We launched Basant's Corner in the last week of October 2011 with a view to help and assist investors in managing their own equity portfolios for generating above market rates of return. In this connection the return for the first 11 months have been staggering. Inclusive of dividends an equal weighted portfolio in Basant's Top Ten has returned 42.6% for its investors beating the Sensex, Nifty and all mutual funds. The highlights of Basant's Corner has been listed below for information:
� The Top 5 stocks in Basant�s Top Ten have remained unchanged while the bottom five saw three changes as we chose to move the stocks that rallied ahead of visible fundamentals out of the Top Ten into Basant's Universe.
� The approach of backing up quality companies with strong balance sheets and dominant industry positions paid off as it does inspite of what is commonly said. Majority of stocks here were not of the low PE types but were generally companies that had earnings visibility of several years ahead.
� The idea is not to have a fixed rule of recommending one stock every week/month. The focus remains to help subscribers create a portfolio where money is made by sitting rather than by shuffling. Too bad for the brokers not so much for the investors.
� We avoided recommending risky bets in the portfolio. There is an underlying theme in the stocks that we have recommended varying from secular growth; dividend yield; turnaround both (topline and bottomline) etc.
� The Basant's Top Ten portdolio comprises of:
4 small caps (market capitalization less than Rs 1000 crore);
3 mid caps (market capitalization between Rs 1000 crore and 5000 crores)
3 large caps (market capitalization above Rs 5000 crores)
� Out of twenty companies that we have recommended in these eleven months nineteen are well above recommended price and the one which is underwater is just 4% below the recommended price. I think with this quarter's results we should have a 100% strike rate.
� The "Ask Basant" segment a section available only for the Gold 365 subscribers remains the source of close interaction with the subscribers. This section has till date generated over 3200 questions & answers (all archived) ranging from personal finance, portfolio allocation, stock specific queries both from within the stocks covered in Basant's Universe and outside it, small debates on the stocks introduced including red flags as raised by the members from time to time, feedback from members on the general product usage as generated from distributor interactions etc.
� Some people argue that most of the stocks we recommended went up because of the huge subscriber base. I disagree. No one can manipulate the markets for longer periods of time. If that were so why did Delta come down to Rs 60 after more than tripling to Rs 140? How did Ketan Parekh and Harshad Mehta lose grip on the market? Additionally we constantly review our stocks with ratings as �Buy�, �Accumulate�, �Hold�, �Reduce� and �Sell�. These calls are provided on an ongoing basis. In one instance we changed the recommendation to �Accumulate� from �Buy� after a 50% rise and the stock went up further to double up from the recommended price. This quality company managed by the best known people in the business is expected to move up 10 times in 10 years from here also. Call it the Dus ka Dum! Had the first 50% move been because of our subscribers buying the rise would have stopped after we put an �Accumulate� rating but it did not, unlike the inferior grade businesses this stock could have been backed up by any amount of the investor's net-worth so putting more money to work was never an issue as is generally the case with bad businesses.
I do not want to predict next year's return as I always am. However I remain confident about these investments over a 3-5 year period for beating the market averages and a majority of mutual funds hands down. The idea is to try and target a 25% CAGR. Overall the focus remains to generate decent returns and help investors make money through long term investing.
Finally the bad news, the service just got 33% expensive from September 03, 2012.
Thank you TCSer ji and RaviTeja02 for explaining, the return is a simple average of Top Ten Stocks the Top 5 has done almost as well.
thanks everyone for patiently answering the queries. this is a great place to be in and i appreciate all the help from members and basant-ji
finally i joined the BC today
[QUOTE=bandlab1] finally i joined the BC today
what a great place !! so much info. i wll start building my PF now[/QUOTE]
Thank you.
would like to know how much money one should have in kitty to take full advantage of Basantji's talent by joining BC ?I think just paying the joining fees and failing to act on his advise is a bigger loss than not joining at all..Pls advise.
Hi 'learn2earn', I was even looking for the answer to the same question. But I was a little disappointed in not finding a straight answer to it, or an answer that would be somewhat quantitative. But, I guess there is no straight answer to it.
[Ref: http://www.theequitydesk.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=3460&FID=1&PR=3&PN=24 ]
And unfortunately, my investment capability doesn't seem to make the cut. I have a small capacity of 1 lakh in the beginning to 1.5 lakh in the next one year.
I was advised by Basantji himself to start investing in MFs first.
I am on the "waiting bench" trying to gather enough funds to get in the game. Obviously, if there was a more concrete target, it would have been easier for me.
However, I respect Basantji for not blatantly suggesting to buy the subscription as it might not be suitable for me.
[QUOTE=learn2earn] would like to know how much money one should have in kitty to take full advantage of Basantji's talent by joining BC ?I think just paying the joining fees and failing to act on his advise is a bigger loss than not joining at all..Pls advise. [/QUOTE]
Just to give you some parallel example. Genarally good advisery services offered for equity charge upto 2% of the portfolio.But here portfolio cut off is 25 to 50 lakh hence
small retail investors cannot afford them. Also there returns are not as superior as Basant Corner.
Going by the thumb rule if one has a portfoilio less than 5 lakh he can opt for basic package and if it is more than that one can opt for higher package.
Now again I must tell you that for a winning pick no amount is small and a loosing pick no amount is big.Hence
regardless of your portfolio size opt for atleast basic package and try and learn investing ways of Basant Sir.
Do not bother about money ultimately it will chase you if
the learnig is right.
Tend to agree with koolvalue. I could also put in a assumption (with the right to go wrong) that your portfolio would grow by 30% in the next year and consider the forward value of your portfolio while choosing the subscription fee.
debapriya,
Posted on:11/5/2012 10:58:32 AMraviteja02
Dear bandlab1
While fully appreciating your inquisitive nature, the only real way to enjoy the fruits of basant's corner is by joining it! I'm not sure if it's weighted average or plain vanilla average, but the returns could vary depending on the individual's portfolio allocation. There are stocks in the universe which gave double the stated 44.5% return and some which gave less. But let's not give too much attention to this lest we should ignore the larger picture of being a part of Basant's corner :-).
To answer your second question, yes there is something called "Top Ten" which are a subset of the ' Basant's Universe' ranked from 1 to 10, 1 being most preferred. Of course, these are as per Mr. Basant's perspective. If you were to have greater conviction on Top 2 stock, bet more on that!! This is where 'Ask Basant' comes into picture where you can ask questions specific to your portfolio and get answers accordingly. At the end of it, it is your personal conviction that matters. Have a read by clicking on "basant's corner' at the top and then read the column 'what we offer'.
Exit calls are also given, case in point, a stock that was suggested on Aug 28th just doubled in a matter of less than 2 months where Mr. Basant suggested 'trimming' the exposure for X reasons.
Also, why is it difficult to understand the concept of universe :-), out of 8000 odd listed stocks, some 15-20 are shortlisted based on certain criteria which is like searching for 15-20 needles in the grass feild the size of foot ball stadium :-). I would be happy for that.
All the very best!!!!!!