” i can live with something logical even if its unproven, but not something illogical, but proven (aka Scientific truth) “
” I have been proven wrong many times in my life because i trusted those who have come before me were right “
My Journey
i am writing about my background & my journey as it is fair that i establish my credibility before you read the content on my website or blog .. it’s been a long journey to get here; so, have patience & here we go:
early childhood ventures
born, brought up & educated in old Delhi, India … i have always been an explorer & entrepreneur [who likes to build little new things] … i got these skills from my dad, while my mom made sure that i have a stable and solid foundation …
in 7th grade, my dad helped me start my own retail business along side his own … a retail business is nothing but location arbitrage; i.e buy low in bulk and sell high in retail at second location … i worked on weekends and during my summer off days, while attending middle & high school … the real life business lessons that i learned from that experience like inventory & capital management, lender vs vendor financing, profit re-investments, etc. provided solid foundation to who i became later in life … a trader.fthes
also in 7th grade, my Sanskrit teacher chose me to recite Bhag.vad.geeta as part of our daily prayer, as i started studying Sanskrit as a subject … & i finished the scripture in 11th grade – 700 shlokas, about 180 schools days in an year, one shloka daily … you do the math … talk about pressures in life ..!
so Universe had set my destiny when i was 12 … i ran the business successfully that was started with one time capital investment of $10 in 1977 and generated an income of roughly $1,000 over 4 years … big deal for a child living in India in late 70s … it reminds me what Buffett says, “i am a better investor because i am a businessman, and i am a better businessman because i am an investor.”
a curious & engineering mind
attended one of the top engineering colleges in India – Delhi College of Engineering (courtesy :- Govt. of India) – to have my bachelors degree in electrical & electronics engineering … continued venturing during my college days … during 2nd year, i designed & manufactured high power transformers … in 3rd year, designed & built a simple computer using digital chips (gates logic, pre- microprocessor era) … also worked with ICIM Ltd. to install the first [real] computer (in super-mini category with 4 terminals & 40 MB hard disk !) in our college … and in final year, designed and prototype’d BIS (business information system) as my college project.
in some ways, these projects taught me more valuable lessons than what i learned in business school later.
journey with computers
i feel that the computer industry & i grew together … & now, we are too old for each other … both Intel 8085 & MS-DOS came when i was in college .. so i started with both of these along with IBM 360 (punch cards & COBOL), IBM 1401 (JCL, COBOL), ICL/ICIM 101/6000, DEC/PDP (FORTRAN, Pascal), IBM PC & clones in my college days, and post graduation, i enjoyed working with UNIX/C/C++, databases (IDMS, Ingress, Informix & Oracle) & client/server computing technologies … worked with the top Government consulting organization in India (in late 80s) – CMC Ltd. – on several projects of national interest, such as Crime & Criminal system for Delhi Police & NCRB, a Ticket-less telephone exchange for Bombay Telephones and a store & forward email system between CMC offices using uucp (in 1989 when internet was not mainstream, especially in India!)
the journey with computers continued as i migrated to US … in 1990, i arrived in USA, and at the same time, Sharpe, Markowitz and Merton Miller received the noble prize in economics for CAPM (Capital assets pricing model) – no correlation, just a coincidence – & for last 30 years or so, financial professionals have sold you the asset allocation suiting your needs [making adjustments for risk] … keep this information on the side as it will help you connect the dots
in 1994, i joined Sun Microsystems, where i had the opportunity to learn java & object oriented programming, as they were growing like a child … built web based solutions for business problems & still remember the day when Eric Schmidt, then CTO of Sun Microsystems & now ex chairman of Google, demonstrated the Mosaic browser for the first time … moved from technology to financial services, as i was always fascinated by finance – joined Charles Schwab in downtown San Francisco in 1997 to work on building internet based trading software … moved from Schwab to try my entrepreneurial side … tried couple of startups, but they went sideways as the tech cycle was in late stage and the bubble was about to burst … started my own technology consulting company … ran it profitably as a one man business, but decided to go back to the corporate world … and this time it was insurance … first, mortgage insurance & then health insurance … like technology & finance in 1980s & 90s, what a growth the insurance industry had in 2000s ..?
am i lucky or what, as i always worked in a growth industry in my career ..?
passion for finance
i worked with computers for 25 years and enjoyed as my profession; however, my passion was always for finance, and i always looked at the business problems and their solutions from financial perspective … so, in late 90s, i attended the MBA program with specialization in finance at Santa Clara University, CA (courtesy :- Sun Microsystems & Charles Schwab), where i learned how business & humans function.
in parallel, i started investing in mutual funds & ETFs … had early success in stock market in mid 1990s, but later realized that i was just riding the bull [market] … switched to stocks from ETFs in late 1990s, as i built my own valuation models … made more money, but then the tech bubble got burst … after the burst, i studied the inter-dependence in various markets (large & small stocks, bonds, international, gold) & market cycles followed by experiments in econometrics & their relationship with various markets … while i was conducting these experiments, another bubble (the real-estate bubble) was developing, which got burst in 2008, and i ended up nowhere [in my investments], again ..!
however, looking from an optimist’s view, how lucky i was that i went through two stock market bubbles in less than 10 years ..!
in 2000, Statman & Shefrin (two well known experts in behavior finance) from Santa Clara University published about Behavior based portfolio model, and at the same time, i completed my masters in finance – again, just a coincidence … so my destiny was already written 20 years ago [as this is written in 2015]
my experience dealing with bubbles led me to think that the traditional valuation models only work for a while, and then greed or fear takes over … i concluded that human behavior drives the markets & timing is everything on wall street … as a result, i switched to behavioral aspects of finance … in 2002, Daniel Kahneman received the noble prize on psychology of judgment and decision-making, as well as behavioral economics … this should give you an idea about the newness of this topic … but people, even on wall street, are just catching up with this subject .. now you can connect the dots between 1990 & 2002 in context of developments in Finance .. so the timing was perfect for me to jump into this subject, as offered to me by God ..!
using concepts in behavior finance, i started developing my own models and then a thesis based on my be-lie-f that human emotions drive financial markets resulting into [market] booms and bursts … it consists of several principles listed on this website, & as an outcome of my thesis, i switched from a long-term investor to a day trader, as i am able to observe & capture the development of human emotions & their impact on market behavior on daily basis … and transform them into a mathematical model that use human (traders) behavior & projects markets behavior.
the work done during 2001 & 2011 (full decade but working part-time) as v.9 & in 2011. i started working full-time on v1.0, which lasted 3 years.
as of 2011, i had worked for 20 years in corporate world, and even though i was paid handsomely through out this journey, the mental pain that i had to go through day-after-day dealing with corporate non-sense was so much that it was hurting me more than helping (mentally, not financially) .. & it reached to a point that i couldn’t handle it anymore … at one point, i almost had a nervous breakdown just thinking about going to an office environment … but by God’s grace, i survived, and left the corporate world to run my mind at full capacity.
in 2013, started trading futures and became a day trader, which marks beginning of v2.
2014 – 2024
the vision involves finding connections between human behavior & financial markets cycles using principles of basic physics & mathematics & building mathematical models for trading.
in 2014, after testing & trying the v2 over 1+ years, i left the corporate world and started my own – Yashika Ventures LLC – based on the name of my lovely daughter & with a tagline – investments minus emotions … the venture allows me to do research in behavior finance, trade round the clock, travel world-wide & live life in peace & harmony.
Yashika ventures was started in Las Vegas in 2014, and as i observed & documented mine as well as Ms. Market’s behavior, i gathered that my returns are NOT dependent on stock valuations or even market direction, rather my own mood and happiness, & my ability to capture the events happening around the world & there outcomes with my own perspective … how funny ..?
a happy mind and a healthy body: as i was able to increase my own state of happiness, my returns continued to grow, and to build my own perspective, i traveled around the world and studied how humans are reacting to the current economic & market conditions.
also, i noticed that the happier i am, more data i can process in my mind … & here is an interesting fact to support this point … in 2014, i started with 3 monitors / computers [for trading], and as my level of happiness improved, i doubled the monitors to 6 [along with computers] in 2015, and then in 2016, i doubled again to 12 monitors .. & following Moore’s law, i doubled the number of monitors again to 24 in 2018 … the challenge is keep myself sane … only time will tell ..!
in 2018, i shifted my focus from real-estate and travel to focus on research … & like everything else, i didn’t realize that this phase will last 6+ years over 3 versions, & with blessings of Shiva, it completed in Aug 2024
in 2020 , i changed the name to TheVIP Ventures. as it signifies the journey from here.
towards the end (2020+, remember first news on Corona & market reaction on Feb 20th ..!), i realized that symmetric mathematics (a number line where -1 & +1 are equidistant from zero) & physics (aka physical objects behavior) are not suited to capture Market Behavior … so goes the effort by Quants; & so i ended up developing my own physics (B-Physics, v4) and my own mathematics (B-Mathematics, v5) & haven’t lost my sanity … yet ..!
starting 2011, i have built 4 major versions of the thesis – v2 over 2013-2016, spent 2017 in learning cooking & real-estate (what a diversion ..?) … then back to v3 in 2018, v4 in 2019-2020 & version v5 over 2021-2023 ..!
2024 – 2034
by end of 2024, i plan to go into pure execution mode, at least that’s the plan … & IF you are wondering, what’s next ..?
now, i need to find something else to do … because this mind is always looking for something as “Stephanie, input ..” (IF you remember the 1990s movie) until i am dead …!
so starting 2024, i plan to migrate into another decade, another mission – Lifestyle around Wellness .