As one of my friends pointed out, you won’t realize your weakness unless you take the test. I took a Princeton test and here are the results.
Score - 570
Quant - 44
Verbal - 23
Not an impressive score for sure, but learned a couple of things and hence strategize my preparation plans.
1) Need to improve my patience level as well as stamina. So I have decided to take tests on every weekend simulating the original test atmosphere.
2) Improve RC and CR --> Practice, Practice and Practice. Kaplan should be a good bet for RC and CR.
3) Keep doing short tests in RC, CR and SC - This will help me to stick on with time limit and plot an accuracy graph. Need to touch 90% accuracy consistently before Apr 20th.
4) Quants - A score of 50 is quite achievable. Will start doing tougher questions from the CAT papers.
The clock is ticking...
At last I have decided to book my dates for GMAT. The D day is on Apr 20th, 2007. Oh boy, the clock is ticking and I need to gear up, only 73 days left. I was little superstitious and hence avoided Tuesdays for the test date :-). Added a counter in my blog to keep myself motivated and not to loose focus.
Folks, pray for me, I don’t want to screw this up and go through the same pro
cess again.
The good news is out. I am getting married to Dhanya on Apr 29th. Too many things to be planned starting with design of the invitation cards to the first night :-)
All are invited. One of our engagement snaps attached..
Other things which happened in the last few days
* Got through all the vagaries of the H1 visa approval and hence will be back in US by mid of May.
* Company is planning to send me for SQL Server 2005 training, which will go into my resume as a bullet point.
* My manager agreed to change my dell DL100 laptop to a lighter one.
* My fiancée is out today for jewellery shopping. Hope she gets a bag full of it and I can fund my education fees with that :-)
* Had a nice booze party yesterday and at last ended up breaking a beer bottle.
* As I was watching the Sunday noon movie, the power went off. Later realized that its not a blackout and its just for us. Ok, let’s check this out. Someone removed the fuse and disconnected the power cable to our house. Oh god!!! We haven’t paid the electricity bills for the last 2 months. They could have waited till the end of the movie.. I was watching Mammottys king :-)
Folks, pray for me, I don’t want to screw this up and go through the same pro
cess again.The good news is out. I am getting married to Dhanya on Apr 29th. Too many things to be planned starting with design of the invitation cards to the first night :-)
All are invited. One of our engagement snaps attached..
Other things which happened in the last few days
* Got through all the vagaries of the H1 visa approval and hence will be back in US by mid of May.
* Company is planning to send me for SQL Server 2005 training, which will go into my resume as a bullet point.
* My manager agreed to change my dell DL100 laptop to a lighter one.
* My fiancée is out today for jewellery shopping. Hope she gets a bag full of it and I can fund my education fees with that :-)
* Had a nice booze party yesterday and at last ended up breaking a beer bottle.
* As I was watching the Sunday noon movie, the power went off. Later realized that its not a blackout and its just for us. Ok, let’s check this out. Someone removed the fuse and disconnected the power cable to our house. Oh god!!! We haven’t paid the electricity bills for the last 2 months. They could have waited till the end of the movie.. I was watching Mammottys king :-)
The life cycle of a stock
Recently I read a very good article titled "The key to the big money" published by Mike Swanson. He is the author of the Wall Street window. His ambition was to become a history professor and was more interested with the historical events, to be precise, the behind scenes of these events. Over a period of time, he felt the need to learn economics and slowly developed interests in the financial markets.
What a nice way to enter the stock market from historical events to economics and to financial markets!!!!. The author highly recommends the book "Secrets for Profiting in Bull and Bear Markets." by Stan Weinstein and I have started my quest for that :-)
I read part 1 and 2 of the same article and I am waiting for the rest. The article put in simple terms takes you through the life cycle of a stock in the stock market. In a glimpse, it talks about the different stages a stock goes through, the parties involved, support and resistance levels of a stock, volume it trades and in the end, the average investor always loose money.
The stock price depends on the basic supply and demand equation. As the demand for the stock goes up (there are more buyers in the market compared to the sellers) the stock value goes up and visa versa. For any stock there is a resistance level and a support level. Resistance level is the level above which it’s difficult for the stock to go up and the support is the level below which it’s difficult for the stock to go down. To put it in other terms, the support is the level at which there is a great demand for the stock and hence a lot of buying will happen. So it’s difficult for the stock to come further down. Resistance is the level at which sellers are more inclined to sell the stock and hence it’s difficult for the stock to go up.
The idea here is to identify the trend a stock follows and invest depending on that. As per Weinstein, the stock has the following four phases as shown.
* - This graph is directly taken from the published article.
1) Stage 1 ** Stock accumulation **
Usually this stage is started after a long decline of the stock. During this period the stock is kind of dead, not much activity, no big news, no big volumes and the demand - supply is almost even. The big guys (insiders and the institutions) with smart money identify the potential of a stock and its bright future towards the end of this phase. Me as an average investor, doesn’t have access to the knowledge base which the big guys are having and hence ignorant about the future prospects. Towards the end of the stage, the stock moves from the average investors to the big guy’s hand. They will start accumulating and slowly you can see the volumes picking up.
2) Stage 2 ** Mark up **
Now starts the fun. During the end of stage 1, the stock starts moving up. The smart money is in and there are no sellers. This breaks the resistance levels and the stock moves up. At this point, most of the stock holding is with the big guys. As the stock moves up, the fight starts between the big guys for accumulation and the stock further goes up. Now the good news about the particular stock is out and the stock brokers/analysts put a buy recommendation. Average investor sees this and starts buying at the peak price. End of the stage 2.
3) Stage 3 **Stock Distribution**
The stock is highly priced and there are lots of individual investors (guys like me :-( ) as the buyers. As the time goes, the stock stops advancing due to various reasons like the good news about the company is forgotten, the stock is heavily priced etc. The smart folks decide to sell the stocks and book the profit. End of Stage 3.
4) Stage 4 **Stock Liquidation**
Stage 4 starts with the prices coming down. There are more sellers than buyers and price keeps falling. The average investor keeps buying at each correction thinking that it will go back up. For the average investor, the start of this stage still looks good as the companies fundamentals are good, growth prospects are healthy etc. Even the brokers /analysts have the buy recommendation on it. Phase 4 ends with the average investor holding the stocks bought at the peak. Over a period of time, the average investor sells it in panic and this cycle continues.
During this cycle, the best time to buy is the start of stage 2. The average investor doesn’t have access to the information to identify whether the stock is at stage 2 or not. We can identify this cycle by watching the volumes and looking out for the big players.
The article ends with the following logic, it’s always better to follow the smart guys instead of the analysts / brokers. I always used to select a stock taking into account the fundamentals of the company but now after reading this article, I started appreciating the beauty of technical analysis and charting. I am waiting for the next parts of the same article. Will keep you posted.
What a nice way to enter the stock market from historical events to economics and to financial markets!!!!. The author highly recommends the book "Secrets for Profiting in Bull and Bear Markets." by Stan Weinstein and I have started my quest for that :-)
I read part 1 and 2 of the same article and I am waiting for the rest. The article put in simple terms takes you through the life cycle of a stock in the stock market. In a glimpse, it talks about the different stages a stock goes through, the parties involved, support and resistance levels of a stock, volume it trades and in the end, the average investor always loose money.
The stock price depends on the basic supply and demand equation. As the demand for the stock goes up (there are more buyers in the market compared to the sellers) the stock value goes up and visa versa. For any stock there is a resistance level and a support level. Resistance level is the level above which it’s difficult for the stock to go up and the support is the level below which it’s difficult for the stock to go down. To put it in other terms, the support is the level at which there is a great demand for the stock and hence a lot of buying will happen. So it’s difficult for the stock to come further down. Resistance is the level at which sellers are more inclined to sell the stock and hence it’s difficult for the stock to go up.
The idea here is to identify the trend a stock follows and invest depending on that. As per Weinstein, the stock has the following four phases as shown.
* - This graph is directly taken from the published article.
1) Stage 1 ** Stock accumulation **
Usually this stage is started after a long decline of the stock. During this period the stock is kind of dead, not much activity, no big news, no big volumes and the demand - supply is almost even. The big guys (insiders and the institutions) with smart money identify the potential of a stock and its bright future towards the end of this phase. Me as an average investor, doesn’t have access to the knowledge base which the big guys are having and hence ignorant about the future prospects. Towards the end of the stage, the stock moves from the average investors to the big guy’s hand. They will start accumulating and slowly you can see the volumes picking up.
2) Stage 2 ** Mark up **
Now starts the fun. During the end of stage 1, the stock starts moving up. The smart money is in and there are no sellers. This breaks the resistance levels and the stock moves up. At this point, most of the stock holding is with the big guys. As the stock moves up, the fight starts between the big guys for accumulation and the stock further goes up. Now the good news about the particular stock is out and the stock brokers/analysts put a buy recommendation. Average investor sees this and starts buying at the peak price. End of the stage 2.
3) Stage 3 **Stock Distribution**
The stock is highly priced and there are lots of individual investors (guys like me :-( ) as the buyers. As the time goes, the stock stops advancing due to various reasons like the good news about the company is forgotten, the stock is heavily priced etc. The smart folks decide to sell the stocks and book the profit. End of Stage 3.
4) Stage 4 **Stock Liquidation**
Stage 4 starts with the prices coming down. There are more sellers than buyers and price keeps falling. The average investor keeps buying at each correction thinking that it will go back up. For the average investor, the start of this stage still looks good as the companies fundamentals are good, growth prospects are healthy etc. Even the brokers /analysts have the buy recommendation on it. Phase 4 ends with the average investor holding the stocks bought at the peak. Over a period of time, the average investor sells it in panic and this cycle continues.
During this cycle, the best time to buy is the start of stage 2. The average investor doesn’t have access to the information to identify whether the stock is at stage 2 or not. We can identify this cycle by watching the volumes and looking out for the big players.
The article ends with the following logic, it’s always better to follow the smart guys instead of the analysts / brokers. I always used to select a stock taking into account the fundamentals of the company but now after reading this article, I started appreciating the beauty of technical analysis and charting. I am waiting for the next parts of the same article. Will keep you posted.
Party time
After meeting Arun, I met George at the Oberoi hotel around 9pm. We took couple of beers along with chicken Chettinad(oh!!! real spicy) and talked for a while. Talked about all crazy stuff on earth like career goals, night party adventures, personal life blah blah...
The day before, George met a guy at the Etheena club in Leela palace and got an invite for the fashion party conducted by a Bollywood actor. We went there and it was unbelievable. There was a dance going on the stage. The girls were on bikinis, totally exposed and dancing in front of high society crowd of 300 people (of course all drunk !!).There were some Russian models and other girls who flew from outside India. Guys believe me; I have seen such stuff in US but not in India. Due to some technical reasons, I cannot post the photos taken during the party but shoot me a personal mail, I will share it :-). I am surprised to see things like this happening in India. I met the some new folks, all filthy rich kids, totally drunk, spending their father’s money with some girls around. At 11.30, as per the Bangalore law, they need to close down the place and hence we decided to roll.
Night is still young and the next hot destination, Club 9. Not sure why they didn’t close down the club at 11.30pm. We had some beers and then started dancing. Met some more guys & girls. I exchanged my card with a guy who is running his own software company. They are in the process of developing a product with similar functionality as Tally. Currently he is running the office from his garage. Man, I am impressed. It takes real guts to start off stuff like that after quitting a nice job. We talked for a while and he asked me whether I freelance. I was surprised by this question. I was like, you know..I have never thought about it, but then can give a shot. Just didn’t want to miss an opportunity, but then didn’t want to commit anything. He introduced me to another friend of his. Oh god!!! I really cannot remember any of these guys name. This guy is really funny and he owns a discotheque. Can you believe that? Chit chatted for a while.
It was almost 2am in the morning by the time we left the club. Came home, browsed for a while and crashed on to the bed.
The day before, George met a guy at the Etheena club in Leela palace and got an invite for the fashion party conducted by a Bollywood actor. We went there and it was unbelievable. There was a dance going on the stage. The girls were on bikinis, totally exposed and dancing in front of high society crowd of 300 people (of course all drunk !!).There were some Russian models and other girls who flew from outside India. Guys believe me; I have seen such stuff in US but not in India. Due to some technical reasons, I cannot post the photos taken during the party but shoot me a personal mail, I will share it :-). I am surprised to see things like this happening in India. I met the some new folks, all filthy rich kids, totally drunk, spending their father’s money with some girls around. At 11.30, as per the Bangalore law, they need to close down the place and hence we decided to roll.
Night is still young and the next hot destination, Club 9. Not sure why they didn’t close down the club at 11.30pm. We had some beers and then started dancing. Met some more guys & girls. I exchanged my card with a guy who is running his own software company. They are in the process of developing a product with similar functionality as Tally. Currently he is running the office from his garage. Man, I am impressed. It takes real guts to start off stuff like that after quitting a nice job. We talked for a while and he asked me whether I freelance. I was surprised by this question. I was like, you know..I have never thought about it, but then can give a shot. Just didn’t want to miss an opportunity, but then didn’t want to commit anything. He introduced me to another friend of his. Oh god!!! I really cannot remember any of these guys name. This guy is really funny and he owns a discotheque. Can you believe that? Chit chatted for a while.
It was almost 2am in the morning by the time we left the club. Came home, browsed for a while and crashed on to the bed.
and the journey begins!!!!
I am through with my diagnostic test today. Got a score of 570, not sure whether it’s a good score to start with or not. In the diagnostic test, I was tired and then somehow wanted to finish the test. Now I have realized the importance of keeping my mind concentrated during the whole exam (4hrs).
One of the great things happened today. I met my mentor Arun. He is gem of a guy. I really don’t have words to describe him. We met at a restaurant for a casual discussion on the preparation strategies, general career advice, choosing the b schools etc. I am really impressed by this guy. He has got a huge network. We spent 4.5hrs on the same table talking. One of the interesting things which came out for discussion is "Whether we need an MBA to succeed in life". He responded with a nice statement "I am married to my career but I am flirting with my MBA". Actually if you have the will to succeed, no one can stop you. But if you need an accelerated career graph or a career shift, MBA would definitely help.In the back of my mind I always had this question, whether a 40lakh MBA is worth or not (as mentioned in the earlier post). I couldn’t see a better guy to post this question. He responded back, asking me another question. How long do you plan to work in your career? I told him, may be till the age of 35-40 and then wanted to setup my own shop. So it would be like another 30years or so. The answer to my question lied in my last statement. If I am planning to work for another 30years, there is no question of whether a 40lakh MBA is worth it or not. This MBA degree will come to be of use in every phase of your career. I have never thought about the same in this perspective. To add to this, it’s a fact that, the 80% of the wealth comes from the last 15 yrs of your career.Then the discussion slowly shifted to personal life, time management, the four quadrants discussed by steven covey in 7 habits of a highly effective people. We talked about our reading habits, the forums we visit regularly, extra curricular activities, my trading strategies and interests in the stock market. He has a blog askpsycho.blogspot.com. We ended the conversation with me thanking for his time.
With god’s grace, I hope he is successful in his career and wish him all the best in his future endeavors.
One of the great things happened today. I met my mentor Arun. He is gem of a guy. I really don’t have words to describe him. We met at a restaurant for a casual discussion on the preparation strategies, general career advice, choosing the b schools etc. I am really impressed by this guy. He has got a huge network. We spent 4.5hrs on the same table talking. One of the interesting things which came out for discussion is "Whether we need an MBA to succeed in life". He responded with a nice statement "I am married to my career but I am flirting with my MBA". Actually if you have the will to succeed, no one can stop you. But if you need an accelerated career graph or a career shift, MBA would definitely help.In the back of my mind I always had this question, whether a 40lakh MBA is worth or not (as mentioned in the earlier post). I couldn’t see a better guy to post this question. He responded back, asking me another question. How long do you plan to work in your career? I told him, may be till the age of 35-40 and then wanted to setup my own shop. So it would be like another 30years or so. The answer to my question lied in my last statement. If I am planning to work for another 30years, there is no question of whether a 40lakh MBA is worth it or not. This MBA degree will come to be of use in every phase of your career. I have never thought about the same in this perspective. To add to this, it’s a fact that, the 80% of the wealth comes from the last 15 yrs of your career.Then the discussion slowly shifted to personal life, time management, the four quadrants discussed by steven covey in 7 habits of a highly effective people. We talked about our reading habits, the forums we visit regularly, extra curricular activities, my trading strategies and interests in the stock market. He has a blog askpsycho.blogspot.com. We ended the conversation with me thanking for his time.
With god’s grace, I hope he is successful in his career and wish him all the best in his future endeavors.
Is it worth?
Recently I read a very good article on career switching in Pagalguy and felt like scribbling my thoughts on this subject. As many others around, I am from the IT background. Nice job, well paid and pretty satisfied with the work. The amount of effort put in to get into a good b school is really huge. It will take at least an year starting from the preparation for GMAT, taking the exam, applying to the colleges, the research efforts to identify which all colleges to apply, the essays, recommendations etc. After doing all these things, there is no guarantee that you will get into a good college. MBA aspirants, I am not becoming a pessimist and don’t want to let you down. I am just scribbling my thoughts on this. There is fierce competition out there to get into a good b school esp. for Indian students from the IT background, which constitutes the largest pool of applicants in any international business school. To get an admission, I need to project myself different from my peers and need to convince the admission committee that I am the best candidate. So these are my challenges which I want to get through by fall of 2008 (knock on wood). After getting through, the challenges are to face the situations like out of job during the course time (1-2years), huge loan for financing the education and taking care of the family etc and the biggest challenge is to get a good job and everyone banks on this for greener pastures.
So coming back to the topic whether its worth and will it do any good for my career? Thinking about the 2-3years of effort, the debt and many other difficulties on my way, I still feel it WILL. It might take 5years to get out of the debt, but I still strongly believe it’s the best investment I am gonna make.
I know there are too many things to worry about, but the idea of change is what’s pushing me so hard to get through. One of my friends recently told a very casual statement while having a couple of beers; you cannot go wrong with education. I thought about this for a while and felt he is correct. I might have to live with the debt burden for another 5 years, but in the long term I feel I will taste the juice of success.
Meeting new people with the same wavelength of mine, understanding a new economy, being in a new country and above all back to the college life, these are some of the things which keep me inspired.
I am signing off with the few lines from Swami Vivekananda
When I asked god for strength
He gave me difficult situations to face
When I asked god for wealth
He showed me how to work hard
When I asked god for favors
He showed me opportunities to Work hard
So coming back to the topic whether its worth and will it do any good for my career? Thinking about the 2-3years of effort, the debt and many other difficulties on my way, I still feel it WILL. It might take 5years to get out of the debt, but I still strongly believe it’s the best investment I am gonna make.
I know there are too many things to worry about, but the idea of change is what’s pushing me so hard to get through. One of my friends recently told a very casual statement while having a couple of beers; you cannot go wrong with education. I thought about this for a while and felt he is correct. I might have to live with the debt burden for another 5 years, but in the long term I feel I will taste the juice of success.
Meeting new people with the same wavelength of mine, understanding a new economy, being in a new country and above all back to the college life, these are some of the things which keep me inspired.
I am signing off with the few lines from Swami Vivekananda
When I asked god for strength
He gave me difficult situations to face
When I asked god for wealth
He showed me how to work hard
When I asked god for favors
He showed me opportunities to Work hard
GMAT GMAT GMAT!!!!!
Under the mentorship of Arun, I have started my GMAT preparations. I am finding it very difficult to achieve the target of 50 questions a day, which is like 2.5-3hrs of studies. These days I have very less office work and devote most of my time reading different GMAT forums like Testmagic, Pagalguy, Scoretop etc. I felt very enthused and inspired by reading the posts in these forums and really appreciate all the efforts of sharing information by each member. You have all the information in the net and it’s only a matter of digging it to find them out.
I want to be back in college by 2008. There are lots of schools out there and I am very confused which all to look at. Forgot to mention, I applied for SPJain institute in Dubai. This institute is well rated among the other Asian peers like NUS and Melbourne University. It’s a one year course and stream specific. During the course, you spent 6 months in the Dubai campus and next 6 months in the Singapore campus. This will give you exposure to both these economies. If admitted, I will do the MBA in Investment Banking. Finance sector is hot in Dubai as well as Singapore and hence might get placed in one of these places. On the flip side, the institute is only 2 years old and the profiles getting admitted have an average work experience of 2-3 years. With 5 years of experience, I think I will be the oldest guy around :-(
On the application front, I will be getting a response by end of this month. Lets wait and watch.
I am really worried about my investments these days. The stock market is behaving crazy for the last 2-3 days. It’s shedding around 100 point’s everyday. I thought this week would be really good as the quarter results season have started. It’s the Infosys results tomorrow and the stock fell by more than 100rs in the last couple of days. God knows what’s happening...
I want to be back in college by 2008. There are lots of schools out there and I am very confused which all to look at. Forgot to mention, I applied for SPJain institute in Dubai. This institute is well rated among the other Asian peers like NUS and Melbourne University. It’s a one year course and stream specific. During the course, you spent 6 months in the Dubai campus and next 6 months in the Singapore campus. This will give you exposure to both these economies. If admitted, I will do the MBA in Investment Banking. Finance sector is hot in Dubai as well as Singapore and hence might get placed in one of these places. On the flip side, the institute is only 2 years old and the profiles getting admitted have an average work experience of 2-3 years. With 5 years of experience, I think I will be the oldest guy around :-(
On the application front, I will be getting a response by end of this month. Lets wait and watch.
I am really worried about my investments these days. The stock market is behaving crazy for the last 2-3 days. It’s shedding around 100 point’s everyday. I thought this week would be really good as the quarter results season have started. It’s the Infosys results tomorrow and the stock fell by more than 100rs in the last couple of days. God knows what’s happening...
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