In 2014, Capitalmind started as a subscriber-only online group of active investors and traders. It was a google-group based community then. Now of course we have the Wealth Management through the PMS (Portfolio Management Service) and the Investment Advisory Service, which makeup our other businesses.
A year later, we moved to Slack, a communication app that has the best of instant messaging features, while allowing for theme-based subgroups.
In this post, I sit back and reflect on what the Capitalmind community is all about and how it has helped me (and many others) get better. Better not just at investing or trading, but at everything else that involves some decision making or even skill-building.
There are a number of things one could attribute this to –
Wisdom of the crowds & Condorcet’s jury theorem
Marquis de Condorcet was a French mathematician and philosopher of the late 18th century. He is best known for his work on majority-voting, also called Jury Theorem. In his theorem, Condorcet identifies how good majority-voting is, at discovering the correct answer to a binary, yes-or-no question.
Condorcet mathematically proved that if we were to ask enough people to answer a binary question, then the answer given by the majority of the people has the highest probability of being right.
What if we were to add a ‘Context’ filter to this Jury Theorem and ask the same binary question to a set of people who are better aware of the context, could be experts or just well-informed.
Sounds like our Capitalmind Premium Slack?
That’s pretty much what happens when we ask a question on Premium Slack; with upwards of a thousand members, the odds of getting closer to a correct or an optimal answer to a question is relatively high. The Wisdom-of -the-crowd.
All of us at Capitalmind have experienced this. You have a question? Post it on Slack and you’re bound to get a response. Should I have multiple trading accounts? Or something more complicated – Does OI (Open Interest) of Options have any predictive value? Or perhaps a tech thing like – Is it possible to combine the bandwidth from two internet connections? The list goes on.
The response is never farther away from the truth!
Dealing with Distractions, Reward Substitution & Finding your Tribe
There is a distraction at every corner.
Say, you want to read some article about Momentum Investing, but there is that Whatsapp convo that’s equally interesting. What do you do?
Does that sound familiar.
Don’t blame yourself, if you are distracted, It’s only human.
But, what if we could find a way to be meaningfully distracted? Is it even possible?
Our monkey brains seek activity and enjoys distractions. It’s hedonic in nature, it craves for that dopamine kick. More importantly, it cares a damn about the long term adverse effects of being constantly distracted.
So, what’s the way out? What if we can find something that may distract us, but it’s within the domain and boundaries of our long-term goals. That’s what we call the ‘Reward Substitution’, in behavioral economics.
And, that’s what Capitalmind Slack Community provides for. An avenue to substitute the reward.
Agree, being on a synchronous communication platform can be distracting for some, but it would still be better than being preoccupied with absolute purposeless gibberish. Isn’t it? – The lesser evil thing you see.
Also it’s about Finding-your-Tribe. Late Ken Robinson, in his book Finding your Element, talks about this idea of Finding your Tribe. You must read the book. He’s a phenomenal story teller. He underlines the value of finding people with similar goals, which could help us get better at our craft: One, by giving us opportunities to guide and be guided & receive feedback. Two, opportunities to collaborate and three, for giving us a realistic sense of where we are in terms of our skills and knowledge.
Access to experts, Transparency & Learning
Let’s do a thought experiment. Imagine if your Amazon Prime subscription gave you access to Jeff Bezos and his team. Wouldn’t it be nice to chat and hear from him, his views and thought process, and get his opinion on things that mattered to you? Furthermore, what if it gave you access to other Amazon Prime members, too.
Well, in the world of financial markets and wealth management, Capitalmind has managed to do just that. Perhaps one of the very few firms where the fund managers are always available to answer your questions.
To think about it, it makes for a great learning avenue and provides for continuous learning for individuals in the same industry, field or practice.
It is this openness, easy access, transparency and learning that has transformed both the members and us as a firm into a self-sustaining community. The benefit actually is mutual.
The genius of a lone-wolf though, is more of a myth, it pales in comparison to what many well-informed individuals can do.
Guess Kipling puts it well –
“Now this is the law of the jungle, as old and as true as the sky, And the wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the wolf that shall break it must die. // As the creeper that girdles the tree trunk, the law runneth forward and back; For the strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack.
A peek into Capitalmind Slack Discussions
Here’s a glimpse of how discussions on our Slack community happens
We have upwards of 20 Channels, a Channel is similar to an interest group, you could join any of the channels, based on your interest. In terms of topics you name it and we’ve got you covered. From General Finance, Bonds & Funds, Trading all the way to, yes, the dreaded Covid19.
Some snapshots from recent discussions
Long term Stocks Channel – A result discussion thread
Taxation Channel – A discussion thread on Deferred Tax Liability
Geek-stuff Channel – Yes geeks have their own cave – A discussion thread on building a gaming PC
For access to premium research, model portfolios and our Slack Community, you can subscribe to Capitalmind Premium here.
