Today's coverage from the Trader's desk is the Profit protection bias. Set up Has this ever happened to you? You identify a set up and take a position. Your execution is textbook. Limit order, stop loss, target.  The momentum favours your trade and your position is in profit.  Everything is proceeding as per your plan. Your position is profitable and you confidently move your stoploss forward.  From here, the best course of action is often to step back and let the trade play out with minimal interference. The Bias kicks in The position continues to move in your favour. Your unrealized profit grows. All of a sudden, you loose your nerve and close your position securing the profit. After all, one in hand is worth two in the bush. There is no right or wrong action here, no judgement. But it is worth asking: why did we lose our nerve? Could we have done better by simply letting the trade continue? Or, if we felt compelled to act, would it have been more prudent to trail the s...

Every losing trade begins long before the stop loss is hit. It begins with an emotional shift—from confidence to complacency, from hope to disbelief. Recognising this cycle is the first step towards breaking it. Trader's desk - pitfalls The most discussed trading pitfalls are overtrading and revenge trading. Lack of discipline in position sizing, abandoning a strategy, and failing to follow a defined process are equally common. During my trading journey, however, one pitfall I encountered repeatedly was complacency. Complacency isnt caused by successful trades. Complacency sets in when we relax risk management. Allow me to elaborate. Success Picture having a string of successful trades and/or trading days. Some scalps, some swings...overall successful. Profits are up, cash is positive and overall confidence is high.  Confidence Another trade is placed, fuelled by a growing belief that the market will behave exactly as expected. The stoploss is: either widened or not placed (naked p...

Traders's Desk In today's uncertain times, we are all trying to build a secondary income. Many refer to it as a side hustle, but for most, it is what they want to transition to eventually. For me, Its trading. Stocks, Options. Few professions have a failure rate as high as trading. Success is elusive because trading demands a mindset that is very different from most other professions. Trading skills Understanding how the stock market operates is essential. You need to understand trends, volatility, market structure, and those frustrating periods when the market simply moves sideways.   An aspiring trader can learn to read charts, identify patterns, draw trendlines, and analyse support and resistance. These are important technical skills. But technical knowledge alone isn't enough. Even a perfectly analysed trade can fail. A formula 1 driver is likely to do better than a trader. Mindset Having the right mindset for trading is very important. I place it on top of the list.  R...

Communication Growing up, our communication choices were few—telephone, letters, telegrams and fax. The options were limited, but each had a purpose. We learnt how to write letters, post cards and getting a letter was exciting. It meant you mattered to someone. As telephone calls became more affordable, it became easier to pick up the phone than put pen to paper. Slowly, personal letters became less frequent, while letterboxes began filling up with brochures, catalogues and junk mail. It was perhaps the first time a personal communication space started becoming commercial. The digital era Then came the 1990s. Email arrived, and suddenly everyone wanted an email address. Hotmail and Yahoo! were badges of the digital generation. Sharing your email ID felt modern and exciting. For a while, every email notification carried anticipation. It could be a friend, a family member or an exciting opportunity. Businesses soon recognized email's potential. Marketing budgets shifted from printed ...

The Front desk The face of a hotel. A restaurant. A spa. Delivering Impressions This is where the action is. If there's one place where the pulse of hospitality can be felt, it's the front desk. It's where first impressions are made, problems are solved, expectations are managed, and relationships begin. No road is straight some of my most valuable lessons in hospitality came from outside the industry. After spending several years in travel, I took an unexpected detour into the BPO world, handling motor insurance claims for Aviva, a leading UK general insurer. Every day, I handled between 40 and 60 customer calls from people who had just been through an accident or were dealing with the stress of an insurance claim. Sitting thousands of miles away in a different time zone, my responsibility was simple: listen, reassure, guide , and help them navigate the claims process to resolution. Our service-level agreement was 14 days. It was an eye opener in managing customer expecta...

The Mirror Maze Ever walked into a mirror maze? It can be a lot of fun. Walking along, Every step reveals a different version of you—taller, shorter, wider, distorted, multiplied. You know they're only reflections, yet for a few moments they seem real enough to make you smile. Life is something like that maze. Whatever we hold in our heart, the world reflects through its mirror. Try it out Walk into a discussion with an intent to find a solution and eventually, if not immediately, you will reach common ground.  The opposite also holds true. Walk in to a meeting with an intent to raise a dispute, when dispute is what you gonna get. (Enough Karens out there in the world) Seek peace and the immediate enviornment around you is peace. Noise from constructions, traffic, people on the road cease to be noises, they become different parts of a symphony that is our immediate world. Seek solitude, and even amidst the loudest crowd, you'll discover moments of stillness. Seek healing and yo...

Time and Markets Has this ever happened to you? You buy a stock on Day 1. By Day 2, it has rallied over 5%—sometimes even hitting the upper circuit. You sell, feeling like you've cracked the code. A day's profit that outperforms almost every other investment avenue. So you try to repeat the success. This time, however, the stock barely moves. After a couple of days, it's down 2–3%. Frustrated, you exit, convinced there's another "hot" stock waiting to be discovered. Carrot and Stick Sometimes we may feel the market is rewarding or punishing us.  But in reality, the market doesnt recognize us. The market doesn't know we exist. We're simply another buy order or sell order. Our investment may mean everything to us, but to the market, it's just another transaction. Illusion of timing Unless you are great at reading technical charts, chances of you making daily gains are loaded against you. If you try to time your entry, you may get it right a couple of...

  Sales – The Lifeline of Any Business Over the years, I have often heard people say, “I am not in sales.” My response has always been simple: If you are in business, you are in sales. Whether you are an entrepreneur building a company, a leader managing a function, or someone aspiring for a senior position, sales is integral, it is a mindset. Sales is about understanding people, identifying needs, creating value and building trust. It is about convincing customers, teams and stakeholders that what you offer matters. Every leader is constantly selling — a vision to a team, an idea to stakeholders, or a solution to a customer. My own leadership journey started with sales. The 90's - a milenium ago 😊 I began my career driving corporate awareness and business development for an airline. In the 1990s, we were the first airline to introduce Business Class on domestic routes. The challenge was not simply launching a premium product. The challenge was creating a market for it. We had to:...

WOO ! encouraging news over the weekend, with the Middle East crisis showing signs of gradual de-escalation. As a result, market optimism appears to be returning. Take note of the word optimism. In investing, optimism is often a reflection of positive market sentiment . If you're like me—or aspire to be a value investor—then sentiment should not be the primary driver of your decisions. Instead, focus on what truly matters: the fundamentals. A few years ago, I came across the concept of Coffee Can Investing. The idea is remarkably simple: identify quality businesses, invest in them, and allow time and compounding to do the heavy lifting. If you're unfamiliar with the concept, it's well worth exploring. When evaluating a stock, I like to run through a simple "Coffee Can" questionnaire: Is the company part of the Nifty 50 or Sensex 30? Is it a market leader, or at least among the top five players in its industry? Does it have a consistent dividend payme...

I re-started my investment journey 5 years back and I had to learn and re-learn some hard truths along the way. As is the world today, we’ve all seen the headlines. One day the market is soaring to new heights, and the next, it’s taking a stomach-churning dive. Investing in stocks can often feel like steering a ship through a massive storm—high risk, unpredictable, and frankly, a little terrifying. When the market tide rises and choppy waters take over, it’s easy to panic. But volatile markets don’t mean you should pack up your capital and go home. Instead, it’s time to shift your strategy from reckless sprinting to calculated navigating. Here are some of my investing rules from my playbook for de-risking  portfolio and building wealth when the market gets wild. 1. Anchor Yourself in Quality (The Blue-Chip Shield) When the waters get rough, you don’t want to be in a paper boat. De-risk your portfolio by selecting quality stocks with proven earnings and steady dividend payouts . Th...

Are we afraid of our personal legend?  Do we fear the disappointments, the heartaches, the pitfalls and ever more, are we afraid we will be successful. We will not be able to bear the weight - the crown of success, so we give up and pay the price to follow someone else's legend. We starve for heroes. Don't believe me? Look around. Warren Buffet, Steve jobs, Elon musk....the list is endless. We starve for heroes. We envy their success and hope we could be a little or a lot like them.  We want to work with big titles in big firms, because we crave that recognition, in other words, we are paying the price, we traded our dreams for a false sense of security, from fear, until the next crash or global event comes that yanks us brutally out of our stupor. Some of us learn, most of us don't.  Am I making sense? Am I writing this because I feel a false sense of bravado or because I feel at this time of my life, with more than half spent and still no sign of creating my person...

Who or What is "I"? Is " I" an alphabet or is it more than an alphabet? Does it reflect the true self or a facet of the self? How easily we use the word "I" in every sentence.  By using a verb immediately following, we either create or limit our possibilities. So is "I" the source of creation or the reason for existence? We can easily describe our emotive and physical self with "I". So is "I" a state of being or a state of physical self? We can establish our patterns, our habits. So is "I" a description or a definition? Finding "I" is as simple as we want it to be or it can take a lifetime to decipher. So is "I" the simplest of truths or the most complex of riddles? #reflections #discovery #journey #mindfulness

Social media buzz A leading business tycoon recently said that young Indians should work 70 hours a week to ensure India's progress. There was a mix of support and criticism and the debate continues. Work life balance - does it exist? So what is ideal hours to work in a week? How do you achieve the elusive work - life balance?  I don't believe there is a 'one size fits all' solution. It comes down to ethics, personal preferences and perceptions. Ethics, Preferences and Perceptions What do I mean by ethics? Ethics works both ways. If your work constantly demands you to put in more than 48 hours a week or the legal norm is, then it is only fair that compensation should be structured accordingly. Employees have an obligation to discuss their pay structure if they are consistently putting in more hours than required. Most people do work 60 hours or more. They do this either through their side business or part time job to earn extra income or because they want their passion ...

Persistence pays off, always...Well, not always. There is a counter weight, a counter balance. Persist to achieve your goals and resist the temptation to complain about the process.  Most people want something out of life but lack a concentrated effort to achieve their aims. That is perhaps why people love and adore industrialists, sports persons and film stars.  Nothing is impossible. You can achieve anything you set your mind to. Ask and it is yours...but you still need to put in the effort to get to your goal. Complaining will not solve anything. The more you complain, the more likely you will continue to face the same problems. Quit complaining, have faith and you will reach your goals. Persist and resist

Shinrin-yoku, also known as forest therapy or forest bathing, is a practice that originated in Japan in the 1980s.  It involves spending time in nature to improve physical and mental well-being. The concept is based on the idea that exposure to forest environments can have a positive impact on human health and well-being. Research has shown that spending time in nature can reduce stress and anxiety, improve mood, and boost the immune system. This is because forests emit phytoncides, a type of organic compound that plants release to protect themselves from harmful insects. These phytoncides have been shown to positively impact human health, including increasing the activity of natural killer cells, which help fight cancer and other illnesses. To practice shinrin-yoku, one simply needs to spend time in a forest, park, or other natural environment. This can be done by taking a walk, hiking, or simply sitting and enjoying the sights and sounds of nature. There is no specific way to pra...

A Go-to-Market (GTM) plan is a crucial component of any successful business strategy. It outlines the approach a company will take to bring its product or service to market and helps ensure that the company is making the most of market opportunities and avoiding potential missteps. A well-crafted GTM plan should include the following key elements: Target customer segments: The first step in developing a GTM plan is to identify your target customers. This includes defining your target audience, understanding their needs and pain points, and determining how your product or service can solve their problems. Marketing strategies: A good GTM plan should include a detailed marketing strategy that outlines how you will reach your target customers and build awareness for your brand. This may include a mix of digital and traditional marketing channels, such as email marketing, social media, advertising, and events. Sales channels: A GTM plan should also include a plan for how you will sell yo...

Tabata is a high-intensity interval training (HIIT) workout that was developed by Japanese scientist Dr. Izumi Tabata in the 1990s. It consists of 20 seconds of intense exercise followed by 10 seconds of rest, repeated for a total of 8 rounds. The workout typically lasts for just 4 minutes. Tabata is an effective way to get fit and improve your physical health, as it helps you achieve several benefits, including: Increased cardiovascular endurance: Tabata is a cardio workout that will boost your heart rate and improve your endurance. Fat loss: Tabata's short and intense workouts are proven to be effective in burning fat, as they increase your metabolism. Improved athletic performance: Tabata helps you develop speed, power, and endurance, making it a great workout for athletes. Convenient: With a workout time of only 4 minutes, Tabata is ideal for people with a busy schedule who want to exercise quickly. Versatile: You can perform Tabata exercises with a variety of movements, such a...

Yoga has been practiced for thousands of years and is known for its numerous physical, mental, and spiritual benefits. Here are some of the key benefits of incorporating yoga into your daily routine: Improves flexibility and balance: Regular yoga practice can increase your flexibility and balance by stretching and strengthening your muscles. Reduces stress and anxiety: Yoga promotes relaxation and mindfulness, which can help reduce stress and anxiety levels. Improves mental clarity: By focusing on breathing and mindfulness, yoga helps to clear your mind and improve mental clarity. Promotes better sleep: Yoga can help you relax and unwind before bed, leading to better quality sleep. Boosts immunity: Certain yoga poses and breathing exercises can boost your immunity and help prevent illness. Manages chronic pain: Yoga can help manage chronic pain by improving flexibility and reducing stress, which can worsen the pain. Increases cardiovascular health: Some yoga styles can provide a low-im...

I started learning yoga at a very young age. My first exposure was in the third or fourth standard/grade in school. At that time, I was not very keen and was more inclined to observe the martial art class of Kalari that took place in the next room. I was keen to join the Kalari class and the teacher was kind enough to teach me a few lessons. I think he knew I would drop the idea after a few lessons. How right he was. Anyway time progressed and I think I was eleven or twelve, my brother and I were sent to Sivananda Yoga Ashram near Neyyar Dam, Thiruvananthapuram for a month. My parents thought it would be a good way to spend our summer holidays and yoga would help in our development. The first few days at the ashram I was miserable. I missed my parents and my home. By the end of the first week, I was home sick and just wanted to get back home.  I remember there were two teachers who helped me through - one was a swami and the other was a sanyasini who was content to live...

The Government has allowed hotels and resorts to open and receive guests. As you can see from videos posted on social media as well as conventional news channels, many Hospitality groups have been busy during the lock down working on safety and hygiene measures in order to create a safe environment for all guests.  For your benefit, I have included some these video links on safety and hygiene at the end of the post, so be sure to read on. I am sure many of us are looking forward to travelling again; a break from the mundane routine that we have come to accept as part of the lock down. It has not been easy; for many it has been frustrating. Safe to say, we all have at some point or the other wished the corona virus away.  But, sadly, if wishes were horses, then life would be so much easier. We must accept that the new normal is here to stay and what we were used to, what we had taken for granted is in the past.  So, without further ado, lets start planning our travel. It i...