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The Long View

On money, work, and living well.

Showing essays in Money. Show all →
🇮🇳 India Markets 6 min read 24 June 2026

Two signals, same direction: on the SIP divergence underneath the record headlines

Indian SIP monthly inflows hit a record ~₹31,000 crore in May 2026. The same months saw the AMFI stoppage ratio cross 100% and outstanding SIP accounts contract for the first time in 63 months. Two numbers, same direction in headline terms, opposite directions in compositional terms. The piece is about which signal is structural — and about how AMFI's own campaign register has begun acknowledging the answer the rupee headline obscures.

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🌐 Global Markets 5 min read 13 June 2026

The 30% tell: what SpaceX's IPO will reveal about founder-as-brand at $1.5 trillion

SpaceX is targeting a June 2026 IPO at a $1.5 trillion valuation. The structural detail almost no analysis has named: Musk is discussing allocating up to 30% of the offering to retail investors, against the typical 5–10%. That choice is the tell — and the IPO will be the first market-scale referendum on what the singular-leader temperament is worth at full size.

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🌐 Global Markets 7 min read 8 June 2026

The 'I-We' Index: the psychological sibling the Deadlift Index has been missing

The Truflation Deadlift Index tracks CEO physical capability as a proxy for executive resilience. The cleanest candidate to sit alongside it is psychological rather than physical: a tradeable index built on the ratio of "I" to "we" in CEO speech — a signal forty years of academic research suggests is one of the most reliable predictors of leadership character in existence. This piece proposes the index, makes the academic case, and sketches the first cohort of twenty.

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🇮🇳 India Markets 8 min read 4 June 2026

On duty: India's two-sided gold strategy, and the word doing all its work

The Hyderabad speech, the duty hike from 6% to 15%, and the parallel GMS revamp discussions arrived close enough together to be read as one strategy: suppress new household gold demand on one side, mobilise the existing household stockpile on the other. The whole posture rests on a single word — idle — that misdescribes what private gold is actually doing.

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🌐 Global Markets 7 min read 27 May 2026

Five forms of gold, five kinds of trust: a framework for the mix

There is no universal ideal split across jewellery, bullion, SGBs, ETFs and tokenised gold. Each form does a different job and fails in a different way. The useful question isn't "what proportion" — it's "whom am I trusting, and what am I holding gold against."

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🌐 Global Markets 5 min read 21 May 2026

Can retail ride the silver wave? A note on who actually surfs and who gets surfed

Silver's swings look like an invitation. The wave metaphor flatters everyone into imagining themselves the surfer. It's worth asking, calmly, who is actually positioned to ride volatility — and who the volatility is riding.

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🌐 Global Investment Education 11 min read 15 May 2026

Nvidia vs silver: how to think about two very different AI trades

Both have ridden the AI wave to record highs — Nvidia delivered 66% revenue growth in its latest fiscal year, silver rallied 130% in 2025. Retail investors increasingly ask which is the better AI bet. The honest answer: they're not in the same category, and the comparison matters mostly for what it reveals about each.

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🇮🇳 India Investment Education 8 min read 15 May 2026

Should you invest in PAXG?

PAXG is a blockchain-based token where each unit represents one ounce of LBMA-certified gold stored in London vaults. Globally, it's a credible gold investment vehicle. For Indian investors, the 30% Virtual Digital Asset tax classification, 1% TDS, and access friction combine to make it dramatically worse than the alternatives available domestically. An honest guide.

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🇮🇳 India Investment Education 9 min read 15 May 2026

Should retail investors buy gold and silver futures?

The honest answer for most retail investors: probably not. Gold and silver futures offer leveraged exposure to volatile assets, with tax treatment that's worse than ETFs, rollover costs that erode long-term holdings, and a SEBI-documented track record where 91% of retail F&O traders lose money. A guide to what futures actually are, the narrow cases where they make sense, and what works better for everyone else.

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🇮🇳 India Market Analysis 8 min read 14 May 2026

After Modi's gold appeal: three scenarios for Indian gold prices over the next year

PM Modi asked Indians to pause non-essential gold buying for a year. The government raised import duty from 6% to 15% within 48 hours. Jewellery stocks fell 8-10%. A guide to the most likely scenarios for Indian gold prices over the next twelve months, what the appeal can and cannot actually do, and how different categories of buyer should think about it.

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🇮🇳 India Market Analysis 8 min read 12 May 2026

Silver in 2026: why prices keep seesawing, and what to expect for the rest of the year

Silver rose 130%+ in 2025, breached $100 per ounce, and pulled Indian prices to a record Rs 4 lakh per kg — then started swinging violently in both directions. A guide to what's actually driving the volatility, the structural tensions underneath the chart, and the three scenarios analysts are watching for the rest of 2026.

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🇮🇳 India Investment Education 8 min read 11 May 2026

The year commodity ETFs beat equity in India: inside the gold and silver surge

Indian retail investors poured ₹1.81 lakh crore into ETFs in FY26 — the highest ever. For the first time in Indian financial history, gold and silver ETFs combined attracted more money than equity ETFs. A look at what's driving the surge, where the silver story is louder than the gold story, and the documentation problem Indian families haven't yet solved.

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🇮🇳 India Investment Education 9 min read 5 May 2026

The Indian gold buyer is changing: how Boomers, Millennials, and Gen Z hold the metal differently

Indian gold buyers under 35 are not abandoning gold — they prefer it more strongly than their parents did. But they hold it differently: digitally, in smaller amounts, on their own initiative, and with documentation their grandmothers never imagined. A look at the generational shift, what it reveals about Indian family wealth, and where the friction sits.

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🌐 Global : Investment Education 9 min read 4 May 2026

Gold as a quick-returns investment: why the math doesn't work

Gold rallied 50% in 2025 and retail investors are piling in for the next leg. The math on quick-returns gold investing is unforgiving: transaction costs, tax penalties, drawdown risk, and a fundamental mismatch between what gold is and how it is being traded. A guide to why gold is a strong long-term asset and a poor short-term trade.

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🇮🇳 India Market Trends 5 min read 24 April 2026

India's branded jewellery boom: revenue growing, grams shrinking

Tanishq up 40%. Kalyan up 42%. Organised share climbing past 35%. The numbers look like a rout of the family jeweller — until you back out the gold-price effect.

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🇮🇳 India Market Trends 2 min read 24 April 2026

Akshaya Tritiya 2026: rupees up, grams down

Headlines are calling it a record Rs 20,000 crore festival. But India bought less gold this year, not more — and the volume numbers tell a story the price figures hide.

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🌐 Global gold appreciation 5 min read 17 April 2026

What your gold is worth now

Central banks increased their gold reserves steadily from 2022 to 2025, diversifying away from the US dollar — and gold overtook US Treasuries as the largest share of global reserves for the first time in thirty years.

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🌐 Global Silver scaling new highs 4 min read 14 April 2026

Silver's moment: what Indian families holding silver should know in 2026

Silver is on the global catwalks and hitting record prices. If your family holds silver jewellery, utensils, or coins, here is why 2026 is a good time to know exactly what it is worth.

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🌐 Global Planning to sell gold jewellery in Dublin 4 min read 14 April 2026

Selling gold jewellery in Dublin: what to know before you walk in

Planning to sell gold jewellery in Dublin? Here's how auction houses, cash-for-gold buyers, and bullion dealers compare — and how to make sure you don't leave money on the table.

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🌐 Global Buying gold or silver jewellery in Ireland 5 min read 14 April 2026

Dublin gold hallmarks explained: what every buyer should know

Buying gold or silver jewellery in Ireland? Learn what the Hibernia mark, harp, and fineness numbers on Dublin hallmarks actually mean — and how to protect yourself before you pay.

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