Nivesh = Vinivesh
Dec 2022

Dear Patrons,

Nivesh = Vinivesh

In Indian Mythology, Vaikunth’s (God heavenly abode) gates are guarded by two gatekeepers – Jaya and Vijaya. They screen visitors who come to meet Lord Vishnu. In many Vishnu temples across India, their idols can be seen standing at the gates of the temples. There are also stories in Vaishu Puran about how they were landed a curse for their mistake in identifying Four Kumaras (the manasaputras of Brahma) to visit Vaikuntha.

We can use the gatekeepers as a metaphor to create a mental model of buy and sell discipline for an investor’s portfolio. Building portfolio is Divine process!!!…

The process of investing consists of a) buying the best investment and b) making room for it by selling the least attractive one from the portfolio. Both processes are linked yet different. They may use similar tools but with different applications. Let us visualize an investor’s portfolio as a room with two guards – ‘Nivesh’ (Investment) standing at the entry and ‘Vinivesh’ (Disinvestment) standing at the exit.

The buy discipline reflects the investment philosophy of the investor. The main job of this gatekeeper is to be intelligent and disciplined. Nivesh, standing at the entry door, has important tasks to do as we all know.

On the other hand, Vinivesh has an equally important job as Nivesh. Unfortunately, he gets much less attention than Nivesh in investment literature. Literally imagining, one generally does give attention to the door from which they come out.

Both, “Buy” decisions and “Sell” decisions, are important for an investor. A smart investor is the one who allows both Nivesh and Vinivesh to work in tandem and in a disciplined manner to create a robust portfolio, thereby increasing the probability of generating good returns.

Smart Investor should stress on ‘Buy and Track’ rather than ‘Buy and Hold’.