Equity master questions
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Hello Everyone
My two cents on how one should choose research service and my opinion on Equity Master, hope this helps.
I have been an EquityMaster subscriber for over 5 years now, I am fairly satisfied but started growing lately. I last renewed in year 2011 Dec, and I am not renewing my subscription this year, even if it was available free to cost to me.
Supricption cost should not be and is never a criteria when choosing a service like this, investors will be willing to pay any amount as long as such research gives positive returns, of course after adjusting the absolute returns taking into account the cost of such research. So, if EM was to offer the same service with 80% accuracy, as they claim, I would be willing to pay more. EM provides research service to retail investors and retails investors do not have as much understanding of the markets as institutional investors.
The major problem I see in Equity Master is the sheer amount of research you get, all with a buy rating and as per my experience less than 50% of their research hit the target. The trick lies in choosing from amongst what they have recommended, as not all recommendations will hit the target. So, with so many recommendation choosing the right one is crucial, especially for retail investor.
Another problem is, since they have promised to deliver weekly/monthly research they abide by it no matter what the market condition is, so they end up recommending many stocks at very high valuation , which savvy investors will avoid but others will fall for. Sure, many of EM’s research have returned very high returns but they too far less compare to the number of years they have been offering this service.
So if a few stocks returned 400%, 300%, 500% as they claim in every newsletter, those are absolute point to point returns over a period of 4-5 years. Returns of 400% over a period of 3 years would only mean 49% annual return (CAGR), so their claims are misleading. Recommending 52 reports in a year to retail client is not very appropriate.
Over the period I have grown skeptical about the quality of research and future of Equity Master, as every month I get an email claiming this is the last chance for us to subscribe and the following month they come up with a subscription price offer much lower to current offerings. Their “extremely long” newsletters about offers have me worried, it comes across as they are trying to hard to make other believe how good they “were”, in the past as in the last 6 months they have pulled back on almost 60% of the recommendations saying they do not believe in the prospects of the company anymore, risky move…hint hint.. this is what happens when you publish reports just because you have to publish, imagine those who invested in such companies only to relaise they have lost money and there is no hope of recovery.
They do not offer any trail, the money back guarantee of 30days is a joke in itself, EM is long term research service one cannot form an opinion with just one month subscription.
On the other hand I have come across an extremly professional research firm, J P Financial & Investment services www.jpfis.com they do have similar products and carries similar risks as any stock recommendation service carries as stated in their service disclaimer.
Good point is, they do not provide as many research as EM does, so I have more faith and confidence. If markets are volatile or at high valuation they steer clear of it and do not recommend stocks during such period.
They offer free unlimited demo account on live research for investors to monitors, track and access their performance for indefinite time …its worth looking. But the research service cost is high @ Rs. 3000/- per year.
Best of luck!
My two cents on how one should choose research service and my opinion on Equity Master, hope this helps.
I have been an EquityMaster subscriber for over 5 years now, I am fairly satisfied but started growing lately. I last renewed in year 2011 Dec, and I am not renewing my subscription this year, even if it was available free to cost to me.
Supricption cost should not be and is never a criteria when choosing a service like this, investors will be willing to pay any amount as long as such research gives positive returns, of course after adjusting the absolute returns taking into account the cost of such research. So, if EM was to offer the same service with 80% accuracy, as they claim, I would be willing to pay more. EM provides research service to retail investors and retails investors do not have as much understanding of the markets as institutional investors.
The major problem I see in Equity Master is the sheer amount of research you get, all with a buy rating and as per my experience less than 50% of their research hit the target. The trick lies in choosing from amongst what they have recommended, as not all recommendations will hit the target. So, with so many recommendation choosing the right one is crucial, especially for retail investor.
Another problem is, since they have promised to deliver weekly/monthly research they abide by it no matter what the market condition is, so they end up recommending many stocks at very high valuation , which savvy investors will avoid but others will fall for. Sure, many of EM’s research have returned very high returns but they too far less compare to the number of years they have been offering this service.
So if a few stocks returned 400%, 300%, 500% as they claim in every newsletter, those are absolute point to point returns over a period of 4-5 years. Returns of 400% over a period of 3 years would only mean 49% annual return (CAGR), so their claims are misleading. Recommending 52 reports in a year to retail client is not very appropriate.
Over the period I have grown skeptical about the quality of research and future of Equity Master, as every month I get an email claiming this is the last chance for us to subscribe and the following month they come up with a subscription price offer much lower to current offerings. Their “extremely long” newsletters about offers have me worried, it comes across as they are trying to hard to make other believe how good they “were”, in the past as in the last 6 months they have pulled back on almost 60% of the recommendations saying they do not believe in the prospects of the company anymore, risky move…hint hint.. this is what happens when you publish reports just because you have to publish, imagine those who invested in such companies only to relaise they have lost money and there is no hope of recovery.
They do not offer any trail, the money back guarantee of 30days is a joke in itself, EM is long term research service one cannot form an opinion with just one month subscription.
On the other hand I have come across an extremly professional research firm, J P Financial & Investment services www.jpfis.com they do have similar products and carries similar risks as any stock recommendation service carries as stated in their service disclaimer.
Good point is, they do not provide as many research as EM does, so I have more faith and confidence. If markets are volatile or at high valuation they steer clear of it and do not recommend stocks during such period.
They offer free unlimited demo account on live research for investors to monitors, track and access their performance for indefinite time …its worth looking. But the research service cost is high @ Rs. 3000/- per year.
Best of luck!
Dear Sir,
Thank you for your post on Equitymaster.
With reference to your queries, allow us to answer them one by one:
Yes, at the outset, the total number of recommendations that we make for all our three services combined i.e. stock select, mid cap select and hidden treasure, would indeed look large. But this is only a part of the story. Please be noted that of the several recommendations that we make in stock select and mid cap select, quite a few are also SELL recommendations. Thus, our overall BUY or HOLD recommendations are really not that many. Besides, we pride ourselves on the fact that unlike majority of the research service providers out there, we are with our subscribers all through the way. In other words, we have seldom left our subscribers high and dry on any of our recommendations. Once we give a BUY or a HOLD we follow it up until we give a SELL. And we are extremely honest about this irrespective of whether the stock meets our target price or not. Thus, our total number of recommendations may look daunting at first but since quite of few of them are also SELL calls, which in our view is extremely important, actionable recommendations are not that many.
It is also not true that we recommend stocks left right and center and do not worry about market levels or valuations. There have been many occasions where we have initiated coverage with a SELL and we also ask our subscribers to invest in a stock only if the stock falls by a few percentage points. We follow a strict value investing approach and thus, the valuation level at which one enters a stock is of utmost importance to us. Thus, we would never hesitate to ask our subscribers to enter a stock at a lower price even though the stock has good growth prospects and robust business model. Thus, to make a blanket statement that we are forced to make a recommendation every week is really unfair according to us.
Also, while a few of our stocks have gone on to become multi baggers, we have never said the same to be the norm rather than the exception. In fact, we go to great lengths to mention in each and every one of our promos that one should not expect returns of more than 15%-18% compounded from a stock over a long term period. Thus, the accusation of our promos being misleading is not correct.
Lastly, one can clearly go into our recommendation history and find out how we managed to stay objective through both bull and bear markets as our stock selection process helped us to avoid bad business models and overvalued stocks during the 2007-08 correction and recommend good quality stocks during 2009 when the overall market was trading at attractive valuations and practically everyone had turned bearish.
This is not to say that we do not make mistakes. Of course we do and we mention the same in all our promotions. But rest assured that we are taking all our lessons to heart and hope to give our subscribers even better results in the years to come.
thanking you,
Sonal Ramachandran
CS & VP - Compliance
Equitymaster Agora Research Private Limited
Thank you for your post on Equitymaster.
With reference to your queries, allow us to answer them one by one:
Yes, at the outset, the total number of recommendations that we make for all our three services combined i.e. stock select, mid cap select and hidden treasure, would indeed look large. But this is only a part of the story. Please be noted that of the several recommendations that we make in stock select and mid cap select, quite a few are also SELL recommendations. Thus, our overall BUY or HOLD recommendations are really not that many. Besides, we pride ourselves on the fact that unlike majority of the research service providers out there, we are with our subscribers all through the way. In other words, we have seldom left our subscribers high and dry on any of our recommendations. Once we give a BUY or a HOLD we follow it up until we give a SELL. And we are extremely honest about this irrespective of whether the stock meets our target price or not. Thus, our total number of recommendations may look daunting at first but since quite of few of them are also SELL calls, which in our view is extremely important, actionable recommendations are not that many.
It is also not true that we recommend stocks left right and center and do not worry about market levels or valuations. There have been many occasions where we have initiated coverage with a SELL and we also ask our subscribers to invest in a stock only if the stock falls by a few percentage points. We follow a strict value investing approach and thus, the valuation level at which one enters a stock is of utmost importance to us. Thus, we would never hesitate to ask our subscribers to enter a stock at a lower price even though the stock has good growth prospects and robust business model. Thus, to make a blanket statement that we are forced to make a recommendation every week is really unfair according to us.
Also, while a few of our stocks have gone on to become multi baggers, we have never said the same to be the norm rather than the exception. In fact, we go to great lengths to mention in each and every one of our promos that one should not expect returns of more than 15%-18% compounded from a stock over a long term period. Thus, the accusation of our promos being misleading is not correct.
Lastly, one can clearly go into our recommendation history and find out how we managed to stay objective through both bull and bear markets as our stock selection process helped us to avoid bad business models and overvalued stocks during the 2007-08 correction and recommend good quality stocks during 2009 when the overall market was trading at attractive valuations and practically everyone had turned bearish.
This is not to say that we do not make mistakes. Of course we do and we mention the same in all our promotions. But rest assured that we are taking all our lessons to heart and hope to give our subscribers even better results in the years to come.
thanking you,
Sonal Ramachandran
CS & VP - Compliance
Equitymaster Agora Research Private Limited
Greetings from Equitymaster Mr Saravanan.
Firstly, we would like to thank you for trying our stock recommendation service in the past and acknowledging our efforts in empowering investors with fundamental research.
We regret that your experience wasnt up to your expectations; however, we assure you that we strive hard to improve on our service consistently. So, if you decide to reenter the stock market through equities, please do reconsider us.
As for the derivative subscription you referred to
Yes, there have been times wherein our trade-picks did not perform as we expected them to. And there was indeed a phase when the overall track record suffered (the promotion which you may be referring to clearly mentions this).
However, we are glad to share that the bounce back for Asad, our top derivatives analyst and Chief Editor of The Lucrative Derivatives Report, has been extraordinary
As of today, 16 out of the last 20 closed positions (thats 80%) in the Lucrative Derivative Report have gone on to make money for the investors.
We hope this clarifies the point you have raised.
In conclusion, we again encourage you to read the promotion you have been referring to again. All these facts are mentioned there itself.
If you have any further queries, you can email us at [email protected] or call us at +91-22-61434055.
Wishing you a Profitable 2013.
Sonal Ramachandran
CS& VP - Compliance
Equitymaster Agora Research Private Limited
Firstly, we would like to thank you for trying our stock recommendation service in the past and acknowledging our efforts in empowering investors with fundamental research.
We regret that your experience wasnt up to your expectations; however, we assure you that we strive hard to improve on our service consistently. So, if you decide to reenter the stock market through equities, please do reconsider us.
As for the derivative subscription you referred to
Yes, there have been times wherein our trade-picks did not perform as we expected them to. And there was indeed a phase when the overall track record suffered (the promotion which you may be referring to clearly mentions this).
However, we are glad to share that the bounce back for Asad, our top derivatives analyst and Chief Editor of The Lucrative Derivatives Report, has been extraordinary
As of today, 16 out of the last 20 closed positions (thats 80%) in the Lucrative Derivative Report have gone on to make money for the investors.
We hope this clarifies the point you have raised.
In conclusion, we again encourage you to read the promotion you have been referring to again. All these facts are mentioned there itself.
If you have any further queries, you can email us at [email protected] or call us at +91-22-61434055.
Wishing you a Profitable 2013.
Sonal Ramachandran
CS& VP - Compliance
Equitymaster Agora Research Private Limited
(wishful thinking, but no harm in asking As an previous subscriber to EquityMaster services, I mostly agree to the post of Jasmine Sharma. Based on my experience with them, can say that I do beleive that EquityMaster is one of the most ethical advisory service. However, as far as the actual experience is concerned, it was not upto expectations, and I discontinued my subscription as considering the number of stocks they recommended, it hardly make any sense to invest in them all.
Another flaw rightly pointed out is that as a fundamental research service, the drawback is that stocks continuted to be recommended even when the market is in an overall decline.
Again about the the promo offers, I was a bit surprised to see it in that format, as it seemed to be too good to be true with the report highlighting the multibaggers. If you have to highlight, it shoudl be basis last 5 years perfomance of each stock recommended, YOY return (to see drawdown in bear market), % of winners, % of loosers, % gain, % lost etc. EquityMaster should not be selective with facts like snake oil salesmen, but their promo made it seem so.
In my view, EquityMaster should seek feedback of their service from the customers to address these and improve its services.
Another flaw rightly pointed out is that as a fundamental research service, the drawback is that stocks continuted to be recommended even when the market is in an overall decline.
Again about the the promo offers, I was a bit surprised to see it in that format, as it seemed to be too good to be true with the report highlighting the multibaggers. If you have to highlight, it shoudl be basis last 5 years perfomance of each stock recommended, YOY return (to see drawdown in bear market), % of winners, % of loosers, % gain, % lost etc. EquityMaster should not be selective with facts like snake oil salesmen, but their promo made it seem so.
In my view, EquityMaster should seek feedback of their service from the customers to address these and improve its services.
Quite clearly Jasmine_sharma is a fake/temp ID created by an insider from ... what was it... jpfis... just plain old silly.
She brick bats EquityMaster first and then recommends another service. LOL!
EM is a service for a very particular kind of investor, a knowledgeable one and a patient one. They are thorough professionals. I could not relate to their products because I am not a long term investor. But, their approach is very sound for one.
They recently started a derivatives section, which has not caught on. But, due to their strong belief in their principles, in due time it will. The best part is at least they are not linked to any broker for tie-ups in commissions.
regards.
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