Archives for February 2023

Stocks for the Long Run

One of Warren Buffett’s all-time great investments is Coca-Cola, and it just happens to be the stock Berkshire Hathaway has held the longest. There is no other holding that better exemplifies his investing skill, patience, and temperament than this one.

Buffett first started buying shares of Coca-Cola in 1988, and seemingly paid around $2.5 per share (adjusted) for his purchase. In 2019, the company paid a dividend of $1.6 per share, thus taking Buffett’s dividend yield from the stock to 64%!

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Philip Fisher on Four Dimensions of Investing – Part 1

For every value investor in this world, his or her investment philosophy has invariably been shaped by few giants in this field. Warren Buffett and Benjamin Graham are the obvious names. Philip Fisher is probably the next name that appears in every value investor’s list.

Fisher is relatively less known to the general public and was rarely interviewed. Still, he is widely respected and admired in the value investing circles all over the world. Fisher is also known for his scuttlebutt approach, which simply means seeking information from competitors, customers, and suppliers, all of whom have a vested interest in the company. He wasn’t among those who made decisions just by reading annual reports.

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The Curse of Knowledge

“See, when you want to reverse the car to left, you have to turn the steering wheel to the left,” I told my wife while I was trying to teach her reverse parking.

“But when I turn left, the car is going towards right!” she exclaimed.

“No! The car is going towards left. See, the left tail lamp is going left,” I showed her in the side view mirror.

“Yeah but the right headlamp is going towards the right,” she pointed towards the right headlamp which appeared to be moving towards right from driving seat. Of course, it had to. If you are focusing on the front, the nose of the car will seem to go towards the right.

“But why are you focusing on the front head lamp? When you’re reversing your point of reference should be the tail lamp,” I explained.

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“Then why didn’t you explicitly tell me that before?” she asked almost in complete frustration.

“I thought you would…” I started mumbling but before I could complete that sentence, a light bulb went off in my head. Eureka!

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16 Investing Lessons from a Superinvestor the World Forgot

Admission Open: Value Investing Workshops – Offline (Bangalore & Chennai) and Online

1. Offline Workshop (Bangalore and Chennai): The Bangalore session is planned on Sunday, 12th March. Chennai is on Sunday, 19th March. I am accepting only 50 students for each of these sessions, and first 25 can claim an early bird discount. Click here to know more and join the workshop.

2. Online Workshop – Admissions are also open for the March 2023 cohort of my online value investing workshop. The workshop involves 26+ hours of pre-recorded, detailed lectures and Q&A sessions, plus a 3-hour live online Q&A session scheduled on Sunday, 5th March 2023. I am accepting only 50 students in this cohort, and now less than 20 seats remain. Click here to know more and join the workshop.

What do you call an investor who earned 16% per annum on average over a 47 year period – that’s a 1,070-bagger – and is not called Warren Buffett?

What if I told you that this investor…

Did not care about corporate earnings
Rarely spoke to managements and analysts
Did not watch the stock market during the day
Never owned a computer, and
Did not even go to college

…you would not say anything but just ask me to reveal his name fast, so as to re-confirm whether such a super-investor has ever existed in the investment circles.

Well, before I tell you this man’s name, you must read what Buffett had to say about him…

…He doesn’t worry about whether it it’s January, he doesn’t worry about whether it’s Monday, he doesn’t worry about whether it’s an election year. He simply says, if a business is worth a dollar and I can buy it for 40 cents, something good may happen to me. And he does it over and over and over again. He owns many more stocks than I do — and is far less interested in the underlying nature of the business; I don’t seem to have very much influence on him. That’s one of his strengths; no one has much influence on him.

Now, if you haven’t already read below to find out who I am talking about, let me now disclose the name of this man, whom Buffett termed a Super Investor in his famous essay, The Superinvestors of Graham-And-Doddsville.

The Name is Schloss…Walter Schloss
“Walter who?” you may wonder if you have not read much about the world’s best-ever investors.

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