Here is the latest issue of The Journal of Investing Wisdom, where I share insightful stuff on investing I am reading and thinking about. Let’s get started.
A Thought
You or me are not the market. Earning the long-term returns of the market, of the past or the future, is not in our control. Managing our risks and avoiding ruin, mostly is.
“Rationality is avoidance of systemic ruin,” Nassim Taleb writes.
Peter Bernstein writes in his brilliant book Against the Gods –
Survival is the only road to riches. Let me say that again: Survival is the only road to riches. You should try to maximize return only if losses would not threaten your survival and if you have a compelling future need for the extra gains you might earn.
Trying to avoid the ruin the stock market system enforces upon people who disregard its workings is rational.
Believing that you can beat the system at it, by playing the game mindlessly, isn’t.
A Super Text
Value investing requires a great deal of hard work, unusually strict discipline, and a long-term investment horizon. Few are willing and able to devote sufficient time and effort to become value investors, and only a fraction of those have the proper mindset to succeed.
Like most eighth- grade algebra students, some investors memorize a few formulas or rules and superficially appear competent but do not really understand what they are doing. To achieve long-term success over many financial market and economic cycles, observing a few rules is not enough.
Too many things change too quickly in the investment world for that approach to succeed. It is necessary instead to understand the rationale behind the rules in order to appreciate why they work when they do and don’t when they don’t. Value investing is not a concept that can be learned and applied gradually over time. It is either absorbed and adopted at once, or it is never truly learned.
Value investing is simple to understand but difficult to implement. Value investors are not super-sophisticated analytical wizards who create and apply intricate computer models to find attractive opportunities or assess underlying value.
The hard part is discipline, patience, and judgment. Investors need discipline to avoid the many unattractive pitches that are thrown, patience to wait for the right pitch, and judgment to know when it is time to swing.
~ Seth Klarman, Margin of Safety
An Article
The Winds of Change – Howard Marks
The latest memo from Howard Marks is a must read. He discusses the current investment environment, changing nature of business, inflation and the outlook for the traditional workplace, among other topics. Here’s a passage –
Today, unlike in the 1950s and ’60s, everything seems to change every day. It’s particularly hard to think of a company or industry that won’t either be a disrupter or be disrupted (or both) in the years ahead. Anyone who believes all the firms on today’s list of leading growth companies will still be there in five or ten years has a good chance of being proved wrong.
For investors, this means there’s a new world order. Words like “stable,” “defensive” and “moat” will be less relevant in the future. Much of investing will require more technological expertise than it did in the past. And investments made on the assumptions that tomorrow will look like yesterday must be subject to vastly increased scrutiny.
An Illustration
A Quote
After spending many years in Wall Street and after making and losing millions of dollars, I want to tell you this: It never was my thinking that made the big money for me. It always was my sitting. Got that? My sitting tight!
~ Jesse Lauriston Livermore
A Question
Look at your investment portfolio. Is there a part of it that gives you sleepless nights? If yes, what are you doing with it? Why haven’t you cut it off?
That’s about it from me for today.
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Stay safe.
Regards, Vishal
Excellent article . Thanks for sharing 🙏
With regards .