Astute Investor's Calculus - Page 8 Of 16 - Build Enduring Wealth Through Value Investing In Small-Cap Stocks And Private Businesses With An Owner’s Mindset

Bear Market Survival Guide: How to Stay Rational When Everyone Else Is Panicking

Leave a Comment / Market Insights / Shailesh Kumar, MBA / April 5, 2025

The Market Is Crashing—Now What? We are in the bear market in S&P 500 and Russell 2000 indices. Bear markets don’t whisper. They scream. Prices fall fast, headlines get apocalyptic, and suddenly every investor is questioning their entire approach. You might feel the urge to do something—anything—to stop the bleeding. But acting out of fear […]

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Stop Guessing: How to Use Fundamental Analysis of Stocks to Know What a Company Is Really Worth

Leave a Comment / Value Investing / Shailesh Kumar, MBA / April 4, 2025

You’ve probably heard it before—“the market is a voting machine in the short term and a weighing machine in the long term.” But most investors forget what that really means. When stock prices bounce on headlines and herd emotions, you’re left wondering: Is this stock actually worth buying, or am I just chasing smoke? That’s

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How to Use Preferred Stock ETFs as a Hedge in a Volatile Market

Leave a Comment / Preferred Stock / Shailesh Kumar, MBA / April 4, 2025

Volatility is the one guest at your investing table that never fails to show up uninvited. It rattles your nerves, distorts valuations, and tests your resolve. But as a value investor, you don’t need to fear volatility — you need to understand how to use it. One tool often overlooked in this regard is the

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Why the Carhart 4 Factor Model Still Matters (Even for Value Investors Who Ignore It)

Leave a Comment / Factor Investing / Shailesh Kumar, MBA / April 3, 2025

You might think of the Carhart 4 Factor Model as an academic tool best left to quants and finance professors. But if you’re building a portfolio with real money and expecting it to outperform, this model can be a powerful ally. It doesn’t replace your process—it sharpens it. Whether you lean into small-cap value like

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Why Closed-End Funds Might Be the Most Misunderstood Investment on Wall Street

Leave a Comment / Closed End Funds / Shailesh Kumar, MBA / April 3, 2025

Everything You Need to Know About Investing in Closed End Funds—From Discounts to Dividends and Beyond Introduction: The Opportunity Hiding in Plain Sight If you’ve spent any time exploring income investments, you’ve probably come across closed-end funds (CEFs)—and maybe skipped past them. They’re often lumped together with mutual funds and ETFs, yet behave nothing like

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Free Cash Flow and the Margin of Safety: A Double Defense for Value Investors

Leave a Comment / Financial Ratios & Metrics / Shailesh Kumar, MBA / April 2, 2025

Smart Investing Isn’t About Forecasting—It’s About Protection If you’ve been investing long enough, you know this truth: it’s not the winners that make or break your portfolio—it’s the losers. Avoiding big mistakes is the real game, and two tools help you do just that. One is the margin of safety. The other is free cash

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How to Build a Dividend Growth Fortress That Survives Any Recession

Leave a Comment / Dividend Growth Stocks / Shailesh Kumar, MBA / April 2, 2025

Why You Need a Recession-Proof Dividend Growth Strategy Today You’re not just building a portfolio. You’re building protection—against inflation, uncertainty, and the next bear market. While most investors are glued to CNBC and trading apps, worrying about when the next rate hike will crush their growth stocks, you’re taking a very different approach. You’re quietly

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How to Use the Kelly Criterion to Avoid Portfolio-Killing Mistakes

2 Comments / Managing Risk / Shailesh Kumar, MBA / April 1, 2025

I have often expressed my opinion that in investing, buying is the most important transaction in a stock ownership lifecycle. You’ve done the research. The stock is undervalued, the margin of safety is wide, and the upside looks incredible and you know you are paying a great price. But how much should you allocate? Too

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Why Risk Tolerance Is the Single Most Underrated Edge in Value Investing

Leave a Comment / Managing Risk / Shailesh Kumar, MBA / March 31, 2025

The Edge You’re Ignoring Could Be Costing You Millions. For value investors, risk is not the volatility in the market or in the stock price, but in fact it is how you react to it. Most investors obsess over metrics like price-to-earnings ratios, discounted cash flow models, or EBITDA margins. And yet, the biggest edge

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Dividend ETFs vs. Building Your Own Portfolio: When to Choose Each

Leave a Comment / Income Investing / Shailesh Kumar, MBA / March 31, 2025

You want consistent, growing income. The kind that frees you from the anxiety of market volatility and makes your wealth feel real. You’ve probably considered dividend ETFs—the set-it-and-forget-it kind of investing that promises instant diversification and ease. But if you’re serious about compounding wealth through dividends, a deeper question remains: Should you build your own

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