‘When you wish to make God laugh, show him your business plan’.

I am sure you all have heard about this…

No this post is not about me laughing or me being God ! It is just a few cases when I laughed when I was shown the details..let me enumerate them – they are neither in chronological order or the quantum of laughter:

1. I laughed when I was told that the Maruti IPO was over-priced: I think it went up 10x of its listing price.

2. I laughed when I was told about the Reliance IPO pricing: I was willing to pay 25% of the price of NTPC. At that point in time NTPC was priced at Rs. 225 – this meant I was willing to pay about Rs. 75 (rounded off!) and not Rs. 430 which was being asked for!!

3. I laughed when a journalist called me and asked ‘What if 10 billion US $ came into the mutual fund industry?’ – this question because the great RBI had  said that the ‘limit’ of foreign money that could come was US $ 10 billion.

4. I laughed when one of the ‘Investor friendly’ listed brokers called me to sell a ‘risk-free’ 12% permanently rolling NSEL contract! I asked him how much was his company making…and then I asked him to explain risk free. He had no clue about what risk was.

5. I laughed when one 60 year old father of a 29 year old said ‘my son should not take any risk with his portfolio’ so I am investing in PPF, LIC and a house. Father is a banker, son is a PhD in statistics. Both don’t understand the U of ULIPs and their house is full of ulips…..’my bank in which I work will not give me a  bad deal no, Subra’…..I laughed again.