Home » Archive

Articles in the Better Investor Category

Better Investor, Featured, Intermediate, My Path »

[5 Jan 2010 | 3 Comments | ]
Calculating Investment Returns and My 2009 Returns

It’s that time of the year again. How did you investments perform in 2009?

Better Investor, Commentary »

[8 Dec 2009 | 2 Comments | ]
Catching up with David Merkel

I’ve been catching up with The Aleph blog today. Merkel is a fantastic writer. I even enjoy his book reviews, which are often peppered with many investing nuggets.
To a guy in search of how to fold momentum into a value approach this following insight gives me something to work on. Patience… again.
My favorite example is that as a value investor, I am almost always early.  I buy and sell too soon, and leave profits on the table.  Adding a momentum overlay can aid the value investor by delaying purchases of …

Beginners, Better Investor »

[17 Nov 2009 | No Comment | ]
Peter Lynch Video – Buy What You Know

October 1982 TV debut of Peter Lynch.
Buy What You Know
“Average investor is out there in some industry…and they’re going to see those industries turn and they’re not going to buy those stocks…they have a big edge… they are months ahead of me”
Common mistake..buying a stock as it has fallen from X to two thirds or half of X. Beware bottom fishing
Peter Lynch nails the edge most amateur investors enjoy, but seldom capitalise on. Most people have an edge in the industry they work in. Funny thing is most of the money is controlled by people who …

Advanced, Better Investor, Education »

[10 Nov 2009 | One Comment | ]
Go Low Sweet Balance Sheet, No Alpha and Psychology

Three great points; another reason to concentrate on EV instead of market cap, cash is more a risk than an asset and show us the money. Stop hording our cash! Graham recommending putting the dividend payout to a vote each year and management having to justify any capital expenditures. I implemented capital investment management in, gosh at least a dozen companies, and truth be told not one really had a tight grasp of or even a good process for managing their major expenditures.

Beginners, Better Investor, Education »

[6 Nov 2009 | No Comment | ]
Compound Annual Growth Rate – CAGR and Investing Cornerstones

I can’t help but drift into a pirate accent when I maul the pronunciation of CAGR. I’ll try to slip CAGR in during my first ever podcast. Compound annual growth is one of the cornerstone concepts of investing and wealth. I first mentioned it in this post, my worst investment in 2008, but have never explained it.

Better Investor, Featured »

[13 Aug 2009 | 4 Comments | ]
Benjamin Graham Checklists and Formulas

Benjamin Graham’s Lost Magic Formula and other Checklists.

Australia, Better Investor »

[4 Aug 2009 | One Comment | ]

The ten best Australian business sites for news, data and opinion on Australian companies and the economy.

Better Investor, Commentary, My Path »

[26 Jul 2009 | No Comment | ]
Time to Focus on the Voting

Over at PazzoMundo I noticed the following comment, which is typical of numerous comments and posts I’ve been reading lately. “This market is exasperating – I’ve been expecting the rally to lose steam for a while now but it seems that it’s quite happy to ignore economic reality”.

In the Intelligent Investor Benjamin Graham said “In the short-run it’s a voting machine, but in the long-run it is a weighing machine.” For some reason most market participants focus on the second part of that statement, they concentrate on the weighing maching.

Better Investor, Featured »

[22 Jul 2009 | 3 Comments | ]
The Rebirth of Long Term Buy Hold

To buy low you should be buying now.

Better Investor, Commentary »

[3 Jul 2009 | No Comment | ]
Never Say Never

Today I give thanks to my dad. When several people told me what I wanted to do was impossible and I was too late, it was my dad’s voice reverberating in my mind which drowned out their negativity. My dad wise saying, “there is no such thing as can’t” , was my life jacket in the sea of negativity which four authorative people cast me adrift in.