The Journey

-
To become a better investor I have set out by starting this blog. Socrates once said "the unexamined life is not worth living."  Socrates' philosophy is highly applicable to the world of investing; one's own psychological behaviors can often hinder logic, discipline and sound decision making. Thoughts that are conducted via deep research and constructed through written arguments can help eliminate any cognitive biases. It is no secret that cognitive biases and human irrationality are the most detrimental to one's clarity of thought. In this blog, this facet will come in the form of stock write-ups. 
    
On this journey I also aim to build upon my value investing philosophy and circle of competence. In addition to the stock write-ups that be produced, dimensions of investment strategy, concepts and self-reflection will also be featured on this blog. I will be using mental models as a vehicle to convey certain ideas and to simplify complexity.  

In a speech delivered at the USC's Business School in 1994, Charlie Munger highlighted the practical importance of mental models by saying,“Well, the first rule is that you can’t really know anything if you just remember isolated facts and try and bang ’em back. If the facts don’t hang together on a latticework of theory, you don’t have them in a usable form. You’ve got to have models in your head. And you’ve got to array your experience both vicarious and direct on this latticework of models. You may have noticed students who just try to remember and pound back what is remembered. Well, they fail in school and in life. You’ve got to hang experience on a latticework of models in your head.” 

Ultimately, I hope that this blog can be an expression of intellectual curiosity and a means to record thoughts in a meaningful way that helps us think better.  


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

GQG Partners: A Stock Unrightfully Punished by the Magellan Storm

-
Image
  Executive Summary Founder-led asset manager with a strong performance history and lowest quartile fee among global peers. Capital-light compounder with strong distribution channels to support organic growth. The business has grown FUM at 120% over 6 years but double-digit growth is a realistic expectation going forward. Strong alignment system between shareholders, management, employees and clients. Total inside ownership is approximately 75% with both Founders owning 73.5%. The stock is valued cheaply at 10x earnings, down from 16x late last year at IPO. The stock appears to be a “heads I win, tails I don't lose much” proposition. Business Summary GQG Partners (GQG) is a global boutique asset management firm focused on active equity portfolios. The firm is led by the Founders Ravij Jain and Tim Carver who started the business together in 2016. Since launching the business, GQG has grown its FUM from 800 million to 90 billion USD, presenting a 112.5-fold growth or 120% CAGR i
Read more

Value Investing: From Graham to Buffett and Beyond

-
Image
  In this blog post, I will be providing a book summary on Professor Bruce Greenwald's book  Value Investing: From Graham to Buffett and Beyond  (2021). In this book, Professor Greenwald explores the modern extention to value investing to successfully adapt with the changing economic and financial conditions. Economy activity, which has shifted from industry/manufacturing to services, has seen greater value placed on intangible capital relative to tangible capital. Hard asset-based businesses are becoming less important. Professor Greenwald addresses this paradigm shift, showing us how to gain an analytical advantage, how to think about valuations and the way to quantify growth.  Gaining an Edge by Specialisation Either by design or practice, investors must specialise. Specialisation is the the most obvious way to improve the odds of being on the ride side of the trade. Investors have generally performed better starting from a very narrow focus and working
Read more

Why Nick Scali (NCK:ASX) is on my Watchlist

-
Image
Nick Scali is an Australian business that imports and retails household furniture. Nick Scali’s product suite is catered towards those between the ages of 35 and 55, concentrated in the middle to upper income bracket. Primary economic factors that influence the companies in the furniture business include the real estate market, interest rates and GDP growth. Nick Scali's business model is underpinned by the network of its physical showrooms. Showrooms are  strategically beneficial as it gives customers a tangible experience with the available product suite. Showrooms invite customers to test the furniture, where they can quickly assign their level of personal comfort and gauge aspects of price to quality. Customers are also less inclined to return their purchased furniture after testing them. This is particularly important to those in Nick Scali’s target market: customers who are updating, upgrading or purchasing their furniture for their own optimal enjoyment. In terms of working
Read more