States WestPosted at: Nov 22 2019 9:34PM

Ahmedabad, Nov 22 (UNI) The two sisters and disciple of controversial self-styled godman Swami Nityanand, for whose production in court their father had moved the Gujarat High Court, on Friday issued another video, presumably from a Caribbean country, claiming that they were ready to come to India, provided they were allowed to return under court protection.

The eldest daughter of ex-disciple of Nityananda, Janardan Sarma of Tamil Nadu, who had knocked the doors of the HC, alleging that his daughters have been kidnapped by the Ashram and taken abroad, Lopa Mudra and younger one, Nityanandita, issued the video and called for an open debate on the issue.

Nityanandita, who had dodged the police and other authorities reportedly to move out of India from the Ashram here, even alleged that her father (in the video she continuously addressed her father by his first name, Janardan) had tried to blackmail her earlier to file a rape case under the POCSO Act against Nityanand.

'Swamji (Nityanand) had not only reared four of us (three sisters and one brother) as his own children, but also taken care of Janardan and Bhuvaneshwari (parents) in a similar manner.

Lopa Mudra, the elder one, said they were willing to come to India for appearing before the Gujarat HC on November 26, the next date of hearing in the habeas corpus case.

She put forth five conditions for it. First, they should be given police and court protection till their return. Second, they should not be 'kidnapped' by their family. Third, they should not be arrested.

Fourth, the court should not order them with whom to live, as 'we both are major'.

Lastly, she demanded that the two ladies of the Ashram, including its local care-taker Pranpriya, who have been arrested by the police, should be released.

Meanwhile, Mr Sarma reiterated his allegations that the Ashram people have kidnapped his daughters.

'How could my daughter Nityanadita, who was just 18 when she had arrived in Ahmedabad eight months back, manage to go out of the country? Who arranged the money and Visa for her travel?

'I also want to understand as to what kind of spiritual training my daughters are getting from the Ashram people that they are calling their own parents kidnappers,' he added.

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Nityanand Ashram case: Missing sisters issue new video, put forth conditions for coming to India - United News of India

Four minor students of a Rs Gurukul' run by godman Nithyananda were produced before the Gujarat High Court on Wednesday, after their parents alleged that they had been held Rs hostage' by the police.

The Gurukul-cum-Ashram (a residential school) is situated at Hirapur village on the outskirts of the city.

As the habeas corpus petitions came up for hearing on Wednesday afternoon, Justice S R Brahmbhatt asked police to immediately produce the four students -- two boys and two girls.

The four teenage students were produced before the court in the evening.

A habeas corpus petition is filed to obtain a direction from the court to the authorities to produce someone who has gone missing or is suspected to have been held in captivity illegally.

The parents claimed that they were not allowed to meet their children by the Ahmedabad district police, who are probing a complaint filed by another parent that his two daughters were held captive by the Ashram authorities. The petitioners alleged that their children had been "kept like hostages in the Gurukul" by the police who are investigating the case of missing girls.

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4 students of Nithyananda's Gurukul produced in HC - Daily Pioneer

New Delhi: As trouble brews for controversial godman Nithyananda, the mother of a 24-year-old woman who died under mysterious circumstances outside his ashram demanded on Tuesday a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

Sangeetha had died at Nithyanandas ashram on the outskirts of Bengaluru on December 28, 2014. After her death, her parents approached the Bengaluru Police and filed a complaint against Nithyananda alleging that she had been tortured and died under mysterious circumstances inside the ashram.

The CBI should probe my daughters case as the Bengaluru Police failed to conduct an inquiry into Sangeethas death. Many women and children who reside in the Bengaluru ashram are being tortured and killed. To make sure they are safe, the CBI should investigate the case, Sangeethas mother, Jansi Rani, told News18.

Sangeetha, who hailed from Trichy district, joined the ashram in 2010 and died four years later. While the ashram told the family she had succumbed to a heart attack, the parents suspected foul play and lodged a complaint with the Bengaluru Police.

In the complaint letter, the parents alleged that Sangeetha was assaulted in the ashram and that they had seen injury marks and bruises on her legs. The mother said she wanted to bring her daughter back but the officials did not allow her to meet the girl alone. The parents said Sangeetha was always accompanied by other 'sanyasis' to ensure that she did not reveal details of the ashram.

Nithyananda is also an accused in an alleged rape case filed against him in Karnataka. The godman has been on the run and two of his disciples, Pranpriya and Priyatatva, have been arrested by the Ahmedabad Police.

The Gujarat High Court on Tuesday, in response to a habeas corpus filed by the father of two women missing from the Ahmedabad ashram, directed police to use all available mechanism to trace the duo. A division bench directed the police to consult Interpol and Ministry of External Affairs, as well as other agencies, to trace the two women, ensure their protection from any threat, and assure them their independent will and choice will be respected by the judiciary.

Meanwhile, a 15 year-old-girl who was rescued from an ashram belonging to Nithyananda a month ago has alleged she was made to wear jewellery and makeup in the middle of the night and be a part of videos for him.

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We Demand a CBI Probe, Says Mother of 24-year-old Who Was Found Dead Near Nithyananda's Ashram - News18

Anurag Behar As CEO of the Azim Premji Foundation, Anurag Behar is steering one of the largest philanthropic initiatives in the world, powered by a $21 billion bequest made by Wipro Founder Azim Premji. The Foundation focusses on improving the quality of government school teachers, makes grants to non-profit organisations, and runs the Azim Premji University that trains people for the social sector. In an interview with Forbes India, Behar talks about the Foundations work and how philanthropists could be more connected with social realities. Edited excerpts:

Q. How are you using the rise in endowment to expand fieldwork? We extensively support capacity development of government school teachers in Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Karnataka, apart from Puducherry, one district in Telangana and in the Northeast. We have roughly 1,500 people on the field, which should go up to 2,500 or 3,000 in the next five years. We will deepen our work in places where we are already present. For example, if we are working in 10 out of 17 blocks in the Barmer district of Rajasthan, we will build ground-level presence in the remaining seven too. Right now, teachers from these seven blocks are engaging with us at a much lower frequency.

Q. How many teachers has the Foundation trained in the last ten years? I have absolutely no count of how many teachers we have trained; the total number will be in lakhs in the last 10 years. We keep track of how many teachers we are engaged with in a three-month cycle, which is close to 1.75 lakh. This is because building capacity is not a one-shot process: It involves multiple sessions, different modes and levels of engagement.

Q. What about the new Azim Premji University campus in Bhopal? The Azim Premji University is currently operating from a rented premise [in Bengaluru]. Our campus is under construction [on its outskirts], and we will move there by next June. Over the next four years, our student numbers will go up from the current 1,300 to 6,000. This expansion will be significant for us because the financial model of our university is that roughly 90 percent of expenses are borne by the Foundation, while 10 percent is paid for by the students.

We are also setting up a university in Bhopal, and are discussing approvals with the government. Our objective is to set up the university in two to three years, and accommodate 5,000 to 6,000 students. We will perhaps set up a third university in five years.

Q. How many non-profits have you provided grants to and how do you pick your causes? We have supported about 220 NGOs across India, which in turn have operations in multiple states and districts. Our approach toward grant-making is to support not-for-profit organisations that are working with the most vulnerable groups of society. This work could range from basic efforts to ameliorate the conditions of people to addressing more complicated causes. We have supported initiatives that work in the areas of farmer distress, women who face violence, or homeless children. We help organisations put better processes and systems in place.

Q. What are the lessons that have altered your approach towards the sector? First, we have to recognise that the Foundation is insignficant in the context of India, and still try our bestbecause we are certainly more privileged than most other organisations in terms of our resources. Its a complex and often messy reality out there. There is no full understanding of what the causes are, no agreement on what the end-state is, and there rarely can be, that is the sign of a vibrant democracy.

Second, in business or physical science, you get used to finding the perfect solution. Social realities are so complex that you cannot have solutions, only effort toward improvements. Once you develop that mindset, individual philanthropists or organisations need to be humble. Not always, but too often, people with money start believing that they have all the solutions and that they know better. Youve made money in business, which is great, but if you are thrown in front of 30 children and asked to teach them for a year, you will have no idea what to do.

Third, you have to be really connected to the ground. This is a huge problem. People who sit in cabins in Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi or the Western hemisphere have to mould themselves to suit the realities out there. The reality will not suit their ideas. Personally, I dont think there is some great, transformational philanthropy happening in India right now, or that the country was impoverished of philanthropy earlier. Right now, philanthropy is too often being propped up as a flavour of the month, a talking point. If you go back some 80-100 years ago, there were people like JRD Tata and Jamnalal Bajaj or Amblal Sarabhai who have done incredible things for nation-building. The notion that somehow India has discovered philanthropy now is just a delusion.

Q. So were first-generation entrepreneurs more in touch with the realities of the social sector than businessmen today? Early-generation entrepreneurs like Jamnalal Bajaj, Jamshetji Tata, and Ambalal Sarabhai had a lot more wisdom than many of theeven sincerephilanthropists of today. This is a broad-brush comparison and Im sure there are philanthropists today who are equally enlightenedbut my sense is that we can do with a lot more wisdom today and do less with strategy smart thinking etc.

One of my favourite stories to explain this is about the time when Mahatma Gandhi took in a Dalit couple, a community he later referred to as Harijans, into the Sabarmati ashram. Funders stopped supporting him. One night, a sheth drove to the ashram and realised that it was on the brink of shutting down, and immediately handed Gandhi `15,000, an amount that would have easily sustained the ashram for more than two years. That was Vikram Sarabhais father, Ambalal. Todays philanthropists would have gotten wrapped up in asking the Mahatma for a theory of change or impact measurement. What would have happened if Mahatma Gandhi had been forced to shut down Sabarmati Ashram? That tells you about what humility and wisdom combined with philanthropy can do.

(This story appears in the 27 December, 2019 issue of Forbes India. You can buy our tablet version from Magzter.com. To visit our Archives, click here.)

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'Philanthropists need to be humble': Azim Premji Foundation CEO - Forbes India

Members of the Jai Karnataka damaging the banner of Nithyananda Swami in 2010 |  Photo Credit: BCCL

New Delhi: American author Joyce Meyer once said, "We all face storms in life. Some more difficult than others, but we all go through trials and tribulations. That is why we have the gift of faith." Meyer's words stand true to a country like India where people wear their faith on their sleeve. Since the beginning of time, religious identity has been a predominant factor in the lives of Indians who place their trust and beliefs in a higher power.

People often turn to religion to seek answers to questions that are beyond the comprehension of mere mortals. To that extent, India is one of the countries where religious beliefs are considered sacrosanct. However, each coin has two sides and all good things must come to an end. The extent to which religion has been exploited by sections of the society for their own greed is one question India is struggling to answer, even in the 21st Century.

While it is impossible to list every single case where a religious sect or leader misled his/her followers and exploited their faith, it is important to remember the ones who stand exposed and are either absconding or serving time in prison.

Born in Tamil Nadu's Tiruvannamalai, Nithyananda is a self-styled swami who owns a trust which manages temples, ashrams and gurukuls in India and overseas. In 2010, a sex tape of the 'godman' shot by his own former driver was aired on national television. An investigation later revealed that the tape was authentic. A disciple had accused him of sexual harassment in the same year. He was in jail for 52 days in April 2010 before a court granted him bail. He was also accused of raping a female disciple for over a period of five years and a court slapped charges against him under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) in 2018. He is currently on the run and reports suggest that he may have fled the country to evade arrest.

[Picture Credits: BCCL]

Lodged at the Jodhpur Central jail, self-styled godman Asaram was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2018 for raping a teenage girl. At the height of his popularity in the 1990s, Asumal Sirumalani Harpalani or Asaram had 400 ashrams operating across India and abroad. Apart from the thousands of people who followed him blindly, Asaram was often visited by politicians, actors and some of the country's most accomplished businessmen.

[Picture Credits: BCCL]

Leader of Sirsa-based sect Dera Sacha Sauda, Gurmeet is currently serving life imprisonment for the murder of journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati. In 2017, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the rape of two female disciples. Such was their belief in him as their leader that Gurmeet's followers triggered widespread violence in the town of Panchkula where a CBI court had issued its verdict in this regard. That violence claimed the lives of 30 people and left hundreds injured. He is currently lodged at the Sunaria jail in Haryana.

[Picture Credits: BCCL]

Founder of the Satlok Ashram and a leader of the Kabir Panth, Rampal was arrested from his ashram in Hisar in November 2014. This was after repeated attempts of the police to take him into custody were foiled by his supporters who attacked police personnel with lathis and other weapons on more than one occasion. At the time of his arrest, the bodies of five women and a baby were recovered from his ashram. Currently, in jail, he is anaccused in at least six other cases.

[Picture Credits: BCCL]

Identified as the kingpin of a high-profile sex racket, Shreemurath Dwivedi was arrested in 2010 and is currently behind bars. A security guard at a hotel in Delhi, Dwivedi gained a mass following as Ichchadhari Bhimanand in 1988.

[Picture Credits: BCCL]

A self-styled godman who ran several ashrams in Tamil Nadu and other south-Indian states was convicted on 13 counts of rape and molestation in 1997. His trial famously involved an illusionist's visit to the courtroom for the purpose of debunking his claims of 'divine powers'. He died in 2011 while at the Cuddalore Central Prison.

[Picture Credits: BCCL]

A household name in Jabalpur and neighbouring areas at one point in time, Vikas Joshi was arrested in 2006 for sexually abusing several girls and filming the incidents. A fast track court convicted him in 2010 and he continues to be in prison.

It would be entirely wrong to state that each man, woman or child who devotes his/her life to religion is corrupt. However, if the past has taught us anything, it is to be careful while placing our faith in anyone who claims to be the child of God. One of the world's greatest sportsmen, ace boxer Muhammad Ali once said, "Rivers, ponds, lakes and streams- they all have different names, but they all contain water. Just as religions do- they all contain truths."

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Ungodly tales of godmen: Your faith is sacred! Don't place it in criminals - Times Now

Two popular investment avenues, real estate and bitcoin, have been making waves in todays market. When it comes to these opportunities, it can be difficult to discern which is the wiser investment choice for you. Both have benefits and, like all investments, carry risk.

If you have been considering these assets and are looking to select the option thats a good fit for you, lets examine the pros and cons of each investment. Keep in mind before making any investment decisions to perform your due diligence and consult your financial advisor.

Breaking It Down: Real Estate Investment

Real estate investment is the purchasing of property with the intent of renting or selling it to make a profit. This is a multifaceted investment. You can flip homes, rent business space, be a residential landlord, rent out vacation property or open an Airbnb.

Real estate investing can help diversify your portfolio. Property is also a tangible investment; you can pull money from it and put value back into it. With a proper purchase and research, you can bring in money while putting value into a sellable asset. Additionally, owning property comes with tax breaks.

However, a great deal of effort is involved when it comes to real estate investment. Keeping up with property requires regular maintenance, upgrade and repairs. Owners need to collect rent and worry about utilities, not to mention that purchasing property can be pricey upfront.

Also, property is not an entirely fluid asset. Although you can sell property, it can sometimes be difficult to unload. It takes time to sell, and theres a chance you might pour a lot of money into something that does not equal out. On the other hand, people need somewhere to live, so real estate will always be a necessity.

Pros:

Tangible asset.

Versatile investment opportunities.

Tax benefits.

High cash flow.

Long-term returns.

Cons:

Not a fluid asset.

Costly investment.

High maintenance.

Breaking It Down: Bitcoin Investment

Cryptocurrency, the most popular of which is bitcoin, is one of the newest investment options available. These digital currencies act as a medium of exchange globally as an alternative to money. They are technological currency backed by blockchain technology.

One big benefit of bitcoin investment is the currency can never be inflated, since there will always be a limited number of bitcoins to go around. Theres also not much involved in purchasing the currency. You obtain your cryptocurrency wallet, purchase your bitcoin and mine. The currency is global and can be sold easily on a cryptocurrency exchange. Transactions are marked in the blockchain, which is publicly available, and bitcoin is currently in high demand.

However, as great as all these perks may be, there are some risk factors. Since bitcoin is an intangible asset, theres a fair bit of room for error in exchange. The currency is entirely digital, which makes it open to cyberattacks, and security isnt ironclad. Also, although there are only a limited number of bitcoins, there are many other types of cryptocurrency available that could inflate the market.

Additionally, since this asset is so new, theres not enough data to really calculate its value. As recent price fluctuations show, the market is volatile. You could easily lose everything you invest, so the decision of whether or not to get involved with bitcoin really comes down to how much you are willing to risk.

Pros:

Peer-to-peer system.

Governed by economic principles.

No inflation.

Easy to trade.

Long-term potential.

No maintenance.

Lower cost.

Cons:

Bubble inflates and fizzles out.

Not a tangible asset.

Security issues.

Little/no government involvement.

High risk.

Which investment comes out on top?

As you build out your investment portfolio, your best investment really depends on your personal financial background, your familiarity with the asset and how much you are willing to risk. Purchasing bitcoin is low-maintenance and high-risk with the potential for high reward, while real estate is a long-term investment that could end in a big payout down the road or provide steady income. So its ultimately up to what you can afford and what you can afford to lose.

The information provided here is not investment, tax or financial advice. You should consult with a licensed professional for advice concerning your specific situation.

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Bitcoin Versus Real Estate: Which Investment Is Better For You? - Forbes

The Valleys affinity for robotics shows no signs of cooling. Technical enhancements through innovations like AI/ML, compute power and big data utilization continue to drive new performance milestones, efficiencies and use cases.

Despite the old saying, hardware is hard, investment in the robotics space continues to expand. Money is pouring in across robotics billion-dollar sub verticals, including industrial and labor automation, drone delivery, machine vision and a wide range of others.

According to data from Pitchbook and Crunchbase, 2018 saw new highs for the number of venture deals and total invested capital in the space, with roughly $5 billion in investment coming from nearly 400 deals. With robotics well on its way to again set new investment peaks in 2019, we asked 13 leading VCs who work at firms spanning early to growth stages to share whats exciting them most and where they see opportunity in the sector:

Participants discuss the compelling business models for robotics startups (such as Robots as a Service), current valuations, growth tactics and key robotics KPIs, while also diving into key trends in industrial automation, human replacement, transportation, climate change, and the evolving regulatory environment.

Which trends are you most excited in robotics from an investing perspective?

The opportunity to unlock human superpowers:

How much time are you spending on robotics right now? Is the market under-heated, overheated, or just right?

Are there startups that you wish you would see in the industry but dont? Plus any other thoughts you want to share with TechCrunch readers.

I want to see more founders that are building robotics startups that:

Three years ago, the most compelling companies to us in the industrial space were in software. We now spend significantly more time in verticalized AI and hardware. Robotic companies we find most exciting today are addressing key driver areas of (1) high labor turnover and shortage and (2) new research around generalization on the software side. For many years, we have seen some pretty impressive science projects out of labs, but once you take these into the real world, they fail. In these changing environmental conditions, its crucial that robots work effectively in-the-wild at speeds and economics that make sense. This is an extremely difficult combination of problems, and were now finally seeing it happen. A few verticals we believe will experience a significant overhaul in the next 5 years include logistics, waste, micro-fulfillment, and construction.

With this shift in robotic capability, were also seeing a shift in customer sentiment. Companies who are used to buying outright machines are now more willing to explore RaaS (Robot as a Service) models for compelling robotic solutions and that repeat revenue model has opened the door for some formerly enterprise software-only investors. On the other hand, companies exploring robotics in place of tasks with high labor shortages, such as trucking or agriculture, are more willing to explore per hour or per unit pick models.

Adoption wont be overnight, but in the medium term, we are very enthusiastic about the ways robotics will transform industries. We do believe investing in this space requires the right technical know-how and network to evaluate and support companies, so momentum investors looking to dip their hand into a hot space may be disappointed.

Were entering the early stages of the golden age of robotics. Robotics is already a huge, multibillion-dollar market but today that market is dominated by industrial robotics, such as welding and assembly robots found on automotive assembly lines around the world. These robots repeat basic tasks, over and over, and are usually separated by caged walls from humans for safety. However, this is rapidly changing. Advances in perception, driven by deep learning, machine vision and inexpensive, high-performance cameras allow robots to safely navigate the real world, escape the manufacturing cages, and closely interact with humans.

I think the biggest opportunities in robotics are those which attack enormous markets where its difficult to hire and retain labor. One great example is long-haul trucking. Highway driving represents one of the easiest problems for autonomous vehicles, since the lanes tend to be well-marked, the roads have gentle curves, and all traffic runs in the same direction. In the United States alone, long haul trucking is a multi-hundred billion dollar market every year. The customer set is remarkably scalable with standard trailer sizes and requirements for shipping freight. Yet at the same time, trucking companies have trouble hiring and retaining drivers. Its the perfect recipe for robotic opportunity.

Im intrigued by agricultural robots. Ive seen dozens of companies attacking every part of the farming equation from field clearing and preparation, to seeding, to weeding, applying fertilizer, and eventually harvesting. I think theres a lot of value to be harvested here by robots, especially since seasonal field labor is becoming harder to find and increasingly expensive. One enormous challenge in this market, however, is that growing seasons mean that the robotic machinery has a lot of downtime and the cost of equipment isnt as easily amortized in other markets with higher utilization. The other big challenge is that fields are very, very tough on hardware and electronics due to environmental conditions like rain, dust and mud.

There are a ton of important problems to be solved in robotics. The biggest open challenges in my mind are locomotion and grasping. Specifically, I think that for in-building applications, robots need to be able to do all the thing which humans can do specifically opening and closing doors, climbing stairs, and picking items off of shelves and putting them down gently. Plenty of startups have tackled subsets of these problems, but to date no one has built a generalized solution. To be fair, to get to parity with humans on generalized locomotion and grasping, its probably going to take another several decades.

Overall, I feel like the funding environment for robotics is about right, with a handful of overfunded areas (like autonomous passenger vehicles). I think that the most overlooked near-term opportunity in robotics is teleoperation. Specifically, pairing fully automated robotic operations with occasional human remote operation of individual robots. Starship Technologies is a perfect example of this. Starship is actively deploying local delivery robots around the world today. Their first major deployment is at George Mason University in Virginia. They have nearly 50 active robots delivering food around the campus. Theyre autonomous most of the time, but when they encounter a problem or obstacle they cant solve, a human operator in a teleoperation center manually controls the robot remotely. At the same time. Starship tracks and prioritizes these problems for engineers to solve, and slowly incrementally reduces the number of problems the robots cant solve on their own. I think people view robotics as a zero or one solution when in fact theres a world where humans and robots work together for a long time.

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Leading robotics VCs talk about where they're investing - TechCrunch

CUSANO MILANINO, Italy (BRAIN) De Rosa, a name long associated with pro tourracing, hopes to stage a win in the global market as it gets a financial andmanagement boost from an investor group that includes industry veteran AndrewHerrick.

De Rosa's footprint in the U.S. market is scarce despite the brand'spopularity in the 1980s. "But there's always opportunity for a small brand in thisage of niche brands," Herrick said Tuesday. He is a managing director at OutdoorCapital Partners (OCP).

While Herrick acknowledged that the global market for road bikes is in aswoon, a small company like De Rosa often can be nimbler than its largercompetitors. "We're not so worried about the macro economics of the industry,"he said.

Next year De Rosa will also return to the pro tour with a teamannouncement expected soon. Herrick pinned some of De Rosa's future growth onwhat appears to be a thriving market in Europe and North America for gravelbikes, gravel events and gravel racing.

A few days ago, Cristiano De Rosa brought a prototype gravel bike into theMilanino office to show his 85-year-old father, Ugo, the company's founder.

"What's this?" Ugo asked.

"It's a gravel bike," Cristiano said.

Ugo quickly quipped,"It's a bike. We've raced on gravel for years."

The company will continue to be led by Ugo's sons, Cristiano and Danilo.Ugo comes to the office every day and still reads the Gazetta dello Sport in thecompany's showroom. He remains chairman. His three grandsons also work at De Rosa.

Ugo, an amateur racer but a professional builder, founded the company in1953. He has built bicycles for some of pro racing's most famous names, and hisbikes have been ridden to victory at the Giro d'Italia, the Tour de France and theWorld Championships.

"De Rosa stands for quality, design and innovation, providing bikes for someof the best riders in history," Ugo De Rosa said in a statement. The investmentcapital and management skills Outdoor Capital brings to De Rosa marks a newstage in the company's development, he added.

Currently, some of the company's carbon bikes are made in China withsome assembly done in Taiwan. They are painted and finished in Italy. The remainder are manufactured in Italy, including The King, a carbon road bike. The company's e-road bike uses an Asian carbon frame but is fully assembled in Italy.

The company offers frames in carbon, steel, scandium and titanium.

Outdoor Capital Partners is a boutique investment firm with offices inLaguna Beach, California, and Denver. The company's principles includeEric Horton, formerly Giro Sport Designs' creative director, and MichelleVanGilder, who managed demand planning, sourcing and supply chain logistics forthe Rossignol Bike Group's Felt brand. Sam Mancini, who has worked with Apple,Cisco, Oracle and others, is a specialist in acquisitions, corporate turnarounds andinfrastructure reorganization.

Herrick was a co-founder of Pedro's and later joined GT as a vice president.He has been CEO of Crank Brothers and later was CEO at Intense. He also hasserved on a number of boards, including Selle Royal.

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US investment company teams up with De Rosa as it returns to pro tour in 2020 - Bicycle Retailer

As the leader in streaming TV services, Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) is in a class by itself. The streaming video pioneer, which popularized binge-watching, reached over $160 billion in market capitalization in 2019, even eclipsing Disney (NYSE:DIS) at one point in the year.

The surge in share price since Netflix entered the streaming market has been both explosive and persistent. As a result, any investor lucky enough to buy in during the early days -- and hold shares through the volatility -- has made a potentially life-changing purchase equating to returns of over 27,000%.

Image source: Getty Images.

Netflix went public in late May of 2002. At the time, it counted roughly 1 million subscribers who paid a monthly fee for access to its library of DVD movies and TV shows. Its most mature market was San Francisco, where its red envelopes shuttled to and from roughly 4% of households.

CEO Reed Hastings and his team thought they had a long runway for growth in fighting with rivals like Blockbuster, as DVD technology found its way into more households. Netflix's tech-based approach made it scalable, and its software roots gave it an edge over traditional retailers, management said back in 2003.

Those assets persuaded the company to price its IPO at $15 per share back in 2002. Netflix sold roughly 6 million shares at that price and raised about $86 million after expenses. That valued the company at less than $500 million.

Early investors were richly rewarded as Netflix battled with -- and beat -- major competitors like Blockbuster, Walmart, and Redbox for the DVD-by-mail niche. The stock reached a $15 billion market cap in 2011, in fact, translating into a 30-fold return for people who held for a decade after the IPO.

The company would go on to blow past those returns, but not before ensuring that shareholders earned their gains by withstanding a few bouts of epic volatility.

The streaming business was Netflix's real growth catalyst. Executives saw early on that there was much more potential for that entertainment channel, and so they launched a service in 2007 that supercharged subscriber growth. That move, combined with the shift into offering exclusive and original content, made the company a global powerhouse in the entertainment industry.

Along the way, Netflix only split its stock twice, once in 2004 (2-for-1) and again in 2015 (7-for-1). The two splits didn't impact the overall value of the company, but they did ensure that any investors who held through them both would own 14 times their initial number of shares.

So now we have everything we need to calculate your return if you had owned Netflix stock since the beginning.

For simplicity, you could have bought 7 shares for $105, which would have become 98 shares today after the two stock splits. Here in late 2019, Netflix stock is trading for around $314, which means your $105 buy would be worth over $30,770.For context, an equal investment in the S&P 500 would be worth $290 today for an almost 200% return in 17 years.

^SPX data by YCharts

Netflix's 27,000% return since its IPO makes it one of Wall Street's best performers, and those gains are mostly notable for how unusual they are. The other key factor to remember is that shareholders had to endure multiple periods of massive volatility and share price declines, including several 50% slumps, on the way to earning that phenomenal growth.

Together, these facts mean that, while rare, life-changing stock purchases are possible over periods as short as a dozen years. But investors also have to be willing to pay a price in volatility and patience to even have a shot at these massive payouts.

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The oil market continues to send mixed signals, with a pending U.S.-China trade deal and potential production cut extension--or deepening--by OPEC counterbalanced by rising crude inventories and an ominous warning about a looming oil glut by the IEA. Oil prices have mostly been treading water in this sea of uncertainty, with WTI prices sitting nearly 8% above the one-month low of $54.18 per barrel.

Yet, even in the event that the bulls end up carrying the day, they might soon have to contend with yet another monster: a contango.

After remaining at or near backwardation for much of the year, the oil market has returned to contango--a situation that could punch big holes in any gains by oil futures traders.

Contango and Backwardation

Contango and backwardation are terms commonly used in commodity futures markets.

A contango market is one where futures contracts trade at a premium to the spot price. For example, if the price of a WTI crude oil contract today is $60 per barrel but the delivery price in six months is $65, then the market is in contango.

In the reverse scenario, supposing the price of a WTI crude oil contract today is $60 per barrel but the delivery price six months down the line is $55, then the market is said to be in backwardation.

A simple way to think of contango and backwardation is: Contango is a situation where the market believes the future price is set to be more expensive than the current spot price, whereas backwardation is said to occur when the market anticipates the future price to be less expensive than the current spot price. Related: Airstrikes Disrupt Production At Libyan Oilfield

The premium future price for a particular contract is usually associated with the cost of carry that includes storage costs and risk of obsolescence.

U.S. Futures Prices: 1st Month Minus Fourth Month Contract

Source: Forbes

In the chart above, a negative reading indicates backwardation while a positive one indicates contango. Backwardation indicates a bearish situation while contango portends the opposite.

To understand why contango and backwardation matter, it's important to understand that the vast majority of futures traders have no intention of handling the underlying physical commodity once their futures contracts expire--which would be impractical anyway for traders with contracts for hundreds of thousands or millions of barrels of oil.

Rather, these traders and speculators find other traders who are willing to hold their contracts to expiration and, in many cases, buy new replacement contracts (aka contract rolling).

In a contango market, the price of the replacement futures contracts is higher than the contract just sold, which in effect creates a small but significant loss that can quickly add up to potentially huge losses in time.

To understand the serious ramifications that contango can have on your portfolio, consider that the United States Oil ETF (NYSEARCA:USO), one of the most popular energy ETFs that rolls its contracts every month, pays high premiums on oil futures contracts (contango) that can cost investors anywhere from 10-80% per year.

Getting around contango

At this juncture, many readers might wonder why traders even bother investing in oil futures at all, especially when you consider that contango has occurred in the oil markets about 60% of the time over the past decade.

Given the ongoing volatility in oil markets, investing in the oil futures markets is a decidedly risky venture. Nevertheless, there are a few methodologies that traders can use to circumvent this challenge.

#1 Constantly monitor the futures curve

The most obvious solution to skirt the negative effects of contango is by constantly monitoring the futures curve and only investing in the market when its in backwardation.

When the curve is sloping upwards, trading futures contracts will erode your capital especially if you do it frequently. As USO has demonstrated, the cost over the course of the year could nearly wipe out your capital.

#2 Invest directly in oil companies

Another obvious solution is to avoid the futures market altogether and invest directly in oil companies instead.

Investing directly in companies that drill, distribute and/or sell oil is a reasonable alternative to holding oil futures. Related: The Natural Gas Nation Every Exporter Is Targeting

However, its also important to bear in mind that many of these companies frequently fail to accurately track oil prices closely enough--and the difference can be pretty dramatic.

For instance, in 2008 during the oil mega-bull market, oil prices climbed 200% compared to an 88% gain by oil and gas giant, Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE:XOM).

Another reasonable, if not precise, method is by investing in large energy ETFs such as Vanguard Energy ETF (NYSEARCA:VDE) and the Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (NYSEARCA:XLE) that offer diversified exposure to the industry.

The biggest risk of investing in these ETFs is that they frequently display large tracking errors because they invest in both oil and gas companies whereas price movements by the two commodities do not necessarily correlate. They also invest in exploration & drilling, equipment & transportation companies whose performance is not directly tied to energy prices.

Luckily, there are ETFs that track non-integrated oil companies. These include SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF (NYSEARCA:XOP) and iShares U.S. Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF (BATS:IEO). These are not without risk, though, since they also invest in small companies that are hugely volatile due to idiosyncratic factors that may be unrelated to oil prices.

#3 Use a hybrid model

So far, we have observed that each methodology that tries to avoid the negative effects of contango has its own limitations due to the how the company or exchange traded fund operates.

Therefore, we can surmise that the best way to get around the problem is by employing a hybrid model whereby you invest in the cheapest futures contract that optimizes between USO, PowerShares DB Oil ETF (NYSEARCA:DBO) and the United States 12 Month Oil ETF (NYSEARCA:USL) when the futures curve is in backwardation, then shift to general energy ETF such as XLE, IEO or VDE when its in contango.

This methodology certainly requires a little more elbow grease and constantly keeping an eye on the futures curve to identify any flipping points. However, it can potentially yield better results than the other two methodologies executed in isolation.

By Anes Alic for Oilprice.com

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How To Invest In An Oil Contango - OilPrice.com