A few years ago I had a blog in which I used to post about the details of deep value investing and some of the methods by which an investor could go about exploiting market inefficiencies. Those posts weren't ever brought over to this site and it dawns on me that despite explaining some theoretical concepts, I've never explained much of anything about how I have been generating our performance over the past few years in basic, practical terms for anyone interested in hearing about it.
Stock Price Fluctuations Are Your Friend
This is by far the most important thing I will ever write about investing and it is essentially mandatory reading for anyone looking to become a client and partner of this firm. If you're not with me on this you likely won't be a good fit for us (or for proper investing in general). What I will explain is extremely simple and in my opinion the most important thing to understand and follow in order to achieve excess returns but for whatever reason, it is difficult for most investors to implement in their practice.
The Assumptions Built into Stock Prices- Netflix & Amazon
This should be a short piece, but I wanted to use a few examples to describe the assumptions inherent in stock prices and why investors need to think through stock valuations. Given that price is a major factor in predicting future returns, investors should of course be unwilling to pay anything greater than the present value of all future free cash flows, discounted at an appropriate rate for any investment.
Growth, Returns on Capital, and Business Valuation
U.S. Stock Market Valuations and Future Returns of the S&P 500
In 2013, Eugene Fama, Lars Hansen, and Robert Shiller won the Nobel Prize in Economics. It was an odd trio, given that Fama is one of the fathers of the efficient markets theory and Shiller wrote a book titled 'Irrational Exuberance' in which he discussed the irrationally high stock prices shortly before the crash of 1999.
The Irrationality of the Efficient Market Hypothesis
Economic Cycles and Debt- The Cause of Recessions
Cigar Butts and the Advantage of Investing Small Sums
In any lecture or interview about investing, Warren Buffett often says that you should buy great businesses at fair prices. The idea being that as long as you purchase a great business at a reasonable price, the firm will generate higher earnings in the future than it does now, increasing potential future dividends while using retained earnings to increase the asset base and further improve earnings.
The Difference Between a Good Business and a Good Investment
In my last post, I discussed the basics of what gives companies competitive advantage and what makes good businesses. In this post, I want to move from the analysis of a business towards the analysis of an investment. The difference between the two? The price one pays to become an owner of the business.