Investing with the signal & the noise - Episode 3 - Space X IPO
The entire world is going absolutely crazy over the rumor of a SpaceX Initial Public Offering (IPO). Financial headlines are treating it like the biggest event in market history. Mainstream media outlets are running constant calculations on how this valuation will officially make Elon Musk the world’s first trillionaire. The hype is everywhere, and the temptation to get a piece of it is incredibly strong. But as retail investors, we have to separate the loud, emotional media noise from the cold, data-driven fundamental signals. The Numbers Behi
Investing with the signal & the noise - Episode 2 - Stop Buying Gold in India?
There is a specific kind of financial comfort that comes from holding something heavy, shiny, and ancient in the palm of your hand. On May 11, 2026, Prime Minister Narendra Modi stood at a public rally and made a rare, striking appeal for “COVID-style behavioral austerity.” As the escalating war involving Iran and the U.S. severely fractured global energy supply chains, the PM explicitly urged Indian citizens to work from home, cut down on petrol and diesel consumption, postpone foreign vacations, and—most shockwaves-inducing of all—completely
Investing with the signal & the noise - Episode 1 - War in the Gulf
As we navigate late May 2026, the geopolitical landscape has shifted from regional tension to active global crisis. Following the opening salvos of Operation Epic Fury on February 28, 2026, the world economy is now grappling with the brutal financial reality of a functional blockade in the Persian Gulf. For retail investors, the ensuing smoke requires moving past broad market fear to understand the structural signals dictating new global asset valuations. Our goal remains clear: use your Brain to filter the structural reality hidden beneath imm
Investing with the Signal & the Noise - Episode 0 - Introduction
Season 1 was the classroom. We learned what money is, why inflation matters, what assets are, and how ordinary people can start putting money to work. Now comes the real world. And the real world — right now — is loud. Tariffs. Trade wars. Russia and Ukraine still at war. USA and Iran rattling sabres. Interest rates moving like a mood swing. Currencies wobbling. Every headline feels like a reason to panic. Here’s the thing though. The world has always been this loud. Nixon ended the gold standard overnight in 1971. An oil embargo tanked the eco
Fundamentals of investing - Episode 9 - Wall Street terms and meaning
You open a finance article on a Tuesday morning. The headline reads: “Hawkish Fed signals delay broad market rally as shares plummet; Nifty 50 enters correction.” You understand the words individually. Hawkish. Broad. Plummet. Correction. But strung together, it reads like a foreign language pretending to be English. Here’s the secret nobody tells you — that’s the point. Wall Street has its own dialect. Not because finance is too complex for plain English, but because complicated-sounding language keeps regular people feeling like outsiders. It
Fundamentals of Investing — Episode 8 — Planning for Retirement, the Honest Way
A 65-year-old retired schoolteacher with a steady pension can put 100% of her savings into stocks tomorrow. A 25-year-old software engineer earning twice her income probably shouldn’t. If that sentence made you stop and re-read it — good. Most of what you’ve been told about retirement planning starts with a number — your age — and works backwards. Subtract your age from 100. That’s how much you should keep in equity. The rest goes to bonds. Clean. Tidy. Wrong. Here’s the conventional wisdom you’ve probably absorbed without realising it. The you
Fundamentals of Investing — Episode 7 — Other Products of the Stock Market
At the end of Episode 6, I left you with a question. Is buying shares of a business the only way to make money in the stock market? The honest answer is no. The stock market is more like a department store than a single shelf. Stocks are just the front aisle. Walk further in and you’ll find mutual funds, index funds, ETFs, REITs, commodity products — and tucked at the very back, past several flashing warning signs, the derivatives section. Futures and options. Some of these products are genuinely useful for ordinary investors. Some are quietly
Fundamentals of Investing — Episode 6 — Reading a Company and Investing in Stocks
In Episode 5, we covered what a stock actually is — a slice of a real business with employees, products, and bills to pay. We ended with a warning. A bad business sinks your capital. A good business bought at the wrong price disappoints you for a long time. So now we get to the practical question. How does an ordinary person actually figure out what a business is worth — and whether the market is giving you a fair deal on it? 1. The $100 Stock That’s More Expensive Than the $200 Stock Quick puzzle. Company A trades at $100 per share. Company B
In Episode 4, we covered how regular people actually invest in real assets — cash, bonds, gold, real estate. We deliberately skipped one. The most talked about, most misunderstood, and arguably most powerful asset class on the list. Stocks. So let’s fix that. What are they, how do you buy them, and why do they matter for someone just trying to retire comfortably? 1. Stocks and Shares — What’s the Difference? People use these words interchangeably. They’re not exactly the same thing — but the difference is small enough that you can stop worrying
Fundamentals of Investing — Episode 4 — How to Invest in Assets
In Episode 3, we drew the line between assets and liabilities. We talked about what feeds you and what eats you. Now comes the question most personal finance articles quietly skip — okay, fine, but how do I actually buy these things? In this article, we’ll walk through how to actually invest in some of the assets we covered in Episode 3. Myth vs Reality “I Don’t Have That Kind of Money to Invest” This is one of the most common excuse people give for why they don’t invest. If you think this way then meet Mr. Ronald Read. Born in 1921, in a small
Fundamentals of Investing — Episode 3 — Assets and Liabilities
In Episode 2, we saw how Central Banks quietly chip away at the value of your cash. Inflation is the slow leak in the boat. So the obvious next question is — if cash is melting, where do I actually put my money? That’s where Assets come in. But before we talk about what to buy, we have to settle a much bigger argument — one that confuses 90% of people. What is an asset, really? Ask your neighbor, and they’ll point at their new SUV. Ask an accountant, and they’ll laugh. 1. The Simple Test: Does It Feed You, or Eat You? Forget textbooks for a sec
Fundamentals of Investing - Episode 2 - Inflation and Role of Central Banks
In our last dive, we realized that money is just a Promise of Labor. It’s a token that says, “I did some work yesterday, so I should be able to get some bread today.” But if you’ve been to a grocery store lately, you’ve noticed those tokens don’t buy as much bread as they used to. Why? Because the government and Central Banks—the “Bank of Banks”—are constantly messing with the math. To understand our bank accounts, we have to understand the two most feared words in economics: Inflation and Deflation. 1. The Bread Math: A Tale of Two Months Imag
Fundamentals of Investing - Episode 1 - What is Money?
Disclaimer: For those of you who have read my article Why Does the World Go Crazy for Gold?, the majority of the section on this article will be a repeat. Welcome to the first episode in our series on investing fundamentals. Before we can talk about stocks, bonds, or real estate, we have to understand the very foundation of the global economy: the stuff in your wallet (or on your banking app). The Circulation Paradox: The Story of the $100 Bill To understand what money actually is, consider this story of a small town in debt: A wealthy tourist
Let me tell you something most people in the finance space will never admit. I have no idea if this is going to work out. Not the podcast. Not the Substack. I mean the actual thing — the investing, the planning, the quiet hope that one day I will look at my finances and feel genuinely secure. I am not there yet. I am working toward it. And somewhere along the way, I decided that was worth writing about. Where this started I grew up in a middle class family in India. My parents worked hard their whole lives — every rupee stretched, every sacrifi
