Lumuhuku

Let me confess it first. Warren Buffet is the equivalent of God for me. So any biases & excessive use of superlatives that might have crept in this post should be acknowledged & respected by you. 

$600,000 is what I paid for a lunch with Warren Buffet. I know it is too much for anything, leave alone a lunch. I could even have bought a Class A or B share and would have been granted an access to the now ‘a pilgrimage of sorts’ Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meetings. I would also have received the letter from Berkshire Hathaway as well as some of the cool See’s Candies…

But this is the price I was always ready to pay to meet my God. And almost an year after having won the bid for the privilege of dining out with the world’s richest man and my idol, Warren Buffet, here I was at New York’s famous steakhouse, Smith & Wollensky, for my big moment & pilgrimage.

I was out of breath when I came out of the taxi. I was already late. That too at such an occasion!! I was really feeling very stupid at this when I saw Warren, dressed in a dark suit and yellow tie, seemingly in no hurry and ‘waiting for me’ outside S&W. I bet I could see a halo around his head! Really. But he had no airs of being larger than life figure. But shit!!! was this a dream? I could see that Warren was not alone. He was accompanied by none other than Charlie Munger and Ajit Jain. Now it is one thing to bid and win a lunch with god (read Warren Buffet), but getting to have lunch with 3 great men @ a price of one, is one great investment. But just then the dream ended, and Charlie and Ajit left me with my God alone. They had some personal priorities greater than me… The Oracle of Omaha was more than happy to let me get as many pictures clicked with him as I wanted.

After the pictures were done, we sat down for our meal. The menus arrived and Warren ordered for a medium New York T-bone steak with hash browns and a Coke (Berkshire Hathaway owns shares in Coca-Cola Co.). Out of awe and respect, even I ordered the same, completely forgetting that I was a vegetarian!! I realized it after a while and called the waiter back, and modified my orders. Warren was all smiles and I knew that nothing was hidden from my God.

It didn’t strike me when we were chatting, but when I look back now I realize that over the 4 hours , we discussed millions of different topics, ranging from Warren’s value system as an investor to his friend and Berkshire Vice Chairman Charlie Munger to the importance of picking the right life partner. But really the thing that made the biggest impression on me had nothing to do with Warren’s investment philosophy. Rather, what was moving was his love for his former wife, Susan. “I never did anything for Suzie, but she did everything for me; I wouldn’t have been as successful without her.” Even great men like him are not perfect when it comes to relationships. 

It was time for dessert (ice cream in shot glasses) and for our lunch to end.

And with that my ‘Cursed’ alarm clock buzzed me out off the bed. Shit!!! I never realized that this was a dream. And I swear that I will always be ready to swap my realities with this dream.)

It has been around 3 years that I have been learning vicariously from Warren. And I, not a very ‘awesome’ investor, have turned into a vastly better human being. Now this is what should be called a dream lunch…isn’t it?? 

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Indian stock market investors will always remember 24th October, 2008 as the blackest Friday the Indian stock market as seen till date. The Sensex plunged 11% while the Nifty ended down by 12.20%.

The gains of the 4-year bull-run have been wiped out in just eight months!

So, what does the biggest bear of them all -  Shankar Sharma would have to say about this carnage?

___________

Q : Good evening sir, did you see what just happened in the stock markets today?

A : Why? Did it rise 100 points?

Q : Oh come on sir, you must be joking!! Sensex and Nifty fell more than 10% today itself. Sensex is trading near 8500 and Nifty near 2500!!

A : See? I have been telling you all for the last 9 months that the party is over. The days of easy money are over dude. India has run way ahead of itself. And investors can’t expect a compounded annual growth rate of 30-35% each year.

Q : But this day is different from other falls. The blue chips like RIL and ONGC cracked today. That too over 15% !!

A : Yeah…I agree with you on this. Your Finance Minister P Chidambaram also tried to intervene and calm frayed nerves but that did not help the markets. And you know what? He was saying that they were ready to adopt conventional and unconventional tools!! Tools?? These are times to go short. Nothing else. Pure shorting.

Q : So you didn’t even buy a single share today? Some of the blue chips were really attractive today.

A : No!! Why on earth would I do anything like that ?

Q : Sorry. Stupid of me. Sir, where do you see Sensex on 31st December 2008 ?

A : 7000

Q : And sir 3 years from now ?

A : 3000

Q : In the year 2015 ?

A : Base Value

Q : What sir?

A : I mean 100. Sensex at 100.

Q : You must be joking sir. Sensex at 100?? No way.. But at least at 7000, will you buy anything in the Indian market?

A : Well, first I will think of covering my shorts. Buying….? no hurry yet…may be by 2015. Lets see.

Q : Sir what are your views on real estate stocks? The Realty Index fell 25% today. And Unitech plunged 52% and DLF fell close to 24%. Puravankara Projects crashed 45% and Parsvnath was down 21%. There must be a lot of value in them now?

A : Value? In real estate stocks? No way. You can better invest your money in buying bricks. Even if Unitech falls to its 2003 prices of Rs. 1.50/-, I will short it. But DLF around 25 will be a good buy.

Q : Unitech @ 1.50 , DLF @ 25 !! But DLF’s IPO came in at about 500? Even I bought it. It was just too good to miss.

A : Then DLF guys made you a fool 25 times over. [Laughs]

Q : Which is the best buy you think currently?

A : Best buy is “short sell”.

Q : Sir a few personal questions. What is your favourite color ?

A : Red

Q : hmmm…oh I should have guessed it….Why do you have a picture of BEAR in your living room?

A : Oh that? He is Mr. Sharma, my father. And did you see our family picture?

Q : What?? ….Ohhkk sir, it was a pleasure talking to you and thanks for this bearish interview.

A : My [short] pleasure.

____________ 

Disclaimer: Unfortunately, this is not a real interview.

Read about his earlier BULLS-BEARS-OSCILLATIONS view here.

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To whomsoever it may concern

This is to inform the general public, particularly the investors, that a stupid moron, named Shankar Sharma of First Global is freely making money out there in the markets, by making random & unnecessary predictions about the Sensex levels, after consulting his wife & his ‘dog’.

Shankar Sharma is one guy who should never be relied on when investing in the Indian stock markets. He can change his view faster than you can blink your eyes. Just have a look at some of his previous views -

September 2007

Our view is that India is headed for a market situation in the next six months time wherein we will see index levels get taken out successively. I would be surprised if the index does not hit between 25,000 and 30,000 in the next six-nine months time.

February 2008

I see a journey back to levels, which will approach four digits rather than remain five digits. It may or may not get there, but you will definitely get very close to those levels. By the middle of the year, we should be trading closer to those levels at 20% lower rather than 20% higher.

October 2008

Newsflows are still poor. The markets have still not bottomed out. We don’t see the Sensex rising beyond 12,500 in the current move and expect a further downside in October. The Sensex could head back to 10,000 levels, and may even dip below that.

Now he is the so called expert of the market. I don’t agree with this. He gave a bullish view when the markets were going up and bearish view when the going got bearish. This can be done by guys like you and me too. Even we can recognise patterns and make predictions. Then why do we need experts?

Mr. Shankar Sharma…Go & fish!!

Life is like a snowball. the important thing is finding wet snow and a really long hill.

Wow!!!….Now how much more, can you be right, about life? As expected, Buffet’s life wisdoms continue mesmerizing me.

THE SNOWBALL – the much awaited and highly anticipated book with life experience and life-wisdom of the man known as “The Oracle of Omaha”, Warren Buffet is live and available.

Though there have been ‘n’ number of books concerned about Mr. Buffet’s extraordinary gifts as a businessman and investor, THE SNOWBALL offers an unprecedented look into Buffet’s life, of his values and his strategies, of his total experiences—all of which combine to tell a great American story.

Unlike any book ever written about Mr. Buffet, this book will be both a life story, and a biography of his ideas. It even takes up the earlier secret topics of Warren Buffet’s Love Life.

Warren Buffet, one of the richest man in the world, having once again proved his financial genius in this latest US recession by becoming the Guardian Angel for Goldman Sachs, still maintains his reputation for frugality, wisdom, humor and straight talk which make him seem like just a regular guy, like he might be the billionaire next door! And as you might have seen (if you ever read the About Me section of this blog ), he is the guy who inspires me the most. He is one of my heroes.

The 976-page book is written by former Morgan Stanley insurance analyst Alice Schroeder. She first met Warren Buffet when she published research on Berkshire Hathaway. Her grasp of the subject and insight so impressed him that he offered her access to his files and to himself. Now we could have never expected to get much closer to the God himself than this…isn’t it??

My comments  on Snowball??

Go and grab this Bible!!!

Now this is something amazing. I wrote a letter to the 2 time world champion Fernando Alonso.

You can read the letter – My Letter to Fernando Alonso.

Though I never expected him to reply, but amazingly, he did!! And how? He won the inaugural Night Grand Prix in Singapore after starting 15th on the grid!!

And let alone us, even Fernando was surprised. This is what he said – “It was fantastic. I can’t believe it and I think I need a couple of days to realize we have won a race.”

Fernando…thank you for reading & responding to my letter.

And you though that it was only you who made mistakes in your love life. The man who never makes mistakes in his investments, did confess after all that,

“the biggest mistake I ever made” was letting my late wife, Susie, walk out the door of our Omaha home.

This has been revealed by the revered investor in his authorised biography ‘The Snowball.’

According to Mr. Buffet, he gave his wife Susan [Susie - this is what Warren called him], a number of reasons to leave. One was Mrs. Katharine Graham, publisher of ‘The Washington Post’ and ‘Newsweek’ . Graham was really impressed by Buffet’s investment genius and they even spent time together in her mansion. Susan Buffet “made it plain to several friends that she was furious and humiliated,” but astonishingly sent Graham a letter granting her permission to date her husband !!

And even when Warren Buffet was at home, he spent most of his time in his study. And expectedly, his wife, not getting much attention or love as she desired, began a romance with her tennis coach, John McCabe. Then, in 1977, she and McCabe, after informing Buffet, moved into a small apartment in San Francisco. Meanwhile, Susan, expecting that Warren would not be able to look after himself and fall apart without a woman to look after him, arranged for attractive blond Astrid Menks to cook and clean for him. Susan and Warren never divorced. After her death in 2004, he married his companion for 27 years, Menks.

I would like to say here that I am not here to gossip about Mr. Buffet, because he is a man to be respected and not gossip about. And the respect is not because he has made so much money, but because he lives his with such purpose and humility. I am talking about his personal mistakes here for the sake of those who think that their mistakes in love have no parallels. Guys, everyone makes mistakes. Even Warren Buffet did. So cheer up.

And Buffet being a really down-to-earth person, goes on to say -

Susie’s departure “was preventable. It was definitely 95% my fault. … I just wasn’t attuned enough to her, and she’d always been perfectly attuned to me. She kept me together for a lot of years. … It shouldn’t have happened.”

Hi Fernando,

It would be very stupid to ask you about you well being. I know you are not good right now. And its the Renault’s useless shit-on-wheels that is troubling you this year. But, how could you sign them on for 1 more year? You should have waited a bit more to see if they are getting any better or may be some other team might be interested in you.

Never mind. The point is that you have been the world champion twice. But if I did not tell those watching the race about your previous victories, your current form won’t prove your heroics at all. So that’s a serious problem for you dude. But now my confessions to you. I always was and will remain a big fan of Schumi. Michael was literally a rule changer. I don’t think that anyone was ever, in sporting history of any sports, was so instrumental in getting the rules changed, just because, he was too good for others!! But Michael is not in game anymore. Lucky you. So here comes my next confession. You are the best that we currently have in all the drivers. Your aggression of Spanish Bull, your maneuvers with terrible Renaults, your moving up the ranks having started at the back of the grid, are all awesome. So why am I telling you all this? Because I want someone deserving to win the championships. And for that you just need 2 things. First is a good car. A driver is not complete in himself. A car and driver are one unit. So find your better half and do it soon. Secondly, you should learn from this guy,…..what is his name….lemme see… yes….. Kimi ‘I AM ICE COLD’ Raikkonen. I am sure you might have heard about him. Aggression does not always pay. Just see how cool this Kimi man is? And did you see that last year when he won the championship from you and Lewis, he did not even celebrate too much. I know that you are more aggressive while you are unconscious, than he is in his F1 car. But still, you need to take some yoga classes or ice pack treatments from him to cool yourself down. So won’t I suggest some lessons from Lewis Hamilton. No. Never. You are far better than he is.

I know you secretly desire to join the ranks of Ferrari. Oh come on… its not a surprise find by me. I know your ‘BULL’ish instinct and I am not color blind that I could not notice that Ferrari is you favorite or most ‘hated’ color. But dude, there will be certain problems for you at Ferrari. You are a hot tempered man and so is the Italian team. And sooner or later, Schumi will start running the team. And its very obvious that you don’t want to answer to Schumi, do you? So be cool and don’t take your decisions with your hot head. You can always contact me for further directions.

And yes…don’t worry if you don’t make any significant contribution to the first night GP at Singapore. I am not expecting anything with you, in that SHIT Renault.

Be brave

A Ferrari Fan