Ace Investor
Rakesh Jhunjhunwala first entered the stock market with just Rs 5,000 in 1985, and today is worth $5.6 billion. At a time when stock markets are rising, crossing the 60,000 mark last month, the “big bull” is among the most sought-after people in India for his advice on investment. Presently, his investment portfolio is worth an estimated Rs 40,000 crore. At the Conclave, Jhunjhunwala enthralled the audience with one-liners and tips for new investors.
My first turning point was the Rs 5,000 [that I entered the market with]. My brother was a practising chartered accountant, and he introduced me to some of his clients... The first way of getting capital was through the introductions and confidence my brother gave to his clients… I was able to raise about Rs 15 lakh and made about Rs 40-50 lakh from that in two years. The second turning point was the budget of Madhu Dandavate…
She (his wife Rekha) isn’t bothered if she is a billionaire or is worth 200 million or 400... but I have ensured that if she divorces me, I don’t have to pay alimony. I look at money in the way that even if I have 10, 15 per cent of the wealth that we have today, I’m going to drink the same whiskey, drive the same car, eat the same food, have the same holiday
I try to predict [where the] market is [going]. It’s a prediction. Sometimes I’m right and sometimes I’m wrong. When I’m right, I feel very elated. When I’m wrong, I learn. The biggest cost of a mistake is not learning from it. And I’m not afraid to make a mistake
ON TAKING CHANCES ‘Risk’ is a four-letter word. It’s an adjective. It means different things to different people, right? But remember one thing—risk, debt, markets, weather—we can try to predict them, we cannot know them. Only the future will tell us what it is... Risk is the essence of life. If you don’t take risks, you [can do] nothing # I’m a very measured risktaker, in the sense that I can sacrifice my assets and sell them at below par value... but I should never let my financier [control] me # See, [the coronavirus is like] a flu, not a cancer. Humanity has faced greater challenges. After the Spanish flu, we had the roaring twenties in America. And remember that ‘crisis’ and ‘opportunity’ have the same symbol in Chinese # This is not the first time in history that all these unicorns are there. What happened during the railroad boom? What happened during the internet boom? How many have survived? So that is history. That’s not my opinion. Valuations and markets are driven by human psychology. And that psychology has not changed, and will not change—greed and fear. So good luck, but I respect the internet promoters for their dedication, their hard work # We have come into a phase that India, economically, has never seen before. We are living in a country with $1 trillion of savings… projected to rise to 3 trillion by 2030. Today, 31 per cent of household wealth in America is [in] equity. In India, it’s three per cent