04 – THE ECONOMIC CYCLE – Mastering The Market Cycle

The economy also moves into the long term and short-term cycle as an industry, stock market and everything else moves which are explained further.

Long-Term cycle

We know that the growing economy graph going upwards in the long term but it has short-term ups and downs.

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Long term straight line is made up of small cyclical ups and downs of the economic cycle of recession and recovery, slowdown and prosperity. These are part of any economy.

Everyone gets agree with the above point but we also need to understand that long-term trends also having a cyclical move as same as the short term. Here we also need to put a focus.

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We can see that the GDP of India has moved from US$ 0.04 trillion to US$ 2.72 trillion which shows long-term up moves but if we see shorter-term momentum of growth rate than it shows highly fluctuating with ups & downs.

 When Population growing it will lead to more consumption and that encourages more production. For producing more, companies need more working hours and that will be converted into more GDP.

So, population growth remains key to the growth of an economy. If growth converts to degrowth then economy starting to shrink.

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When the growth of population changes, it affects the GDP growth for a longer period of time. When a child gets born then it takes around 20-22 years for a child to become an employee. Also, migration from other countries replaces the birth rate of the country. Migration from other countries also enhances consumption and productivity which resulted in growth in GDP.

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Another factor that affects GDP growth is productivity. As productive can be raised despite any growth in the population, then GDP also grows or getting slow with the slower or declining in productivity. We have seen the growth of productivity when human labour replaced by machines, new automobiles, electricity, and computer has introduced. But these all have taken decades of time to affect the GDP. So, for the year to year productivity remains steady. This is not a change that will come overnight and disrupt everything rather it will slowly create changes over a long period.

The aspiration to live a better life encourages people to work hard and produce more. Educational people contribute more to the economy but if people do not like to be educated then it will affect negatively the economy. Such negative effects need to be overcome by the migrated.

Technologies that introduce new businesses and replaced the older. Also, it affects employment.

Automation might have an effect on reducing employment, and thus income and consumption will also decline which again affects the GDP growth.

Globalization provides a chance to export to the other economies which enhances the GDP growth. But the impact negative to the economy which only relies on the import from the other economies.

Short-term cycle

We have seen that many factors take time to affect a long-term trend of GDP. Then why short-term fluctuations occur and why we need to focus on it?

There are factors that cause short-term fluctuations in GDP growth. We always need to focus on those factors to get an edge to our investment. The actual investment game is to getting superior returns than average. We should not focus on the correct forecast but should focus on the superior forecast.

Many of the economists extrapolate current trends and publish reports on it. Such information is available with every so that it does not add much value. Also, we do not get superior returns by doing the same what the majority is doing. It is easy to make any forecast on the excel sheet but it is very difficult to keep it near to reality.

Spending patterns of the individual affect the production of the companies and that has an impact on the GDP growth.

Similarly, companies feel that demand remains robust then they keep on producing more and more but what happens when demand does not come. These unsold goods added to the inventories and companies has to cut production until inventory does not come back at a normal level.

Recession in an automobile has impacted the inventories of OEMs

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Few events also affect the performance of GDP such as war, changes in tax rate & trade barriers by government, cartels in the price of commodity, drought, flood, hurricane, and earthquake.

Superior forecast where we identify the deviation from the long-term trend and recent status of it. Identifying such deviation provides us with an edge. But identifying such is not an easy task and not all unconventional deviation also gets correct. We remember people for their correct unconventional prediction but they also have many failed predictions.

These all short-term factors affect GDP growth in a shorter time frame but that also helps us to get an edge into our investment. So that we require to have a keen understanding of all and focus on it for taking benefits.

Disclosure – Companies mentioned in the article are just for an example & educational purpose. It is not a buy/sell/ hold recommendation. 

Read for more detail: Mastering The Market Cycle: Getting the odds on your side by Mr.Howard Marks

The Intelligent Investor 7 Portfolio Policy for the Enterprising Investor: The Positive Side

Enterprising investors are willing to put more attention and efforts for generating a higher return.

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Generally, an intelligent investor buys and keep holding common stock when it has a cheapness and they sell a common stock when it becomes overpriced. After selling off the stock they transfer to the bond and wait till another opportunity of common stock available with the cheapness.

General Market Policy—Formula Timing

This is an approach of investing timing of the market. The market keeps on fluctuating and taking a benefit of those fluctuations to our favor adds additional value. It is very difficult to forecast the future market level for a consistent period. When we look back towards any situation then it looks easier to predict but when we are passing through the situation then it is very difficult to predict.

Growth-Stock Approach

Growth stocks are the companies which have shown a growth better than an average. The problem with such kind of companies is they have given good growth into the past and we have to assume that they will keep on doing the same into the future. But such kind of stocks selection needs huge careful attention from the investors. As the bigger companies start to grow at a slower pace compared to the smaller companies. But it is also a fact that if the company is a leader with the availability of competitive advantage in the market then it has a huge probability of growth. We need to careful with what we are paying for buying a growth. If we pay a sky-high price for the prevailing growth then also, we have to suffer through the company grows.

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If we have proven wrong with our assumption of future growth and also, we have paid a higher amount for the business, then it will be a dangerously affect to our wealth. Growth stocks can create our fortune or can spoil our fortune. If our assumption for the future growth proven right and also, we have bought the stock at a proper valuation then fortune into the growth stock can be created. Many times, the company has a temporary problem, then it will be available at a relatively cheaper valuation. When larger companies have adversity, they have a resource and brainpower to come out from the adversity and market responds quickly to such improvement to the larger company.

One of the two-wheeler company of India

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The company which has a negative cash conversion cycle, availability of float, market leader since many decades, traded at 10%+ of earning yield with higher return ratio, market participants having a fear of electric vehicle disruption.

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One of the MNC FMCG company of India

Company’s one of the flagship product got banned which contributes decent revenue to the company. Also, no other competitor gets success in the same product at the same level. Company has a higher return ratio, good brand over the globe, successful track record.

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Mr. Graham mentioned regarding a cyclical business

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We need to bought such businesses during the bad time at higher multiplier and need to sell it at a good time at a lower multiplier. During the bad time, the profitability of the company gets depressed which resulted in the higher multiple to the company and reversely, when time is good, profitability gets improvement which resulted in the lower multiple.

One of the sugar company

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When we want to get an above-average return into the investment, then our investment needs to be proper, sound enough to avoid risk and we need to adopt a policy which is different from most of the investors or speculators are using.

Bargain issues are those which are selling below its true worth. Now, for calculation of bargain – first, we need to forecast future earnings and giving it an appropriate multiple for arriving at a future market price. If the current market price seems lower than future market price then we can consider it as a bargain common stock. And second, where we need to focus more on the net realization of the asset value and net working capital (Working capital – all obligations) with the growth into the future earnings. Also, the current result is disappointing (future result can be improved) and unpopularity among the stock price creates a bargain opportunity. During a bear run, people do not focus on the companies which are not a leader, because they have a fear and belief that leader can provide safety. So that companies other than leaders will be available at a cheaper bargain price. We should focus that whether these companies can generate a fair return on invested capital or not and whether that generated return will be above the cost of capital or not. Such companies require a bull market, changes in policies, changes to the management, acquisition of smaller bargain companies by a larger one, etc. for reaching the fair valuation.

A special situation is also one of the ways to create a return on our investment. Special situations are different from the usual part of investing. Here, we need a different kind of process and different level of mentality compared to the usual one. This strategy includes demerger, merger, arbitrage, delisting, buyback, right issues, etc.

When we select to be an aggressive investor rather than a defensive investor then we require a thorough knowledge of businesses, how to value it etc. There is not a middle way between aggressive and defensive investment. And those who are involved in the middle way, they get a disappointment to the result due to the lack of requiring time and knowledge.

Disclosure – Companies mentioned in the article is just for an example & educational purpose. It is not a buy/sell/ hold recommendation. 

Read for more detail: The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham, Jason Zweig