It’s been around 2 months that Rakesh Jhunjhunwala (RJ) is no more…

RJ was the first person for me to have some interest in investing finance and Securities Market. On business channels, everyone was talking ‘technical’ concepts then, but RJ was talking companies, fundamentals, growth, economics in very simple language.

RJ was an eternal bull with conviction & belief towards Indian economy & stock market. Most importantly, he inspired many people to invest in the stock market through small investments, with diversification & also sometimes through Mutual Funds/ SIPs. There are so many public gatherings & events that he has addressed and his views are still valid now. Publicly, he never promoted trading in securities.

Interesting to note that he was not bullish on everything & every sector in India. In his last interview with Shreen Bhan, CNBC TV-18, he said he wasn’t bullish about telecom sector as it required repeated capital infusion.

In his initial years, RJ studied & read annual reports, newspapers, economics, business magazines to get grip of Indian and international markets. He said stock market is not gambling, but you buy businesses through shares.

RJ also never claimed to know everything in stock market. He followed and learnt from his peers & friends in the investment circle. He applied real life learning to the markets. During his interviews, he quoted many Hindi philosophical learnings from stock market, this made interviews more interesting.

Some (or many) people can’t take the fact that he made money by trading & then investing in stock market and have been extremely critical about him and then his health issues. Many have talked about his shirt not being ironed during PM visit, etc.

All that apart- till date, no one can ever deny the fact that he was optimistic about Indian economy (irrespective of Govt. at Centre). Interestingly, most of his investment journey has been during Congress era (Note: Not making any political comment here).

Also, we Indians deserves a strong voice like RJ for domestic and international markets.

If we read the business newspapers now, India is lacking the required optimism for the long-term investments. In short term, things may be different (Rupee depreciation, Russia-Ukrain, Inflation, etc.). But, RJ always talked 15-20+ years. That’s the Big Bull thought process which is lacking now. I feel, we are lacking this perception now.

He never made stock market investing a very boring & technical subject. He explained stock markets in simple words that a common man can understand. He opened doors to all… It was during Harshad Mehta’s time, he was part of bear gang but later on he said – Value Investing is way forward. “Ab bull baneka time aa gaya hain” – Reference to The Scam Series on OTT.

Sharing an old interview of RJ on CNBC TV18 (on investing, trading, his learnings, mistakes, 2010 big year he predicted, being part of record lists, his investment ‘mistakes’ & his counter to it, management buy outs by him, health issues – ending it awkwardly for him):