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Ever wondered why people almost always lose money in a Casino (except for the few times when luck works in their favour and they leave richer than when they first entered)? Well, for starters, the House always wins because they rig the game. How?

Trade expectancy is the calculation that shows what the typical profit is for each trade that is placed. If it's a negative, the strategy is a loser. Here is an easy way to understand it with a simple example. Firstly, the calculation combines how many trades are typically won with the average loss on losers and the average gain on winners. Say for example, you buy a stock at Rs.100, your stop loss/risk for the trade is 10 points (you will sell when the price falls to Rs. 90) and your target is 20 points from you purchase price ( i.e, Rs. 120).

Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Ltd. is a home finance company which has caught itself up in a problem they did not see coming. So what's all the fuss about? This is what normally  happens : You put your hard earned money in a low risk debt instrument (usually marketed by a mutual fund)  and forget about it for sometime because you know (or atleast you think you do) your money isn't going anywhere. DHFL comes and borrows money from a debt mutual fund for its HF loans. This keeps on happening periodically and the general understanding is that the company will repay your MF in regular intervals of time. End of story. This is what has happened :

Cross default is a provision in a bond indenture or loan agreement that puts a borrower in default if the borrower defaults on another obligation. Simply put, if you take a housing loan from Bank A repayable yearly for 5 years at a fixed interest rate, you are liable to pay the installments at the end of the year. However, if you have also taken some other kinds of loans, say for example, car loan from Bank B, and end up defaulting on that, Bank A will ask you to pay the rest of your amount immediately instead of waiting for the loan term to end. So, a default on one loan becomes a trigger factor for the repayment of the other loans that you have taken. Why? The answer is a question. What guarantee does Bank A have of you paying up their money and not running away when you are struggling to pay up to Bank B right now? Better to get paid now rather than wait and cry later on. Cut your losses short.

The thought of vacations sometimes is a lot more fun than the actual vacation for some people. Summer holidays can get quite boring if you don't have anything on your calendar. At that time, you'll remember just how much you miss college. But the hols (that's a word from the very popular child detective series "The Famous Five" ) can also be a very good time to brush up on some reading and help widen your perspective and understand of the world while you become a couch potato (atleast that way, you win one time). I've compiled a list of books that have the power of getting you hooked on and for sometime (even if just for a few hours a day) giving you the opportunity of living the lives of the characters in the books. Afterall they do say,  "A normal person lives only One Life, but a reader lives a thousand in a lifetime".  Jeffery Archer Books: Clifton Chronicles Mightier than the Sword Sins of a Father  Personal Favorites: Be C...

Baga Beach in the night was a treat for the eyes. I had come to the same place 9 years ago and it definitely has made a lot of improvement. The shacks are better and have expanded their area and influence onto the sands. Every shack has around 25 to 30 candle lit tables out on the sand with these low lying chairs overlooking the water and LED lights the same colour of their shacks so you know which place you’re eating at. I wanted to see Goa nightlife and I got it. The only problem was the music. It was way too loud. Every shack had a dance floor with each DJ trying to show the other guy that his set was better and speakers louder. So by the end of just 15 mins you wouldn’t really know what song you were listening to. So go eat a shack if you want to just eat and dance (and not talk, it’s useless; you wouldn’t be able to hear anything) otherwise walk on Tito’s lane for the normal restaurants. Tito’s lane is the life of Baga after the beach. That’s where all the clubs are....

Others would ask, “Goa jaake peeya nhi toh kya kiya?” . I, on the other hand would ask, “Goa jaake ghuma nhi toh kya kiya?”  Now one would tell you that churches, beaches, drinking and clubbing are the only things to go for in Goa. But that isn’t the case at all. There sure is a lot more to do than just sit in your room or laze around the beach. Especially when you’ve driven 14 hours to reach your destination. Phew. So what did I do? I took the car (and then scooty; with a GA registration) and drove full North Goa to South Goa. Out of the 1314kms that we drove, 100kms happened within the state in 3 days. Day 1 we went to Baga beach in the morning but since neither I nor my dad had any plans of getting wet that morning, we headed to Fort Aguada, past Sinquerim beach for some sightseeing.  This place is around 10kms (30mins) from Baga. It’s up on a mountain/hill and is a famous tourist spot. How’d I know? The number of cars were a lot and it felt like half of ...

I went to Goa with my parents. And trust me, it was fun. For one, you really don’t have to worry about money when you’re out travelling, shopping, eating or drinking. Secondly, you have a 90% success rate of going to all the places YOU want to go to, instead of compromising for the sake of your friends.   Baga Balcony Glass Windows Now I stayed in Goa for 4 nights, two of which were in Baga and the other two in Candolim. Both places were booked via Airbnb. One advice: Avoid booking a hotel room, even if it’s near a beach (I don’t understand people’s obsession with beaches; they’re quite dirty and crowded). Instead,.......

The journey is more important than the destination.  I learnt driving 2 years ago (enrolled for a driving class 3 days after my 18 th birthday) and since then I’ve driven on every possible type of road. But I wanted more. Flying by air didn’t excite me. I wanted to look out of the window to trees and open roads; not clouds. 2 weeks ago after lots of pleading or logical reasoning (as I like to put it), I finally convinced my parents to accompany me on a road trip to Goa. At first, they were a bit apprehensive of the length of the journey (owing to previous bad experiences with bus travelling), but then again, you gotta do what you want to do. The route we selected was Mumbai – Pune – Satara – Kolhapur – Amboli Ghat – Baga, Goa. We only did one stopover for the night at Pune. The rest was a continuous drive with only a 45 minute halt for lunch before the start of the 73km long, 3.5 hour Amboli Ghat. Note: Just after the food mall at Lonavala and before the start of ...