Has anyone tried Equitymaster.com?

DSM

Well-Known Member
#2
I had subscribed in the past. I do not consider them as provider of tips, as they do research, and recommend INVESTING. The holding period will be quite long. Considering that we are in a bullish phase, it would not hurt to subscribe to their research report (especially for small and mid caps). The plus factor for Equitymaster is that they are one of the most ethical research houses, and do not generally recommend a script unless they meet and talk to the management. All their recommendations are based on fundamental research.

Having said that, they have of late started giving calls or tips on options and derivatives, having tied up with one Asad Dossani. I would not subscribe to the derivatives section though. (And presently am not a subscriber to their investing research reports as well)

How are their services and tips?

Any inputs / reviews?
 

TracerBullet

Well-Known Member
#3
Is it ethical to keep bombarding with marketing emails and sometimes calls/messages asking for subscription to other services even after you have subscribed to one report already? They keep coming up with a new service every six months instead of focussing on few.

Is it ethical to recommend a newsletter (Bonner if i remember right) who kept recommending to buy gold (~30k) at the height of pessimism in stocks (~15k sensex) and height of optimism in gold. During euro crisis, i remember they sent many newsletters that would give fear to most people. And then Mr Dayal comes up with a stupid 30k sensex prediction after an upmove(sensex at ~20k) and fell flat on his face. In hindsight, simple thing to do is to accumulate good stocks during bear markets whenever they crash. They never had a decent portfolio plan to take advantage of the pessimism.

Their calls are nothing great. They do seem to show some effort into creating reports but i dont know if they are any better than others ( they are the only ones i subscribed ).
StockSelect - they will give you many recommendations - some work some fail. Recently they have started give top 5 stocks to focus on but i dont really follow them now. Their follow up advice up has not been good enough.
Ex BHEL - completey messed up. First Recommended at 400(~27 pe i think) - gave an article just a week or so before recommendation saying how much FIIs would love to buy more of it) and then again around 200-250. Then they tell to not buy anymore at around 170 ( maybe sell - dont remember). Funny thing was that there was only few months gap between buy and not buy call for BHEL and their projections went upside down. Eventually it goes to 100 and then jumps back. Similary corporation bank and many more. Some ofc have turned alright, but nothing great.
I remember MidcapSelect/Hidden Treasure, which i didnt subscribe, had many reported mega failures. They ofcourse dont tell that in their adverts.

They now say to have a portfolio of 20+ stocks with not more than 5% each. It may be sound advice for diversification, but how am i to track and manage so many stocks? Why dont i just put that money in good Mutual Funds? Will i beat MF with their recommendations? I suspect not, How do i choose stocks from their recommendations?

Sometimes i get a feeling (perhaps completely unfounded) that all of these recommendation services are proxies of other institutions and they all lead the herds to occasional slaughter (buy wockhardt just before crash recently etc). Ofcourse not every call has to be like that.

Anyway, its your call - i dont bother with them anymore. In fact i realize now that stock selection and portolio management needs a lot of study and even then you may not beat good mutual funds, certainly not in near future. I rather just focus on trading and use MF with long term record. MFs have done well for me even if i messed up in investing at the wrong time many times thanks to my stupidity and sometimes with the help of mr dayal and company :)
 

Biker

Active Member
#4
Thanks TracerBullet and DSM for your inputs. The which turned me off was their careers section (oh yes).. when I saw that they are recruiting analysts with 2-3 yrs of experience.

Anyways I have sent an email to them to send me performance of their recommendations since last 3 yrs. Lets see if they have guts to show their performance.
 

umeshmandal

Well-Known Member
#5
Thanks TracerBullet and DSM for your inputs. The which turned me off was their careers section (oh yes).. when I saw that they are recruiting analysts with 2-3 yrs of experience.

Anyways I have sent an email to them to send me performance of their recommendations since last 3 yrs. Lets see if they have guts to show their performance.
There is another problem.... suppose you subscribe their service for an year in 2009 and they recommend say : Buy MIC electronics @ 37! You enter the stock. Their target is far away when your Subscription ends. Now what? You either keep it holding waiting for the target or 'do your own research' to either exit or hold ! Its your luck if it hits target of 105/-
You are not satisfied with their services but still renew it for 2010 waiting for things to turn better which they donot and so you do not renew thereafter. What about the stocks already held? In case of MIC suppose they were still advising HOLD till the time you you were subscriber. The price of MIC goes down to ~Rs.2.00 and you are in a fix what to do, you can neither hold on nor exit! (It becomes a dilli ka laddoo) However you are not aware that EqM has already advised exit at around 16 or 18 , 50% below entry!
This is my own story ! :D
Another thing : They advise a stock to Buy at a price much below CMP and when price rises, they record the CMP on the day of their recomendation as "entry" rates.
As DSM said, their research is immaculate ! Any TS who wish to get a Short list of stocks as per Fundamental view, EqM is best to Subscribe! A TA can decide on a Stock to invest and then time the market /entry!
I had suggested to them to track the Stocks recomended to a Subscriber during his enrolled period, and after he exits, send him a mail when these Stocks are suggested to EXIT, this could be an excellent add on value for Subscriber! No need for regular update just an exit notice!
 

SaravananKS

Well-Known Member
#6
There is another problem.... suppose you subscribe their service for an year in 2009 and they recommend say : Buy MIC electronics @ 37! You enter the stock. Their target is far away when your Subscription ends. Now what? You either keep it holding waiting for the target or 'do your own research' to either exit or hold ! Its your luck if it hits target of 105/-
You are not satisfied with their services but still renew it for 2010 waiting for things to turn better which they donot and so you do not renew thereafter. What about the stocks already held? In case of MIC suppose they were still advising HOLD till the time you you were subscriber. The price of MIC goes down to ~Rs.2.00 and you are in a fix what to do, you can neither hold on nor exit! (It becomes a dilli ka laddoo) However you are not aware that EqM has already advised exit at around 16 or 18 , 50% below entry!
This is my own story ! :D
Another thing : They advise a stock to Buy at a price much below CMP and when price rises, they record the CMP on the day of their recomendation as "entry" rates.
As DSM said, their research is immaculate ! Any TS who wish to get a Short list of stocks as per Fundamental view, EqM is best to Subscribe! A TA can decide on a Stock to invest and then time the market /entry!
I had suggested to them to track the Stocks recomended to a Subscriber during his enrolled period, and after he exits, send him a mail when these Stocks are suggested to EXIT, this could be an excellent add on value for Subscriber! No need for regular update just an exit notice!
EQM is not running based on its advisory service for retail segment. They are
Just sharing their documents what they prepared for their Own Funds(Like MF) and investment.I believe an Average Subscriber can get less return comparing to an Average Invested who invested in their Quantum Long-Term Equity Fund (G)



if we deduct the Subscription charges it will be more poor return comparing to their own fund

For a Fund Manager their target is to beat their bench mark performance over the period.

similarly An investor should have target to beat best of Mutual funds over the periods

I don't think it is not possible based on equitymaster recommendation though their fund one of best performer
 

Biker

Active Member
#7
EQM is not running based on its advisory service for retail segment. They are
Just sharing their documents what they prepared for their Own Funds(Like MF) and investment.I believe an Average Subscriber can get less return comparing to an Average Invested who invested in their Quantum Long-Term Equity Fund (G)
Is Equitymaster running any mutual fund? I didnt knew tht..
 

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