The BSE that was!

Stumbled upon this youtube video.

Having walked on the same street many a time I can now sense the history it carries forward as a long-term capital gain.

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Any old traders u know? Anyone bought infosys at ipo price and still holding?

My granddad bought it and is still holding

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@rupeshmandal. Damn! VIdeo!

I was wondering if those people get KITE! What would be the progress?

Also, What exactly there were doing? Bargaining?

@rabhishek thats Wonderful. I kindly request u to write in detail what was his profession, when and how he bought Infosys and more importantly despite mouth watering profits and increase in share price what drove him to buy and forget it? Please for our sake come up in detail

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He used to work with a PSU in a senior position, so he had some idea about contracts, acquisitions, financials so he decided to use his learnings to invest in IPOs. His primary investment philosophy is identify good companies using management, future growth prospects and gut feel. Also, invest money what you can loose and forget about returns once you do.

He had invested in the IPO of Infosys (1993), Adani(1994) and HUL (1996). Not sure of the exact amounts. All of them turned out to be multibaggers.

Investing in HUL was a straightforward decision due to the prospects and its parent Unilever. Investing in Infosys happened by accident. Call it luck or destiny, just before the Infy IPO along with one of my relatives , he had met Infy founder NRNM who had his Infosys office nearby. During the meet, NRNM told my granddad that he is coming out with an IPO and that people like him should invest and help out. The IPO was actually undersubscribed and Morgan Stanley had to underwrite the rest. The rest is history.

Regarding how he managed to buy and hold, its a matter of not getting affected by the day to day movement of the market. In the case of Infosys, it was also helped by the large dividend payouts made in the last 2 decades which is more than what anyone needs in a lifetime. Still, he did liquidate a small portion his Infosys holdings to diversify the holdings in the IT sector picking up stakes in TCS, Mindtree, Wipro, HCL, Bandhan Bank etc.

Although the buy and hold strategy does work most of the time (he has also lost some money in companies which went bust like Essar Steel, DHFL) , it cant be followed blindly in today’s time with fast changing developments which affects a business materially. Therefore in addition to buy and hold, I monitor the developments which materially affect the solvency or health of the firm so that those can be dumped.

One last thing is he avoid derivatives at all costs and thinks its the easiest way to loose money and even I agree to it (although I work in an investment bank)

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Let me tell you about my father. He worked all his life at SBI. When the IPO was launched, he managed to buy a few shares where the premium amount was deducted as EMI from his salary over the next couple of months. His only regret is he didn’t have much money at that time to buy more. He has not bought any other share or mutual fund. We were not even aware of it until 3 years back when he transferred them to me. I don’t think I am ever going to sell those as well. I don’t even look at its price.

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@rabhishek that is wonderful recollection
Sorry to bother u more but cannot stop my enthusiasm. So after he bought Infosys at ipo price, in 1996 or subsequent years when the stock was performing well was he not tempted to sell? Or he had general policy of giving very long term run for stocks?

@rupeshmandal that is wonderful pastimes really. He just had a demat account without trading account?:old is good always

It’s a general policy of not to sell something until absolutely necessary. That’s why I mentioned that his policy is think as if the invested money won’t come back (It’s tough to do for most people as that would require taking the emotions out of investing and also increasing savings to compensate)

Secondly, an offline full service broker helped as you had the additional barrier of contacting them (Online discount brokers make it much more difficult)

With respect to Infosys specifically, an added advantage was the excellent dividend payouts which meant that there was no doubt that the entirety of the initial capital invested was returned. Same goes with TCS in recent years.

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“It’s all a part of the game and at the end of the day, People do enjoy it”.

Pretty much sums up Trading. Wish I could witness this myself. Good watch. Thanks for sharing :slight_smile:

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Yup. Patience and persistence pays :slightly_smiling_face: