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The Thoughtful Investor

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Basant Maheshwari

4 books81 followers

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5 stars
185 (49%)
4 stars
126 (33%)
3 stars
36 (9%)
2 stars
14 (3%)
1 star
15 (3%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
Profile Image for Vikas Agarwal.
48 reviews13 followers
October 17, 2015
This book was completely different then my investment philosophy. But i really loved reading this due to couple of reason:
1.) This book is based on Indian Market, usually very less books are written on Indian Market.
2.) This book emphasized a lot on earnings, which i also felt that earning is the king for the the investor.
This book focus on the growth shares and tells you how one can get benefit from the growth shares.
I usually don't follow this philosophy but you never know when you have to use this philosophy.
4 reviews1 follower
June 27, 2024
I read this book and was totally confused. Later i realized that author made money just with pure luck and then decide to write a book to backfill. Read it at your own risk of coming out as confused investor with potential to loose all your money. This is such a waste of money book. Unfortunately author is super arrogant after writing such a crap book that he dares you to recommend to read this book only and not any other book. Such a loudmouth.
Profile Image for Ashutosh.
12 reviews3 followers
September 21, 2018
As the name suggests(and I hope in due course of time) this is bound to become the Indian equivalent of the Ben Graham's, 'The Intelligent Investor'. This particular title by Mr.Maheshwari stands out amongst the current Indian literature available on investing and is a definitive work that covers all aspects of equity investments in the Indian market. Apart from the usual beginner's guides from stalwarts like Ben Graham, Peter Lynch, Charlie Munger, Joel Greenblatt etc Indian equity investors had very few options. They had to interpret and adapt foreign authors' work in terms of Indian market scenarios, which meant the outcome ranged from useful to impractical conclusion.
With a well-known track record of wildly successful investments and having been in the market since the early 1990s, Mr Maheshwari starts with his introduction, how he got started with equity investments and briefly discusses investment philosophy. The book has 41 chapters(!) dealing with all aspects of equity investment based on Mr.Maheshwri's journey as an investor and following a loosely chronological order right from the 1990s. Finally culminating in dos and don't and his thoughts on leverage and a checklist for beginners.
Baring a few chapters, in the beginning, a basic understanding of finance, equity investment and the broad Indian corporate governance/ culture is important for anyone who wishes to take maximum out of this brilliant book. Besides this, I found that (maybe not intentionally) the author does not discuss the downside risk for HFCs. As many might know that the author has investments in a few of the HFCs which have done very well. They sort of appear in the book time and again. But somehow he forgets to mention that he entered them post-2008 when the cycle for cheap credit started and emerging economies have been flush with cheap money ever since. To top it off the bad loan problem with PSU banks(and hence the poor credit growth by PSU banks) aided this phenomenal growth in Indian HFCs. As now the cycle has started to reverse after a 10-year gap and the raw material that aided this phenomenal growth is bound to become expensive and hence the downside risk. The point is the author discusses at length about problems with a large number of sector and also his own short-sightedness and his bets that turned sour.
Having said that, the author has tried his best to make the reader understand that the Indian market is unique. And there are rules that might work for a matured markets in EU and US but those same rule need be true for the Indian market. I enjoyed reading this book immensely and would recommend it to anyone who would like to gain an understanding of an emerging market and an investor's journey from the days of Indian economic liberalisation right till the end of taper tantrum.
Profile Image for Sparsh Agarwal.
65 reviews1 follower
September 10, 2024
This book is a great book written by a person who has invested about three decades of his life in stock market and then genuinely wants to help and guide the investors to create wealth.Its a must read book for every investor and others also to know and understand the mystery of shares and share market.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Parth Bhatt.
54 reviews1 follower
June 10, 2023
A MUST READ FOR INDIAN STOCK MARKET INVESTORS.
Profile Image for Amrutayan Pati.
2 reviews4 followers
August 8, 2017
An excellent read which gives you a first hand perspective of the Indian stock market - I think this is one of the few well written books on the Indian stock market. The author walks you through his investment hypothesis during the multiple cycles through examples and detailed analysis on rationale for entry and exit - must read!!
Profile Image for Kailash Pandey.
10 reviews3 followers
October 19, 2015
This book is a must read for value investing learning from an Indian stock investor perspective. You can, however, disagree with certain views/suggestions from Mr. Maheshwari but then at the end of the day, what is important is to make money and he had achieved it in actually a well calculated and calibrated manner.
Profile Image for Pravin Sharma.
17 reviews
July 3, 2016
A good 'on the ground' perspective on Indian public markets and how you can make money from them.
Profile Image for Abhishek Shekhar.
103 reviews6 followers
April 1, 2018
excellent book on indian markets. Must read for investors and analysts!
4 reviews
December 11, 2024
Mr. Basant is well read and a keen observer. He is confident and clear about his own method of investing. When you read his book, you revise n number of other books. The book is filled with insightful and witty quotes.
"Paisa jyada banana hai ya jaldi banana hai". We are not poorer by 15%-20%, we want our wealth to grow 10X -20X.
"Whatever happened in US will happen in India after a time lag".
" It is better to buy on borrowed money than own borrowed conviction". He is comfortable with buying on borrowed funds. Remember his own style of investing.
" Go for concentrated portfolios". It would move the needle for the portfolio as a whole, not meagre allotments.
He didn't mind investing in stocks making new highs.

In this book, we are getting the knowledge and experience of a accomplished investor. It is a must read if you are going to invest in Indian markets.
Note: At times, the sentences feel a bit long.
Profile Image for Ajit Kumar.
159 reviews
May 16, 2024
Book has a lot of insights into Indian investing aspects. Normally what investors follow like buying on dips and selling on highs is not what BM suggests. He has a contra perspective. And its realy interesting and gain worthy I believe. Its just that it may be very difficult to practice but if done, it can reap benefits. Having and maintaining a concentrated portfolio is also another style that he suggests but that too seems easier read than done. BM has done it himself and thats what he has tried to pass on to the readers/investors. Overall I loved this book and I only hope be brings out a part of it with stock examples from FY24-25.
34 reviews
December 25, 2024
Basant has a good grip of the subject. he knows what he is talking about. though he mentioned that he keeps on adding to his position when price increases. i am a value investor so that i cant digest. but it is a good read, particularly since he has covered so much information in a single book. i recommend this book.
Profile Image for Duraimurugan.
39 reviews
September 5, 2017
Worst book I have read recently.I think you could learn much more through moneycontrol.com than this shit.Filled with full of assumptions. Not even a single clear cut idea on how to pick a stock.No analysis on financial ratios.Ludicrously written.
38 reviews
September 18, 2017
Basant shares some really good insights about Indian equities and seems to be a huge fan of holding highly concentrated and heavily leveraged portfolios...

However, he came across as a confused author to me as if he's trying too hard to theorize his stock picking ideas.
Profile Image for Karthi Sn.
10 reviews1 follower
January 19, 2019
Obtained a plenty of terms and knowledge. Also a great read. No words to praise. Thought several times whether to buy for1500₹. But not to give a slight thought for the same. Read and I keep reading whenever have doubt.
4 reviews
December 26, 2023
The book has many mental models and those that are well applicable to the Indian stock market.

However, I feel the content is not organised as one coherent idea/thought but more as an assembly of a lot of possible mental models
Profile Image for Mahesh.
50 reviews6 followers
June 22, 2017
Hi,

this is my first book on investing and i enjoyed and learned so many things from the book but no real time examples covered for analysis of the stock, If covered, it will be very good learning.
Profile Image for Ritesh Gupta.
8 reviews
July 6, 2018
A GOOD READ FOR AN INDIAN INVESTOR, TO LEARN FROM THE MISTAKES DONE BY OTHERS.
19 reviews2 followers
March 1, 2021
Masterpiece and practical about how to invest in Indian markets. It's a no-nonsense book. One can literally relate to market price movements.
Profile Image for Kasem.
2 reviews1 follower
December 25, 2022
This book is clearly explaining how to make a profit from stock market. From risk , price and value you will see how those component related.
Profile Image for Navdeep Pundhir.
298 reviews44 followers
January 31, 2023
Brilliant! Undoubtedly the best book for Indian stock markets and one of the very best overall
1 review
May 18, 2024
Very good book for Indian stock market investing
I am reading it
Profile Image for Sawan.
2 reviews
April 19, 2025
The book is really well written. As you go through it, you’ll notice the author offers sharp insights in nearly every chapter. No fluff—just straight to the point and packed with knowledge.
1 review1 follower
October 15, 2016
Excellent book. The booked distills the authors experience in equity investing and brings it straight to our table.

As a beginner, I found the book catering to both the psychological as well well as strategical aspect of investing in equity. In addition this book provides a really good sense of how business works and how to pick winning stocks for your portfolio.

Being an Indian author, the topics include references to Indian markets which i could very well relate to. The price is a tad bit steep but it certainly worth the read.
Profile Image for Aman Vij.
2 reviews13 followers
March 16, 2015
Just finished my first read and I must say this book is definitely one of the most comprehensive books available on Indian Stock market. This book has it all be it financial analysis to individual sector analysis and even the least covered and one of the most important side of investing i.e. the Behavioral side of investing. But what really make this book stand apart are the real life examples and the thought process of the author at each point of his investing decisions. To add to all this there are few topics like P/E expansion and contraction and Identifying tops and bottoms which I have never found in any other investing book so far. Although the price is little steep but believe me it is worth every rupee.

A must have book for everyone investing or thinking to invest in stock market.
61 reviews2 followers
September 9, 2024
In this books has given insights of his learning in Indian stock market journey.

His journey of from 1994 to 2014 (till the book written)

His style of choosing stock was explained.

Explains about world of investing, trends, financial analysis, buy and sell strategy, sector analysis, help on portfolio building, and check list.

Most importantly I loved the following

1. Financial independence,

If you achieve 50 times to annual expense, you are independent.

2. ROE

The DuPont analysis of ROE.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews

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