Thursday, March 26, 2009

BIKRAM WISODM

As you 'have' so shall you 'need'


Right...since a lotta people have asked me for an explanation and the piece I wrote for the assignment, here it is...(I just wish you'd do that through comments...people reading my blog think it isnt read because there arent any comments...makes my blog look bad...hehehe...)

‘Needs’ and ‘Wants’ are manifestations of ‘Haves’

            A scientific and mathematical study of the financial markets has been a relatively new phenomenon. As the world shrinks with the advent of technology, the interaction between humans has increased manifold especially in terms of commerce. Although several learned men have applied their brilliance towards unraveling the secrets of the financial markets and have collaboratively tried to capture their behavior in a fixed mathematical equation, they have never entirely been able to quantify all the parameters in a stoic equation, the equations have inevitably been inept at predicting behavior by themselves and have always needed to factor in an error term. Behavioral finance is hence another attempt at understanding this error term for unlike other pure sciences, finance is both an art and a science that in addition to being technical, is largely affected by it’s human participants. Theories in behavioral finance are largely in search of an explanation for the behavior of the financial markets in terms of the human element and there have been varied theories that concur on the fact that the financial markets are largely subject to the complexity of human behavior and the human mind. Behavioral finance has hence been the beneficiary of several theories that have successfully incorporated the various facets of human behavior into a framework that explaining a particular phenomenon.

            In all the theories, though, there is one common thread running through. All humans will react to every situation differently. As a matter of fact, at different periods in time, even the same individual might make a different choice for the same given situation. What change are the inputs to the way they think because of what they have amassed (or what they have lost) but in either case are subject to the bias that exists because of what they have. Whether achievements or experience (a mere euphemism for failures) our past actions and reactions are responsible for determining our future course of action. All theories, explain a certain facet of human behavior in the light of the existing situation. Most theories are based on empirical evidence and are hence never a definitive explanation to what is going on. Theories in behavioral finance are an attempt at understanding the behavior of the masses and are hence representative theories.

            All theories though are subject to exceptions and outliers simply because not all individuals are affected in the same way by the same situation. Whether macro-economic conditions or simply the personal lives of individuals, every component dictates their behavior hence prompting differential behavior even in seemingly similar situations. Behavioral finance is the attempt to factor in all these different ‘biases’ that creep in and to try and subjectively identify the ingredients that go in to the mix. Behavioral finance seeks to put a finger on the seeming irrationality of human behavior which is ascribed to the complexity of human nature. Yet, human behavior isn’t as complex as it is made out to be. Understanding the basic premise that underlines human behavior helps in understanding the apparent complexities. It is a natural tendency for all living beings to strive to be the best and humans are no different. Like everything in nature that builds up on what already exists, humans do the same. Their wants and needs are subject to what they already have. It is the simple fact that underlines human choices and determines their behavior.

            For a market scenario, the way humans respond to various stimuli, is determined largely by what they already possess. Behavioral finance is largely concerned with determining the types of choices and the reasons for these choices made by market players, who eventually are humans. No decisions could be irrational for humans process a set of information available to them. Like an equation that incorporates variables into it to arrive at a solution, humans too factor in variables to arrive at decisions. Yet, like mathematical equations that could be wrong if the correct variables aren’t chosen and factored in, humans too go wrong when they do not consider all the factors correctly which makes them irrational (in terms of the simplistic assumptions that well established theories in finance make.) Behavioral finance is hence, the study of the missing variables of human behavior arising out of their ‘needs’ and ‘wants’ which in turn are subject to their ‘haves.’

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

My Four Women...

Having had cribbed about being single all my life, I'd be a hypocrite if I didn't take my share of the blame. I have to agree (with a friend of mine...though I hate to admit she's been right...) that unless a woman is out of reach, she isn't attractive to me. I love doomed relationships apparently...and in hindsight it seems to be an appropriate summary of my sad love life. Well, nonetheless, I thought a little and I reckon if I am not gonna have one successful relationship, I'd like to have 4 different relationships based on the 4 facets that go into making a successful relationship.


  1. Soul

  2. Heart

  3. Body

  4. Mind

The Soul: My soul, I do know isn't as pure as I thought it was but I always hoped to be completed by someone with a soul that was purer than mine. This one relationship should be based on nothing but absolute trust and honesty. Not bound by emotions or by the limits of the human kind, it should be a connection of utmost comfort in both conversation and solitude. Perhaps the best one to look forward to and hopefully the last connection that I might make...


The Heart: My heart, my poor brittle heart that's addicted to pain needs someone to teach me all the emotions - angst, anger, jealousy, joy, happiness, love...this would be the one relationship based on nothing but gut feel and emotions...irrational, poetic, impulsive and hopelessly romantic. Bound by all that is human...


The Body: Hmmm...Physical attraction and intimacy...(censored) I dont need to tell you what this should be based on!


The Mind: Someone to capture my crazy, hyper-active, over-imaginative mind. To give me wings of fancy, to humour me, challenge me, feed me and talk to me. Someone to enliven my philosophy...If I made this connection, I'd probably marry her! (Ummm...assuming of course, she'd agree to it too!!!)


I dunno why I put this up here...I wrote it and didnt know who might read it! After all, I do believe in writing only if it must be read! So, here they are...my 4 women...

Saturday, March 21, 2009

THE FAREWELL...


Etched forever in the sands of time,

Stories of a careless life of mine,

A tale of two years spent in Bombay,

Shades of black, white and grey…


The pursuit of ambition in hopeless hope,

MBA, NM and this useless bloke,

And it began with new friends that soon became old,

As we did fight, did love and just occasionally did scold…


If it weren’t needed to pass, I’d never open a book,

I’d walk the beach every cranny and nook,

The lectures that always seemed to begin too soon,

The mornings that inevitably began at noon…


Sessions outside class that were always so much fun,

Filled with games, innuendos and a whole lotta pun,

Movies and coffees that soon defined life,

Those wonderful women that were reasons for joy and strife…


Forever the dreamer, even in class,

Professors forgotten, in my eyes that beautiful lass,

College life spent socializing in the quad,

Attendance that was a matter of proxies and fraud…


Bakar that went on through the night,

Economics that made it heavy and gossip that made it light,

Through jokes that the best lessons were learnt,

In the chats of our dreams that the midnight oil was burnt…


As another phase now draws to an end,

The present into the realm of memories does transcend,

When it’d begun, I’d thought I’d walk on ahead without a blink,

But things are so much different here at the brink…


Now at the farewell dance, I close my eyes to gather strength,

I lose it instead as all the images come rushing back at length,

I console myself of a better future to allay my fears,

I don’t believe myself though and there’s nothing I can do to stop my tears…


Thursday, March 12, 2009

In conversation with Bombay


"Walking on Marine Drive from Charni Road,

Looking back on all those memories I horde,

My best friend and our long walks,

Those endless conversations and mindless talks,

I sit now, on the promenade,

On the horizon, I watch the sun fade,

I smile, wryly, at the metaphor,

Nostalgic tears that clear my memory but make the sunset a blur,

This is where, long ago, my tryst with Bombay had once begun,

This is where, now, I begin my farewell to this wonderful city, watchin’ the setting sun…"


‘What are you talking about? How can you be leaving now?’

‘Well, I think I have reached the end of whatever little part of my journey I needed to make with you. Reckon I’ve taken as much as I can out of you. It’s time to throw in the towel.’

‘No you haven’t. You still haven’t reached your goals or achieved anything of what you had set out to achieve. How can you be leaving any of that incomplete? You still have a long way to go…’

‘No, I haven’t achieved anything of what I had set out to achieve…and that is the reason I must leave now. I haven’t come anywhere close to achieving any part of what I had set out to get for myself. I cannot allow myself to go on this way. I know when I am beaten…It’s time to make a fresh start now and I know it has to be far away from you…it has been a long journey with you. Lots of good memories to take away, a bunch of lessons learnt that only you could’ve taught. I am grateful, I truly am. But I cannot carry on anymore…’

‘You’re on your way there! You’re so close on almost all fronts! How can you think of quitting now? You’re just being unreasonable. Stop being a cry baby and gather yourself, you aren’t going anywhere. Life is long…very long! Stick around and fight it here with me. You chose me…don’t leave now!’

‘I chose you for all the wrong reasons…all the wrong reasons that once again brought me on the same crossroads as before…story of my life - right place, wrong time… It’s always been that ways between us, right from the beginning. It always promised to be an intense love story with it’s fair share of trials and tribulations but it hasn’t been a rosy romance. I’m always in a love-hate relationship with you and lately, it hasn’t been good. You make me weak…I must go.’

‘You’re being stubborn. Who doesn’t have a love-hate relationship? You need to hang in there, you can’t be running away like this…especially not now. Whatever happened to all your beliefs and all that mad aggression and love?’

‘Hahaha! Love? Love! Love… I saw it first with you! I lost it without you! I came running to you hoping to find it again! But I’ve lost it now…the love you once knew doesn’t exist in here anymore…I need to find it again and I cannot find it with you…I cannot find it here. It is the reason I must leave!’

‘Your love will always lie here with me…what are you denying that for? Ever since the first time, has it not always been here, at the sunset that you’ve lived it up? What would you do away from here? The sun sets in the west not in the east! You’d never go anywhere else! Whom are you kidding?’

‘Myself, I guess…and I truly believe I must for now. Maybe it’s a mistake but like all the other times before this, I must make this one too…how would I know it’s a mistake if I didn’t try to work it and find out for myself! When I did choose you, I chose you for all the wrong reasons…that was a mistake too! But a beautiful one…a mistake that I’ll cherish all my life! I need to make another now…’

‘You’re not talking any sense…I won’t bid you farewell, for I know you shall return soon. I can only wish you luck and hope you have the strength and courage to gather yourself again…

Sometimes we think we’ll be together forever,

That we won’t have say our good-byes, ever,

But we forget that nothing ever remains the same,

And people leave for the same reasons they came…”


'I thought too that I wouldn’t say good-bye,

That parting with you would never be a reason for me to cry,

But life I’ve learnt loves playing with irony,

And the end of our journey together, now do I see,

I lived believing ‘In the remnants, my strength I shall find,’

But I’m weak today, ‘cause it’s me that’s leaving it all behind!'

Thursday, March 05, 2009

BIKRAM WISODM

"Life's too short to stay upset...and too long to carry hate..."

BIKRAM WISODM

"Life's a story...some tell it...some hear it...and then there are those, that live it..."

Monday, March 02, 2009

BIKRAM WISODM

For Girls : No job = Marriage ;
For Guys : No job = No marriage!!!
Ironic that guys want a job to get married and girls want jobs to stay single!!!
Inequation of the sexes!!!