On the right track

Investing in equities can be challenging, and guiding others in this field may prove even more so.

Indeed, there are very few certainties in the realm of equity investing. On any particular day, certitude is simply non-existent, a factor that underscores the difficulty of being an equity investor. Often, your days in the market can be incredibly challenging, but the overall journey is profoundly exhilarating. Yet, I see so many constantly stressed. There's the stress of choosing the wrong companies, there's the stress of the markets rising and falling, and there's the stress of your stocks not following your predictions. For some, there's the stress of others outperforming them. And yet, after some years of stress, investors who stay focussed start noticing how well their money has grown on the whole!

Knowledge and confidence
But this stress is not compulsory. Knowledge and confidence can solve the problem. This reminds me of a technique I read about for reducing passenger stress that some European airlines are trying. Many have a deep fear of flying. The aircraft manufacturer Airbus has discovered that if such passengers can listen in on the conversation between the pilots and the air traffic control, they don't feel scared. Why? Simply because they know what is going on. They can hear that the pilots and the ATC are carrying on their work in a calm and routine manner, and whatever the passengers fear is not justifiable. Information and understanding are the key to reducing stress.

I think there's an equivalent in equity investing as well, and that's the same. If we are thrashing about, investing based on guesswork and rumours, there's bound to be stress. However, if we are confident about our investments, we know and understand the logic of why we chose each stock, and we are keeping an eye on how the business is progressing for each of them, then why would there be any stress? That's the equity investment equivalent of listening to the pilot and the ATC.

Funds, stocks, and something more
Unfortunately, many investors struggle to acquire adequate information and thus never gain confidence. As recommended by Value Research many times, the simplest option is to invest in an equity mutual fund. That way, you can offload the tough decision-making to a fund manager and reduce your task to choosing and tracking mutual funds. Not a difficult task with Value Research on your side.

However, many want to take the next step, i.e., to understand and choose stocks oneself. That's the goal that 'Wealth Insight' magazine serves and has been serving for 17 years now. During these years, we have had tremendous success in terms of the ideas for choosing stocks, as well as the actual stock choices we made. However, a few years ago, we decided to move a step ahead.

An advisor of your own
Some of our readers wanted a different deal, a different kind of product. They wanted a more direct and focused set of stock recommendations that we actively maintain, detailed research about these, and a set of digital tools that would enable them to research any other company. So in 2017, after years of conceptualisation and many months of development, we launched a premium service that provided just that.

The years since the launch of the service in early November 2017 have been quite interesting. On the one hand, we have continuously added a world of features for our growing members. On the other hand, the markets have been on the kind of roller coaster they always are, perhaps even more so. In 2017, when we launched our premium Value Research Stock Advisor service, our research team had a large list of companies that would be great investments based on management quality and financials. And yet, so many of them were too expensive. Therefore, by the principles of value investing that are the basis of a profitable investment, we had to wait before we could recommend some great ones to our customers. However, since then, with the ups and downs of the markets, many of our A-listers have become available at great value.

As we continue to release new recommendations steadily - the number is well above 50 now - our subscribers' portfolios built up at low valuations that bode well for the future returns they will generate. Higher potential returns, with transparency of research and deep knowledge - this is the core service that the Stock Advisor provides. But there's much more that our subscribers are taking advantage of.

A lot more than just a list
Our team has designed and implemented a Stock Screener system that is by far the best you will find. This is a unique tool, and nothing like it has been available for the Indian equity investor till now. It enables you to screen stocks based on any financial criteria that can be applied to a company's financial and market data. But that's not all.

We also have something even more interesting - a unique set of predefined screens. Some screens our readers are familiar with, like 'Attractive blue chips', 'Discount to book value', 'Growth at a reasonable price', etc. However, the far more novel screens are the 'Value Guru' screens. They automatically filter stock based on the investment methodology of five investing gurus of our liking, namely, Ben Graham, Joel Greenblatt, John Neff, Peter Lynch, and Walter Schloss. While we have covered them in Wealth Insight, there's no alternative to the real interactive version.

Value Research Stock Advisor is in the process of constant evolution. However, like all our products and services, we have created something that matches our standards and that we all use for our own investments.