand
  (Aug 25, 2009)Return on Equity (RoE) ratio is one of the most important ratios that every investor must understand. This is because it is used to measure the efficiency with which a company utilises the equity capital. In this article, we shall discuss what RoE is and how it is calculated with the help of an example.
• P/E ratio simplified
  (Jul 10, 2008)We thought it would be a good time to write this article as the result season is just about to begin. Also, the understanding of this method could help one take a call on which stock to purchase, hold or sell.
• Identifying a Retailing stock: Do's and Don'ts
  (Apr 9, 2008)Retail as a whole can be divided into various categories, depending on the types of products serviced. It covers diverse products such as food, apparel, consumer goods, financial services and leisure.
• Identifying a textile stock: Do's and don'ts
  (Apr 9, 2007)The debt-laden Indian textile industry that was embroiled in BIFR cases until the early part of this decade, spun a turnaround with the lowering of interest rates and dismantling of the quota regime. Aided by lower interest rates, restructuring packages from financial institutions and the more recent Technology Upgradation Fund (TUF), the sector today is well poised to capture growth opportunities.
• Identifying an auto stock: Dos and Don'ts
  (Apr 9, 2007)"It makes nearly 60m cars and trucks a year, and employs millions of people around the world. Its products are responsible for almost half the world's oil consumption, and their manufacture uses up nearly half the world's annual output of rubber, 25% of its glass and 15% of its steel. No wonder the car industry accounts for about 10% of GDP in rich countries."
• Identifying a construction stock: Do's and don'ts
  (Mar 19, 2007)After being in the limelight for the past two years, stocks from the construction sector have witnessed tremendous pressure in the recent market meltdown with the pressure being aggravated by the Finance Minister's clarification that tax benefits under Section 80-IA would not be applicable for entities executing projects through work contracts (i.e. sub-contracting of projects won by the entities).
• Identifying a sugar stock: Do's and Don'ts
  (Mar 8, 2007)Sugar being a commodity, the sugar industry is cyclical in nature. It is a typical cycle which is affected by cane supply and sugar demand. In this article, we take a look at how to identify a good sugar stock. Currently, with the sector looking bitter, it is even more important to identify the right stocks to sweeten the gains.
• Identifying a telecom stock: Do's and Don'ts
  (Mar 6, 2007)Telecom has been one of the fastest growing sectors in India, with the performance of services providers being led by mobile telephony. From around 2.8% tele-density (connection per 100 population) in March 2000, the sector now connects around 17% of India's population through a host of services, which include mobile, fixed line and Internet. Thriving Indian businesses, especially the IT and BPO industries have also helped the strong growth in another segment called 'Enterprise services', which include wholesale proviosion of data and bandwidth services.
• Identifying a shipping stock: Do's and don'ts
  (Jan 8, 2007)Shipping industry is a primary means of international transportation of any essential commodity. Around 80% of the cargo moved today is seaborne and almost 100% of hydrocarbon is transported through ocean. The global shipping industry can be broadly classified into wet bulk (like crude and petroleum products), dry bulk (like iron ore and coal) and liners (like containers and others). There are various benchmarks that determine freight rates for these segments. The prominent amongst them are Baltic Freight Index, Baltic Handymax Index (for dry bulk segment) and World Scale (for tankers).
• Refining: Understanding GRMs...
  (Sep 7, 2006)After touching historic lows in the late 1990s, the oil-refining sector has seen a significant increase in gross refining margins (GRMs) owing to two factors. One, hardening of crude prices and secondly, a favorable demand- supply equation in the global markets. As compared to GRMs in the range of US$ 1.0 to US$ 1.5 per barrel in late 1990s, GRMs crossed US$ 10 per barrel at one stage. Though margins have softened in the recent past, it is still substantially higher than the average of the last three years.
• P/E ratio: Look beyond it!
  (Aug 21, 2006)The P/E ratio is easily one of the most widely used valuation metric employed by the investors worldwide to arrive at an attractiveness of a stock. However, what the ratio numerically denotes is not necessarily the truth always and application of other valuation matrices could prove to be more useful. Let us see where this ratio fails and how other ratios takes its place.
• PEG ratio: A perspective...
  (Mar 2, 2006)How to go about investing in stock markets is a never-ending quest. And since there are no right or wrong ways to go about things, it becomes even more perplexing. Here is one of the valuation parameters, which an investor could make use of while making investment decisions in equities.
• P/BV: Understanding the concept
  (Sep 13, 2004)Apart from the price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio, another parameter that is commonly used to value stocks is price-to-book value (P/BV). But what does P/BV means and how can investors use this parameter to value their investments? In this article, we will try and simplify this concept.