The NEPSE index finished at 2,096.08 today, up 1.54 points from the previous trading day’s close. This is a 0.07% increase. Last Thursday, the index fell 22.12 points.
The index opened at 2,096.7 and reached an intraday high of 2,118.27 today. It dropped as low as 2,087.69 before closing at 2,096.08.
In 39,187 transactions, 258 scrips changed hands. A total of 5,206,370 shares were traded, totaling Rs. 1.931 Arba in activity. This is less than the previous day’s turnover of Rs. 2.096 Arba.
The Securities Exchange Board of Nepal (SEBON) has approved Dolti Power Company Limited and Bhugol Energy Development Company Limited’s proposed initial public offering (IPO). On Magh 16, both proposals were approved.
Dolti Power Company will now issue 1,609,458 equity shares with NPR 100 par value each. The issue is worth Rs. 16.09 crore. This is equivalent to 30% of the company’s issued capital. The company’s total paid-up capital after the IPO allotment would be Rs 53.64 crore.
Ban of Transaction of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in Nepal.
The central bank of Nepal, Nepal Rastra Bank (“NRB”) published a notice pursuant to Nepal Rastra Bank Act 2001 (“NRB Act”) and Foreign Exchange (Regulation) Act 1962 (“FERA”) prohibiting the usage of Bitcoin in Nepal. NRB has not recognized Bitcoins as a valid currency in Nepal.
A few highlights on the ban:
These are only a few of the reasons, in my opinion, why bitcoin is prohibited in Nepal. The existing Nepali laws prohibit it, and the central bank believes that bitcoin cannot be effectively regulated, that it can be used for unlawful purposes, and that it will harm the Nepali economy in the long run. The Nepalese government has recently taken tough measures against bitcoin transactions, including arresting people who were mining bitcoin or had large amounts of bitcoin, shutting down Nepal’s largest bitcoin exchange operator Bitsewa and arresting its owners, and even arresting a Nepali politician from a minor party for bitcoin trading.
The covid19 pandemic is not only putting millions of people’s lives in peril, but it is also devastating the global economy. Our government has proclaimed general vacations and imposed a travel ban on the general public in order to combat the spread of Coronavirus. Nobody knows how long it will take for things to return to normal. Meanwhile, some huge organizations are downsizing their workforces, while small and mid-sized businesses are being forced to lay off employees. As a result, a large number of people are losing their employment or their salary. At this vital juncture, we’ll highlight several quarantine income opportunities, both online and offline. Keep reading to learn how you can make money during the lockdown!
If you are a graphic designer with experience utilizing popular graphic tools such as Adobe Photoshop and/or Adobe Illustrator, you can get hired online and earn big money. Graphic designers are hired by many overseas platforms to work on little to large projects including logo design, business card design, banner design, brochure design, and so on. Here are some job vacancies in distribution.
https://www.freelancer.com/jobs/graphic-design/
https://www.behance.net/joblist
https://99designs.com
https://www.upwork.com/ab/find-work
Do you like to use social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram from time to time? Why don’t you complement your income with those sources? Any online social media channel that allows you to generate links or followers can be utilized to promote a product (made by another company). You may easily earn an affiliate fee if a viewer purchases your offered goods through your provided link. A variety of local businesses offer affiliation programs as well. Let’s have a look at some options.
https://www.daraz.com.np/wow/i/np/help-pages/daraz-affiliate-program
Affiliate marketing is a safe and secure way to earn money online. More people are choosing to affiliate marketing as a full-time career because of the attractive affiliate commission arrangements given by numerous companies. If you have good writing and/or video-making talents, as well as some SEO knowledge, you may generate a consistent income conducting affiliate marketing on your blog or YouTube. Take a peek at some of the various international affiliation channels.
https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/
http://www.cj.com/
https://shareasale.com/
Earn a comfortable living by teaching online. You can write courses based on your experience and advertise your profile on social media platforms like linkedin.com. Begin by enrolling in some low-cost or no-cost basic level courses. Consider offering some paid advanced-level skills classes if the audience responds well. Here are some local and worldwide resources for looking for online teaching employment and/or submitting your online course:
hhttps://www.udemy.com/teaching/
https://sellfy.com/sell/courses-online/
https://www.skillshare.com/teach
Do you have an innate desire to write? Yes, you can work as a freelance writer for a range of local and online publications if you answered yes. There are a range of freelance assignments accessible, including translation, guest writing, blog post writing, essay writing, academic writing, book writing, and study, whether you’re a newbie writer or a seasoned researcher. It will enable you to teach people while also allowing you to earn money. Take a look at the resources listed below.
https://solidgigs.com/
https://remote.co/remote-jobs/writing/
https://www.freelancewriting.com/jobs/
Do you enjoy working with computers? You can get hired online if you know any programming language, including PHP, Python, C#, Java, and others. Based on your degree of education and experience, you should apply for freelance programming employment. Here are a few areas where you might look for work as an internet programmer.
https://www.upwork.com/freelance-jobs/database-programming/
https://www.peopleperhour.com/freelance-programming-jobs
https://www.indeed.com/q-Online-Programmer-jobs.html
https://www.ziprecruiter.com/Jobs/Online-Programmer
Don’t be concerned if you aren’t a designer, editor, or programmer. The Internet is a huge ocean of possibilities for a wide range of occupations. If you have experience in a specific field of knowledge, such as business proposal preparation, project management, or digital marketing, you should hunt for freelance employment in foreign marketplaces.
Here are some useful links:
Everyone is looking for a quick and easy way to riches and happiness. It seems to be human nature to constantly search for a hidden key or some esoteric bit of knowledge that suddenly leads to the end of the rainbow or a winning lottery ticket.
While some people do buy winning tickets or a common stock that quadruples or more in a year, it is extremely unlikely, since relying upon luck is an investment strategy that only the foolish or most desperate would choose to follow. In our quest for success, we often overlook the most powerful tools available to us: time and the magic of compounding growth. Investing regularly, avoiding unnecessary financial risk, and letting your money work for you over a period of years and decades is a certain way to amass significant assets.
Here are several tips that should be followed by beginning investors.
Everyone is looking for a quick and easy way to riches and happiness. It seems to be human nature to constantly search for a hidden key or some esoteric bit of knowledge that suddenly leads to the end of the rainbow or a winning lottery ticket.
While some people do buy winning tickets or a common stock that quadruples or more in a year, it is extremely unlikely, since relying upon luck is an investment strategy that only the foolish or most desperate would choose to follow. In our quest for success, we often overlook the most powerful tools available to us: time and the magic of compounding growth. Investing regularly, avoiding unnecessary financial risk, and letting your money work for you over a period of years and decades is a certain way to amass significant assets.
Here are several tips that should be followed by beginning investors.
1. Set Long-Term Goals
Why are you considering investing in the stock market? Will you need your cash back in six months, a year, five years or longer? Are you saving for retirement, for future university expenses, to purchase a home, or to build an estate to leave to your beneficiaries?
Before investing, you should know your purpose and the likely time in the future you may have need of the funds. If you are likely to need your investment returned within a few months, consider another investment; the stock market with its volatility provides no certainty that all of your capital will be available when you need it.
By knowing how much capital you will need and the future point in time when you will need it, you can calculate how much you should invest and what kind of return on your investment will be needed to produce the desired result.
Remember that the growth of your portfolio depends upon three interdependent factors:
Ideally, you should start saving as soon as possible, save as much as you can, and receive the highest return possible consistent with your risk philosophy.
2. Understand Your Risk Tolerance
Risk tolerance is a psychological trait that is genetically based but positively influenced by education, income, and wealth (as these increase, risk tolerance appears to increase slightly) and negatively by age (as one gets older, risk tolerance decreases). Your risk tolerance is how you feel about risk and the degree of anxiety you feel when risk is present. In psychological terms, risk tolerance is defined as “the extent to which a person chooses to risk experiencing a less favourable outcome in the pursuit of a more favourable outcome.” In other words, would you risk NPR 1000 to win NPR 10,000? Or NPR 10,000 to win NPR 10,000? All humans vary in their risk tolerance, and there is no “right” balance.
Risk tolerance is also affected by one’s perception of risk. For example, flying in an aeroplane or riding in a car would have been perceived as very risky in the early 1900s, but less so today as flight and automobile travel are common occurrences. Conversely, most people today would feel that riding a horse might be dangerous with a good chance of falling or being bucked off because few people are around horses.
The idea of perception is important, especially in investing. As you gain more knowledge about investments – for example, how stocks are bought and sold, how much volatility (price change) is usually present, and the difficulty or ease of liquidating an investment – you are likely to consider stock investments to have less risk than you thought before making your first purchase. As a consequence, your anxiety when investing is less intense, even though your risk tolerance remains unchanged because your perception of the risk has evolved.
By understanding your risk tolerance, you can avoid those investments which are likely to make you anxious. Generally speaking, you should never own an asset which keeps you from sleeping in the night. Anxiety stimulates fear which triggers emotional responses (rather than logical responses) to the stressor. During periods of financial uncertainty, the investor who can retain a cool head and follows an analytical decision process invariably comes out ahead.
3. Control Your Emotions
The biggest obstacle to stock market profits is an inability to control one’s emotions and make logical decisions. In the short-term, the prices of companies reflect the combined emotions of the entire investment community. When a majority of investors are worried about a company, its stock price is likely to decline; when a majority feel positive about the company’s future, its stock price tends to rise.
A person who feels negative about the market is called a “bear,” while their positive counterpart is called a “bull.” During market hours, the constant battle between the bulls and the bears is reflected in the constantly changing price of securities. These short-term movements are driven by rumours, speculations, and hopes – emotions – rather than logic and systematic analysis of the company’s assets, management, and prospects.
Stock prices moving contrary to our expectations create tension and insecurity. Should I sell my position and avoid a loss? Should I keep the stock, hoping that the price will rebound? Should I buy more?
Even when the stock price has performed as expected, there are questions: Should I take a profit now before the price falls? Should I keep my position since the price is likely to go higher? Thoughts like these will flood your mind, especially if you constantly watch the price of a security, eventually building to a point that you will take action. Since emotions are the primary driver of your action, it will probably be wrong.
When you buy a stock, you should have a good reason for doing so and an expectation of what the price will do if the reason is valid. At the same time, you should establish the point at which you will liquidate your holdings, especially if your reason is proven invalid or if the stock doesn’t react as expected when your expectation has been met. In other words, have an exit strategy before you buy the security and execute that strategy unemotionally.
4. Handle Basics First
Before making your first investment, take the time to learn the basics about the stock market and the individual securities composing the market. There is an old adage: It is not a stock market, but a market of stocks. Your focus will be upon individual securities, rather than the market as a whole. There are few times when every stock moves in the same direction; even when the averages fall by 100 points or more, the securities of some companies will go higher in price.
The areas with which you should be familiar before making your first purchase include:
Knowledge and risk tolerance are linked. As Warren Buffett said, “Risk comes from not knowing what you are doing.”
5. Diversify Your Investments
Experienced investors such as Buffett eschew stock diversification in the confidence that they have performed all of the necessary research to identify and quantify their risk. They are also comfortable that they can identify any potential perils that will endanger their position, and will be able to liquidate their investments before taking a catastrophic loss.
The popular way to manage risk is to diversify your exposure. Prudent investors own stocks of different companies in different industries, sometimes in different countries, with the expectation that a single bad event will not affect all of their holdings or will otherwise affect them to different degrees.
Imagine owning stocks in five different companies, each of which you expect to continually grow profits. Unfortunately, cirplusstances change. At the end of the year, you might have two companies (A & B) that have performed well so their stocks are up 25% each. The stock of two other companies (C & D) in a different industry are up 10% each, while the fifth company’s (E) assets were liquidated to pay off a massive lawsuit.
Diversification allows you to recover from the loss of your total investment (20% of your portfolio) by gains of 10% in the two best companies (25% x 40%) and 4% in the remaining two companies (10% x 40%). Even though your overall portfolio value dropped by 6% (20% loss minus 14% gain), it is considerably better than having been invested solely in company E.
6. Avoid Leverage/Margin Loan
Leverage/Margin loan simply means the use of borrowed money to execute your stock market strategy. In a margin account, banks and brokerage firms can loan you money to buy stocks, usually 50% of the purchase value. In other words, if you wanted to buy 1000 shares of a stock trading at NPR 100 for a total cost of NPR 100,000, your brokerage firm could loan you NPR 50,000 to complete the purchase.
The use of borrowed money “levers” or exaggerates the result of price movement. Suppose the stock moves to NPR 200 a share and you sell it. If you had used your own money exclusively, your return would be 100% on your investment [(200,000 -100,000)/100,000]. If you had borrowed NPR 50,000 to buy the stock and sold at NPR 200 per share, your return would be 300 % [(200,000-50,000)/$50,000] after repaying the NPR 50,000 loan and excluding the cost of interest paid to the broker (which is usually 16% and over).
It sounds great when the stock moves up, but consider the other side. Suppose the stock fell to NPR 50 per share rather than doubling to NPR 200, your loss would be 100% of your initial investment, plus the cost of interest to the broker [(50,000-50,000)/50,000].
A margin is a tool that can go extremely bad in a stock market like Bangladesh.
Final Thoughts
Stock investments historically have enjoyed a return significantly above other types of investments while also proving easy liquidity, total visibility, and active regulation to ensure a level playing field for all. Investing in the stock market is a great opportunity to build large asset value for those who are willing to be consistent savers, make the necessary investment in time and energy to gain experience, appropriately manage their risk, and are patient, allowing the magic of compounding to work for them. The younger you begin your investing avocation, the greater the final results – just remember to walk before you begin to run.
James Clear explores how our environment affects our habits in his best-selling book Atomic Habits. If we want to read more books, placing books in various parts of our house can serve as a sign to our minds to read; similarly, placing notebooks and pens throughout the room might serve as a sign to write.
If you want to improve your leadership and communication skills, you’ll need to start with a habit. Toastmasters might be a good place to start.
While we may have always been told that communication and leadership are necessary abilities, we may not have always had the opportunity to put them into practice. Furthermore, these are talents that we improve through practicing. We may fumble and fall at first, making the initial step terrifying and frightening. This is where the environmental cue becomes even more important. You are permitted to go blank and forget your lines at weekly Toastmasters club meetings as long as you strive to take that first step.
This has prompted me to explore with speechcraft and other aspects of communication. With butterflies, boxes, and glasses, I’ve presented speeches. As part of my lecture, I set up the keyboard and played Mozart for the crowd. I’ve put on a magic hat and done tricks that I completely forgot about halfway through. Some of them were successful, while others were not.
When I found myself in a situation where there were leaders, I decided to improve on my leadership qualities by joining the club executive committee. I had the opportunity to reflect on my strengths and limitations as a communicator and leader in between leadership responsibilities, meetings, and actions. When I had the opportunity to serve as the division editor for Nepal in 2019/20, my relationship with material grew even stronger. Many doors unlocked themselves on this journey, and it was a nudge to open them, both personally and professionally.
Toastmasters’ philosophy is vast, but if I had to summarize it based on my personal experience, I would say it is the opportunity to try new things. There are a plethora of cues in Toastmasters’ Pathways education program. The ability to think quickly on your feet, the agility to detect compliments and recommendations, and the versatility to build various speeches all become transferable abilities. The teachings become inseparable as you figure out what works and what doesn’t for you. You take it with you wherever you go, at home, at work, and everywhere else.
Toastmasters has a long and illustrious history, with over 95 years of experience. You might want to dive in for the pearl, or you might want to dive in for a swim, depending on your ambitions, but the most essential thing you’ll find here is an environment in which to grow yourself. Can Toastmasters help you with all of these things and more? You are the only one who can tell.
Since its top of 1881 in 2016, the Nepal Stock Exchange has been on a downward trend. The market dropped to as low as 1100, a drop of nearly 40% from its peak. Many investors lost a lot of money as a result of the devastating market meltdown.
If we ask investors right now if they thought the market was going to tumble after 2016, many will say yes. However, at the peak, investors were more bullish on the market. The massive quantity of everyday turnover demonstrates this. The daily transaction amount was between 1.5 and 2 billion rupees.
So, how does an investor’s opinion of the same event change? This is a psychological phenomena known as ‘Hindsight bias.’
The tendency of people to perceive events as more predictable than they actually are is referred to as hindsight bias. In other words, it makes the past appear less predictable than it was. Things always appear more evident after they have occurred.
Decision making is difficult prior to the occurrence due to a lack of information and foresight. However, looking at the available results after the event, the outcome appears more predictable.
During the bullish era in our market, investors were uninformed of the oncoming market disaster. As a result, many people were highly involved in stocks. Some people predicted that the market would crash. However, no one was certain at the moment.
However, after the market fall, investors believe that they were forewarned that the market would drop. With more information regarding the market crash becomes accessible, investors appear to be more sure about the event’s predictability.
Consider the following scenario: You are considering purchasing a stock called ABC. However, you do not purchase it for some reason. The price of ABC stock then skyrockets. What are your thoughts?
The answer is that you are stupid. You kick yourself for squandering the opportunity. You are remorseful for not purchasing the stock when you realized it was a winner. You tell yourself, ‘I knew the stock would soar.’ This is what we mean by hindsight bias.
So, what makes it dangerous? This is because you have made a promise to yourself that you would not make the same mistake again. You are more confident in your decision-making abilities, and you vow to seize the next opportunity. This is the danger that hindsight bias can cause. The next time might not be the same as the previous.
Let’s have a look at another scenario: You consider purchasing a stock called ABC. However, you do not purchase it for some reason. The price of ABC stock then plummets. Now consider if you would have felt the same way in the first situation.
No, it does not. You congratulate yourself on making a wise decision not to buy ABC stock. You knew the stock would decline, which is why you didn’t buy it in the first place.
Why is the response different in these two cases? In an ideal world, the answer in both cirplusstances would be the same. In both cirplusstances, you made the same decision not to acquire stock ABC prior to the rise or fall in its price. However, after the event occurs, such as a price rise or decline, you change your reaction in accordance with the nature of the occurrence.
This is risky because it gives you the impression that you knew it all along, giving you a false sense of security in your judgment. This can lead to overconfidence in your financial abilities and reckless decisions.
Several behavioral experts have recommended producing a list of everything that was considered when making the decision. This could be a good plan. We will know what our thought process was at the time of decision making if we make a record of the reasoning behind our decisions. We cannot change our statements after the event has occurred. This will aid us in making an accurate assessment of our abilities.
Investors may not consider hindsight bias as a concern. However, it may lead you to make decisions based on your perspective rather than facts.
In our daily lives, we experience hindsight bias. Whether it’s investing, gaming, exams, or anything else, the outcome makes us feel much more confident in our abilities. If Real Madrid beats Sevilla, we’ll tell ourselves and others that we knew Madrid was going to win. Similarly, if the stock/real estate price is rising, ‘I knew it’ comes into play.
Even if it hasn’t caused any immediate harm, it can make you overconfident, causing your next bet to be more illogical. Real Madrid won, but the outcome might be different the next time. Past events cannot be utilized to predict the future completely. Information and strategies evolve in tandem with the passage of time.
As a result, it is preferable to treat each possibility as new and base your judgment on facts. The past appears to be easy to anticipate, yet this is not the case. It is a hallucination that arises following the occurrence of the result. As a result, it is preferable to stick to your investing ideas and tactics.
While half of the population of the United States is a loyal listener, many Nepalis are unfamiliar with the phrase “podcast.”
Podcasts have been popular in the United States, and they have the potential to becoming so in Nepal, because they may be listened to at any time. You may listen to your favorite podcasts on your commute, while working out, or while doing domestic tasks.
So, if you plan to establish your own business as a Nepali, you will have an advantage because this market has a lot of potential and is still unexplored. You may get the worm by getting up early. The best thing about starting your own podcast is that it costs very little money. All you’ll need at first is a microphone and a nice laptop.
You can start with it as a side hustle and work your way up to full-time status after it has gained a significant following. Here are some pointers for getting started with your own podcast.
1. Plan ahead
Consider the theme. There will be a theme for the podcast. It might be centered on political debates, or you could give life hacks. Also, consider if you want it to be completely scripted or completely spontaneous. When you choose a theme, you can listen to similar podcasts to gain a more in-depth understanding and better assistance for running your own show. You’ll understand what you need to do to stand out and engage your audience.
2. Be consistent
Once you’ve started, you’ll need to be very active to keep the users involved, or you’ll lose their attention. When Instagram only had 100 users, the app’s founders were more concerned with keeping those 100 users than with attracting new ones. As a result, if you do not update on a regular basis, you will lose users. Setting a deadline and making sure you meet it and release a new podcast when it’s due is the best way to go about it.
3. Keep a track of your audience
On top of that, you can monitor your audience’s response on your social media accounts and construct your podcast around it. You should review analytics data if you want to expand your user base and keep existing listeners engaged. In this case, you can use a hosting platform like Blubrry (https://www.blubrry.com/) to evaluate listener demographics.
4. Do not lose your focus
When your target audience is specialized, you must recognize that you cannot lose sight of them because they have been addicted to your podcast as a result of your targeted content. If your podcast is about how students may make money through side hustles, for example, you should not switch to another successful podcast with a large audience and instead start publishing podcasts about the current fashion trends.
5. Keep a relevant name
If your podcast is about startup success stories, you can call it after the type of content you provide. Because it allows users to find your podcast without having to read the details and then decide whether or not to listen. If your podcast’s title does not provide listeners a clear indication of the topics you cover, they may merely scroll through the list and never opt to click on your podcast. The ideal marketing technique is to keep a very distinct name.
6. Give your audience the best listening experience
Because podcasts are all about listening, it’s critical that the audio quality is excellent. You’ll need a microphone, microphone stand, USB box, compressor, and headphones to make a podcast. You must ensure that they are of the highest possible quality. Tim Ferris demonstrates how he sets up his podcast in this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRxVEcbh-Dk).
If you are just beginning, you can use your smartphone for recording voice. Don’t worry! these days smartphones come up with kickass microphones and can do the job very well.
7. Unravel the astonishing details of the story
If you want to make an impact, you need to unearth the most obscure details of the tale you’re presenting your audience. Guy Raz, a well-known podcaster, advises his guests that if they dive into their past and share previously unknown stories, people would be able to relate to them better and want to speak with them.
8. Get feedback before you launch
Inquire of your parents, as well as sincere friends or mentors. If you’re still in college, request that your teachers listen to you and provide you with valuable feedback. This will assist you in making final modifications, and you can honestly treat them as your listeners, using their comments to make changes as needed. Of course, you are the one who makes the decisions here, so you may choose which advice to disregard and which to follow.
Always keep in mind that overnight success is a fiction, and you’ll need a lot of patience to build and improve the podcast you’ve always wanted to do. Make a name for yourself in the podcasting world.
Best wishes!