Two boys were cycling in Gimli Motorsports Park. When they looked up, they were absolutely shocked.
Gimli Motorsports Park was a motorsports park where amateur racers gathered to drag race and go-kart. But before that, it served as something else. It used to be a Canadian air force base. The air force base had been converted to a racetrack later. The smooth runway and taxiway of the air base were perfect to make a racing track out of. So when the Canadian air force abandoned the air base, it was converted to a race track. While cycling, when the boys looked up, they were struck to see a massive passenger plane – a Boeing 767 – right over them, approaching silently. The plane was so close, the pilot of the plane said he could see the scared expression on the boys’ faces from his window. What happened? And what was a passenger plane doing over a racetrack? On July 22, 1983, Air Canada’s flight was being prepared for its journey from Montreal to Edmonton. The pilots were told that the fuel measuring system wasn’t working. So, they would have to use a dripstick method to measure the fuel. In this case, the pilot would have to convert a reading that was in centimeters to liters to kilograms. The problem was, Canada had switched from the imperial system to the metric system in 1975 (miles, pounds, gallons, etc to kilometers, kilograms, liters, etc). The formula the pilots were using was for the older imperial system. And so, they overestimated the fuel they had. Mid-flight, the pilots ran out of fuel. The engines shut down. Coincidentally, the captain was an experienced glider pilot. They realized they wouldn’t be able to glide to their destination. But they could land at an ex-air force base where the co-pilot had worked earlier. This air force base was the same one – the one that had been converted to a racetrack. The pilots glided without engine power to this racetrack and attempted to land. Upon touchdown, the front of the nose of the plane touched the runway and dragged – the front landing gear hadn’t locked in place. Despite that, the plane did land safely. All passengers and crew survived without any major injuries. In hindsight, a mathematics calculation like this seems so obvious, you’d assume nobody would make such a mistake. But they did. There are numerous examples of huge costs and damages being incurred because of simple calculation mistakes. Many investors also commit mistakes that seem easy to avoid. One of the most common mistakes in newer investors is of treating ups and downs in the same manner. Someone’s stock investments fell by 10% in 1 month. Over the next 1 month, it gained 10%. Many investors think this is break-even; that no loss was made. In this case, the truth is, the investor is still at a loss. To understand this, let’s take a case where the investor started with Rs 1,000. 10% down is Rs 900. (10% of Rs 1,000 is Rs 100). Now, the value of the investment is Rs 900. 10% up is Rs 990 (10% of Rs 900 is Rs 90). So overall, the value is still Rs 10 less than the original amount. This is what makes percentages tricky. It’s not the same as Rs 100 reduced and Rs 100 added. Think about it, the greater the loss, the greater the return you’ll have to generate to break even: if you suffer a loss of 50%, you will need to make 100% in gains to break even! This is why Charlie Munger advocates an investment strategy that focuses less on making higher returns – but focuses more on avoiding big losses. The downside is much most costlier than the upside. -- Kindly email stock reports at [email protected] For sharing knowledge -- NIFTYVIEWS.COM NOW A FREE OPEN SOURCE WEBSITE. http://www.niftyviews.com/ Disclaimer :- "The opinions expressed by the members on this board are based on their individual experience and perceptions and to share information with other members with the best of intentions to help fellow members in investment decisions as equity investment is a risky venture.The administrator of www.Niftyviews.com just provide a platform for the authors to express their opinion and take no guarantee for the genuineness of the same."ANY member of this forum doesnt prepare or publish any research report; or ii. provide research report; or iii. make 'buy/sell/hold' recommendation; or iv. give price target; --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Niftyviews.com" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/stockresearcher/CAHgtNZyym2FZi8pEQKUC2gPgo5f3ECBmga0KM3AYvrbigYug4Q%40mail.gmail.com.
