Manoj Arora - The Autobiography of a Stock

Published by Jaico Publishing House
A-2 Jash Chambers, 7-A Sir Phirozshah Mehta Road
Fort, Mumbai - 400 001
www.jaicobooks.com

Manoj Arora

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A STOCK
ISBN 978-93-86867-67-4

First Jaico Impression: 2018

No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

JAI GURUJI

One can acquire all the knowledge in the world.
What cannot be acquired is the power and strength
required to implement that knowledge.
You are blessed with it, by your Guru.

Thank you Gurujifor blessing me with the
strength to bring this book to life.

Indebted To

There is a good debt and a bad debt. I take pride that I carry a huge debt albeit a good one from each of my readers and friends, those who read this book and any of my earlier books, those who personally interacted with me and those who silently recommended us within their own circle of friends and relatives.

I am indebted to YOU.

As much as I would love to name each one of you, I am constrained with the available space. I absolutely realise and firmly believe that no single individual can achieve anything of his or her own. Anything worthwhile is born out of feedback, constructive criticism and unwavering faith.

Without all these inputs, this book would not have been feasible.

I thank each one of you!

Disclaimer

This publication contains opinions and ideas from the author, based on his personal experience in the financial market and his interaction with God in his dreams and visions. It is not possible to provide written proof of such interactions; faith is the only evidence.

Although the examples shared in this book are real-life experiences shared from the authors own portfolio, the purpose is to make the reader understand the concepts of stock market in an extremely simple, practical and real environment. It is not the authors intent to recommend the reader to purchase or sell stocks of the companies, whose examples have been shared in the book.

A lot of the data has been taken from said companies annual reports, websites as well as popular financial portals. Neither the author nor the publisher can guarantee the accuracy of that information.

The author and the publisher specifically disclaim any responsibility for any liability, loss or risk, which is incurred as a consequence of the use and application of any of this books contents.

Preface

In the year 1994, at the age of 21, I completed my studies from Aligarh Muslim University with a gold medal. During campus selections, getting an opportunity to work with the biggest electrical engineering company in India Larsen & Toubro Limited (L&T) was the cherry on the cake.

I started earning and saving money from 1994, but it was only in 1998 that I was first exposed to the stock market. I was 25 then, unlike Warren Buffett who started investing at the age of 11. I was, as I came to realize later, an ultra-crucial 14 years behind. Anyway, within a month, I made profits at 800 percent compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) on my first investment (or rather, trade). Forget about the amount and tenure of investment. The concept of stock market did not just work, it worked like magic.

Barely six months after this stupendous success, I withdrew from the stock market with the commitment to never look back.

The next 10 years were about building my career and getting clear about my dreams in life. Throughout this period, I saved and invested whatever I could, but I hated the stock market as an investment vehicle. I invested my savings surplus anywhere but in stocks, and advised everyone around me to do the same. Stocks were another name for risk, greed, gambling, losing ones money and whatnot.

My next transaction in stocks was in 2007 after a gap of almost 10 years. And from then on until today, stocks have been a healthy portion of my portfolio. In fact, the equity market, and specifically stocks, has been quite instrumental in shaping up my financial freedom. I am sure I could never have achieved my freedom in a span of eight years, had it not been for stock investments.

Now I have embraced stock investments. I realize that if you seriously want to be wealthy, equity has to be a balanced but mandatory portion of your portfolio. Its not that you cannot achieve financial freedom without equity investments or you cannot become wealthy enough, but a non-equity balanced portfolio takes too much time to grow, and time is the essence of life. This journey of my financial life from not being exposed to stocks until the age of 25 (mainly because of a lack of knowledge), a decade-long period of hatred from the age of 25 to 35, to the period of embracing stocks from the age of 35 until now (I am 44 years old now) has been marked with immense learning and wisdom built over time.

This book gives me an opportunity to share this learning with all of you my friends, my readers and my society. This is 100 percent non-conventional learning. I do not claim to be a financial wizard neither in this book, nor in my first one, From the Rat Race to Financial Freedom. I do not possess any certification in finance. I am a common man an electrical engineer by qualification, a project executive by profession, a financially free individual by passion and a very ordinary human being by nature. I do not even intend to get certified with financial degrees, because of the simple reason that I do not want to be bound by the written conventions of money and investments. I want to define my own rules, try them, test them with my own money, define new conventions and then generate wealth for myself and the world around me.

This is the journey of my life a life of a common man who has never been taught enough about money in school or college. The stock market is a far cry. People like me are only left with a hit-and-trial method to discover whether we belong in this arena or not.

Most people like me would never go back to equity market after having burnt our fingers once. I would not have either, had it not been my goal to achieve financial freedom. A strong goal lets us do extraordinary things. I went back wiser and more determined and came out stronger and in love with the market. Today, it is almost impossible to think of my financial investments without a significant portion of equity (both mutual funds and stocks).

It is said that if you cannot write about something then you havent really thought about it. So, it was a given that I would write about stocks, and what use is that writing if it is not shared. So, here I am, sharing all that I have learnt until now. However, learning is a never-ending process, and you might see more of it in future editions of the book. The methods described in this book are no theory. They have been tried, tested and refined over the last 10 years in the market, and also during the period I did not actively participate. These 20-plus years of experience handling money and stocks has been presented to you in the simplest possible way.

Finance, especially stocks, is always thought of as a complex, technical and risky subject. However, my experience shows that facts are exactly the reverse of it. Making money in the stock market is very easy, but that is exactly where the problem is. If I present something huge to you in a simplified manner, you will never believe it. You will just go on to make it complex so complex, that most of you will only lose money with that complexity. My assurance to you is that if you follow the simple steps and guidelines that I am going to share with you, you will always make money in the long run and enough of it.