GalaTime

Apologies for the unexplained hiatus in blogging - after a hectic week, I took off for a week of R&R and forced myself to unplug from the markets. [Yes, having long positions in Nifty futures also didn't help. :)]

Anyhow, Happy Diwali & Prosperous New Year and all that.

Regular blog posts to resume tomorrow.

Quick reminder - you can subscribe to GalaTime via email here:

You still need to visit the site for charts and such, but the daily posts will be delivered to your inbox once you subscribe!

Alternatively, you can add this RSS feed to your aggregator (Bloglines, Google Reader, etc).

I have tried avoiding this since last year, but now it has gotten to the point where desperate measures are required - I am turning off comments on all posts.

As for the spammers - besides saying that they are the scum of the earth, my sentiments are the same as Deepak’s.

You are always welcome to contact me at galatime@gmail.com.

Yes, it took almost 2 weeks to settle down & get decent broadband connectivity in Navi Mumbai. Daily blogging to resume asap.

I’m relocating from Bangalore to Navi Mumbai later this week, and blogging will be on hold until further notice. Getting a broadband connection doesn’t seem to be all that easy in NM, so I’ve my fingers crossed. Meanwhile, check out Moneyoga.com.

• CS Monitor: India’s superrich get even richer

India’s 40 wealthiest businessmen are worth $351 billion, according to Forbes – easily the most in Asia. Its four richest – steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal, Ambani, his brother Anil Ambani, and Mr. Singh – hold more than half that sum.

. . . only 3 million Indians – from a working-age population of 321 million – hold stocks. A further 3.5 million hold stocks through mutual funds.

There are currently 4 million households that make more than $10,000 a year – one marker of fitness for investing, she says. In the next five years, that number is expected to more than triple.

• Herb Greenberg talks business journalism

“In my world, short-sellers can have some of the best information and are often smarter than the rest; they have to be because they’re betting against the crowd. For that very reason, they can be a lightning rod for controversy, as companies try to allege that there simply must be something nefarious. Yet nobody raises a fuss when reporters talk to people who are long stocks that might already be overly hyped.”

“The idea is community and information, not the equivalent of a public message board, which can resemble a cesspool. And while I don’t shy away from critical comments, and in fact encourage them (and often respond to them) I won’t accept the online equivalent of a heckler who won’t give up after a post or two.”

• Business Standard: Five states hold 60% of total demat accounts

62.8% of the demat accounts are in the five states – Maharashtra, Gujarat, Delhi, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

As of September 2007, NSDL had 6.57 million demat accounts. Since then, one lakh new accounts are being opened monthly. Central Depository Services (CDSL), the other depository, has 3.5 million demat accounts as of date.

Maharashtra leads the number of demat accounts with 22% share, followed by Gujarat with 18% share.

I’m out of town most of next week, and blogging will be on hold until Saturday, December 22nd.

If you haven’t already, check out Moneyoga.com. And watch out for a post on an investment strategy at the Moneyoga blog - we’ll talk about the best approach to trading stocks that have declared a bonus or a split.

OK, Galatime.com has officially arrived. It was on Conde Nast’s Portfolio.com:

Yes, I know what this reminds you of - that scene in Monster’s Inc where Mike Wazowski is excited to see himself on TV.

TV Ad: We’re M. I… Monsters, Incorporated. We scare because we care.

Mike: I can’t believe it.

Sully: Oh, Mike…

Mike: I was on TV! Did you see me? I’m a natural!

Apologies for the lack of posts - I was off on a sun ‘n sand vacation to Goa and didn’t get a chance to post before leaving. Looks like I missed quite an interesting week in the markets - a lot to catch up over the weekend!

Quick reminder - you can subscribe to GalaTime via email here:

You still need to visit the site for charts and such, but the daily posts will be delivered to your inbox once you subscribe!

Alternatively, you can add this RSS feed to your aggregator (Bloglines, Google Reader, etc).

Recently, I have also started posting intra-day comments to Twitter; you can follow those online (here) and/or subscribe to the Twitter RSS.