Lucknow, City of the cultured Indian.

I returned from Lucknow today, after attending the CNBC Investor Camp. The city is known for its cultured citizens. When I started speaking, a person said “This is a compliment. You look much younger in person.” Thanks. perhaps that is why I have such warm feelings about the city.

In my presentation, I explained the concept of four stages of the stock price life cycle – accumulation, runup, distribution and decline. It was my impression that a number of people in the audience were savvy enough to take advantage of the accumulation phase. One person asked me: “I bought a stock in stage 1 and now it is in stage 3. What should I do? ” My suggestion was: keep a tight stop loss if you use charts. If you do not, exit slowly.

When I landed at Lucknow airport yesterday, I saw an aircraft belonging to Oman Air. Indians coming from that aircraft were waiting patiently for immigration. The line extended outside the building. Today, at the airport, a flight of Air India Express to someplace in the middle east was leaving. The small departure area was filled up. These are signs of a vibrant India. The next decade belongs to us.

Kapil Malhotra, publisher of Vision Books, kindly sent me three new books for my library. I read one of them on my Lucknow trip – Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, by Charles Mackay. The book is a low cost Indian edition by Vision Books, for Rs 250. At this price, the book is a steal. Fortunately, Kapil does not read these blogs otherwise he would start thinking about an increase in the price. If you plan to read one book this month, then read it. If you do not read anything, then start the reading habit with this book. But, one warning : The book does not contain tools and methods for trading, although it must be one of the best books for traders.

I hope to answer the remaining questions in my next post, and, also share some ideas.