Blog on Value Investing | Safal Niveshak

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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10 Qualities of Great Investors

Admission Open: Value Investing Workshops – Offline (Mumbai) and Online

1. Offline Workshop: Mumbai – After a gap of 2 years, I am back with my live, offline Value Investing workshop. The first session is planned in Mumbai on Sunday, 22nd January 2023. I am accepting only 50 students for this session, and less than 10 seats remain now. Click here to know more and join the Mumbai workshop.

2. Online Workshop – Admissions are also open for the January 2023 cohort of my online value investing workshop. The workshop involves 22+ hours of pre-recorded, detailed lectures and Q&A sessions, plus a 3-hour live online Q&A session scheduled on Sunday, 15th January 2023 (tomorrow). I am accepting 50 students in this cohort, and less than 5 seats remain now. Click here to know more and join the online workshop.

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One of the first lessons I learned from my yoga teacher was that “yoga is not about rapid movements but long pauses. Slow down, calm down, don’t hurry, and trust the process.”

The thing about yoga — or any exercise — is that there isn’t a comfort zone. But if you have a sound process, and practice it diligently, over time it starts to work for you.

The act of investing your money, as I realize, isn’t much different from practicing yoga. A superior process and greatness often go hand in hand in yoga, and also in investing. For serious investors, thus, it’s wise to learn to trust the process that generates winning investment results.

I came across one such time-tested process framework while reading Michael Mauboussin’s “Reflections on the Ten Attributes of Great Investors.” Mauboussin is Head of Consilient Research at Counterpoint Global, Morgan Stanley Investment Management, and author of some amazing books like The Success Equation and More Than You Know. He is a highly successful value investor, and thus the process he has laid out in his note is a great help for any serious investor seeking a winning investment process.

Here are my reviews of the ten attributes Mauboussin has laid out in his note.

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Investing’s Few Eternal Truths

Investing is simple, but not easy. Still there are a few eternal rules that, if you can tie them well with your investment process, should make the journey profitable.

The Wizard: Do not arouse the wrath of the great and powerful Oz! I said come back tomorrow!

Dorothy: If you were really Great and Powerful, you’d keep your promises!

The Wizard: [As Toto reveals him behind a curtain] You presume to criticize the Great Oz? You ungrateful creatures! You’re lucky that I’m only holding this till tomorrow, instead of the next twenty years from now!

Dorothy: [Pulling aside the curtain] Who are you?

The Wizard: I am the great and powerful…Wizard…of Oz.

Dorothy: You are? I don’t believe you.

The Wizard: I’m afraid it’s true. There’s no other Wizard except me.

Dorothy: Oh, you’re a very bad man!

The Wizard: Oh, no, my dear, I… I’m a very good man – I’m just a very bad Wizard.

In the noted 1939 American musical comedy-drama fantasy film The Wizard of Oz, one of the lead characters Dorothy, along with her dog Toto, is swept away by a tornado to the Land of Oz. It is ruled by a tyrant in whom people had vested extraordinary powers, but who was later exposed as vulnerable as the spell surrounding Oz is broken.

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Investing and the Art of Getting Less Prejudiced

Admission Open: Value Investing Workshops – Offline (Mumbai) and Online

1. Offline Workshop: Mumbai – After a gap of 2 years, I am back with my live, offline Value Investing workshop. The first session is planned in Mumbai on Sunday, 22nd January 2023. I am accepting only 50 students for this session, and less than 10 seats remain now. Click here to know more and join the Mumbai workshop.

2. Online Workshop – Admissions are also open for the January 2023 cohort of my online value investing workshop. The workshop involves 22+ hours of pre-recorded, detailed lectures and Q&A sessions, plus a 3-hour live online Q&A session scheduled on Sunday, 15th January 2023. I am accepting 50 students in this cohort, and less than 5 seats remain now. Click here to know more and join the online workshop.

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Niels Bohr, the Danish physicist who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum theory, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922, proposed once that the goal of science is not universal truth.

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[Transcript] The One Percent Show: Annie Duke

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Annie Duke is author, corporate speaker, and consultant in the decision-making space. She is also a special partner focused on decision science at First Round Capital Partners, a seed-stage venture fund. For two decades, Annie was one of the top poker players in the world. In 2004, she bested a field of 234 players to win her first World Series of Poker bracelet. The same year, she triumphed in the $2 million winner-take-all, invitation-only world series of poker tournaments of champions. She retired from the game in 2012. She is also the author of multiple wonderful books, including Thinking In Bets and How We Decide and her latest being “Quit – The Power of Knowing When To Walk Away”.

In Quit, Annie draws on stories from a wide swath of high achievers, including elite mountain climbers, business leaders, and entertainers, to argue that quitting is a good thing when applied at the right time. And much like a poker career, life, she says, is one long game and the biggest winners are also the most strategic quitters. With this and no further delay, Annie, welcome to The One Percent Show, and thank you so much for agreeing to do this.

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A Story of Courage and Hope from the Life of Charlie Munger

Admission Open: Value Investing Workshops – Offline (Mumbai) and Online

2. Online Workshop – Admissions are also open for the January 2023 cohort of my online value investing workshop. The workshop involves 22+ hours of pre-recorded, detailed lectures and Q&A sessions, plus a 3-hour live online Q&A session scheduled on Sunday, 15th January 2023. I am accepting 50 students in this cohort, and less than 5 seats remain now. Click here to know more and join the online workshop.

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First things first. I wish you and your family a very happy, peaceful, and blessed 2023.

I am grateful to have you share this journey with me in the past, and look forward to continuing our connection in the years ahead.

Now for a story from the life of Charlie Munger, who is 99 years old today.

I have shared this story countless times over the years, because each time I talk or write about it, I experience a sense of inner peace and strength. And so, even if you have read this story earlier, read it again today as you begin taking your first steps into this brand new year.

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35 Ideas from 2022

Admission Open: Value Investing Workshops – Offline (Mumbai) and Online

1. Offline Workshop: Mumbai – After a gap of 2 years, I am back with my live, offline Value Investing workshop. The first session is planned in Mumbai on Sunday, 22nd January 2023. I am accepting only 50 students for this session, and less than 20 seats remain now. Click here to know more and join the Mumbai workshop.

2. Online Workshop – Admissions are also open for the January 2023 cohort of my online value investing workshop. The workshop involves 22+ hours of pre-recorded, detailed lectures and Q&A sessions, plus a 3-hour live online Q&A session scheduled on Sunday, 15th January 2023. I am accepting 50 students in this cohort, and less than 10 seats remain now. Click here to know more and join the online workshop.

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Right before the year ends, I thought I’d share a handful of ideas I’ve read, learned, re-learned, and wrote about in the past twelve months. Here are 35 of them, in no particular order of importance. I hope you find these useful, as much as I did.

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Inverting the Money Problem

In the controversial movie, The Social Network, which supposedly portrayed Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook journey, Sean Parker’s character famously quipped –

“A million dollars isn’t cool. You know what’s cool? A billion dollars.”

It’s probably the most favourite problem that majority of the individuals in the world are trying to figure out i.e., how to get rich?

So let’s investigate this problem by using Charlie Munger’s most cherished mental model i.e., inverting the problems to solve them.

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Admission Open: Value Investing Workshops – Offline (Mumbai) and Online

This quick post is to announce admissions to a couple of value investing workshops I will be conducting in January 2023, one offline and the other online.

Here are the details –

1. Offline Workshop: Mumbai – After a gap of 2 years, I am back with my live, offline Value Investing workshop. The first session is planned in Mumbai on Sunday, 22nd January 2023. I am accepting only 50 students for this session, and first 25 can claim an early bird discount. Click here to know more and join the Mumbai workshop.

2. Online Workshop – Admissions are also open for the January 2023 cohort of my online value investing workshop. The workshop involves 22+ hours of pre-recorded, detailed lectures and Q&A sessions, plus a 3-hour live online Q&A session scheduled on Sunday, 15th January 2023. I am accepting only 50 students in this cohort, and first 25 students can claim a special discount. Click here to know more and join the online workshop.

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If you have any questions on any of these workshops, please ask by sending me a message to – vishal@safalniveshak.com.

If you know someone who may benefit from either of these courses, please share with them.

Thank you for your time.

– Vishal

When to Bet Big, and When Not To

The Sketchbook of Wisdom: Get Your Copy Now

Buy your copy of the book Morgan Housel calls “a masterpiece.” It contains 50 timeless ideas – from Lord Krishna to Charlie Munger, Socrates to Warren Buffett, and Steve Jobs to Naval Ravikant – as they apply to our lives today. Click here to buy now.

It was mid-1974.

Fred Smith, the founder of FedEx had a problem at hand. FedEx was a young company, just three years old, and primarily due to rising fuel costs, found itself millions of dollars in debt and on the brink of bankruptcy.

As per demands from oil companies that provided fuel to run FedEx’s planes, every Monday, the latter was required to prepay for the anticipated weekly usage of jet fuel. It was one of those Fridays and FedEx had just about $5,000 in its bank account, while it needed $24,000 for the jet fuel payment for the coming week.

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