Investing - The Basics

[winston]

Our Strategy Beats the Market With Less Risk By Dan Ferris

Buy great businesses at good prices.

I've been telling my readers (and anyone else who will listen) this for the past several years.

Owning great businesses at good prices allows you to do something you're not supposed to be able to do. It allows you to beat the market with less risk…

My research partner, Mike Barrett, recently read an excellent Barron's interview with hedge-fund manager Andrew Wellington.

Wellington runs the $3 billion Lyrical Asset Management, which Barron's ranks among the "Best 100 Hedge Funds." Hedge funds are similar to mutual funds, but typically invest in a wider range of securities and are most suitable for institutional investors and individuals with substantial wealth.

For the last three years, Lyrical's U.S. Value Equity Fund strongly outperformed the S&P 500. And it did it with a similar approach to the one we use in my Extreme Value newsletter.

Here's what Mike wrote in a recent Extreme Value update:

Wellington and his team regularly sift through a universe of the 1,000 largest U.S. stocks. Then they build a portfolio consisting of just 33 stocks.

That's not a typo.

They start by looking at 1,000 stocks and select just 33.

For perspective, the PowerShares Buyback Achievers Fund (PKW) manages a similar amount of assets, has a comparable large-cap focus, and currently holds more than 200 stocks. Most mutual funds and exchange-traded funds wouldn't dare own less than 50 to 100 stocks for fear of not being properly diversified.

Wellington says he and his team build high conviction in their stock recommendations by taking a "bottom-up" approach. In other words, instead of worrying about where the economy or the market is going, they focus on the 33 stocks they consider most undervalued that also happen to be good businesses.

This is exactly what we do in Extreme Value. We look for high-quality businesses selling at discounts to intrinsic value (measured by net assets and/or earnings power).

A great business is a leader in its industry. It gushes free cash flow… rewards shareholders… has a great balance sheet… earns consistent profit margins… and has high return on equity.

But even a great business can be a bad investment if it's too expensive. That's why we never buy a great business until it's trading at a cheap price. And we sell a business when it's trading at an expensive price (or has already performed as well as we could have expected).

You might be wondering if having a limited number of stocks in a portfolio or fund is sufficiently large enough to spread risk. Here's what Wellington told Barron's (emphasis added)…

When you have 33 stocks, everything is about a 3% position [i.e., 33 stocks x 3% = 99% of your investment capital]. A 3% position is big enough to make an impact. But it's also small enough that you can be dispassionate about it. One mistake is not going to kill you.

When you run a 10-stock portfolio, and you are talking about 10% positions, one mistake can kill you.

There are lots of favorable risk/reward investments where the downside might be too scary for you to invest 10% of your portfolio in one of them, but you can comfortably make one just 3% of your portfolio.

Mike and I wholeheartedly agree with Wellington. That's why we always recommend taking a position that's big enough to make you money but small enough to allow you to be dispassionate should it turn into a mistake.

For example, we always recommend putting no more than 5% of your investment dollars into our great businesses in buy range.

We also recommend you build positions slowly to take advantage of share-price volatility. So, for example, you might consider building a long-term position one quarter at a time. If you plan to invest $4,000 in a particular stock, you could divide this into four $1,000 purchases made at different times.

Finance professors, advisors, and most brokers will tell you that to get market-beating returns, you have to take more risk. That's not true at all… When you buy the world's best businesses at good prices, you get big returns… without taking big risks.

Source: Daily Wealth

[behappyalways]

One Tiny Number Can Reveal Big Problems at a Global Smartphone Maker
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/ ... hone-maker

[behappyalways]

Kahn said he learned from Graham that investors should focus first on preserving their capital, instead of aiming to shoot the lights out. "If you achieve only reasonable returns and suffer minimal losses, you will become a wealthy man and will surpass any gambler friends you have," Kahn told me. "This is also a good way to cure your sleeping problems."

Advice from the 'Great Minds of Investing'
http://www.cnbc.com/id/102773945

[winston]

The Most Effective Way To Get Rich

By Kathleen Elkins

Source: Business Insider

http://www.thetradingreport.com/2015/06/19/156249/

[winston]

The Three Most Important Concepts in Investing By Porter Stansberry


No. 1: The most important thing for investors to understand about investing in stocks is simply what kind of businesses make for great investments and how to properly value these kinds of businesses.

Here's an example of what I mean: Do you think Markel (MKL) – trading around $770 a share – is an expensive stock? Why or why not?

If you can answer this question within 30 seconds by looking at a few key statistics, then you're ready to cross the desert. If you can't… you're just not ready. You have to power up your satellite phone and spend more time studying your maps.

If you have no idea whether Markel is expensive or cheap, don't worry. You're not alone. Judging by my experiences with wealthy and business-savvy subscribers, I would estimate less than 10% of our subscribers really understand these concepts. Without this knowledge, I'm nearly certain you can't be successful as an investor. Not for long, at least.


No. 2: The second thing I know you must have to "cross the desert" successfully is a strategy that will continue to make you money even when you're wrong about the big picture.

I've been expecting a serious crash in stocks since 2013. So in my Investment Advisory, we trimmed our long positions by selling some stocks. And we hedged our exposure to the market by selling short some stocks.

But we didn't sell everything. And we didn't move to a 100% short portfolio. We've done great with our investments since 2013, even though my market outlook has been 100% dead wrong (so far).


No. 3: The last thing I think most individual investors either never learn or only learn the hard way after several big beatings is to[b] never, ever chase what's "hot." [/b]

These investment "mirages" will cost you almost every time. It takes a lot of discipline to stick with great businesses that you can personally understand. It takes discipline to buy them when you can get them at a reasonable price. It takes discipline to follow your position-size limits.

When a great new business comes along – like online auctioneer eBay (EBAY) in the early 2000s – learn to be patient. Follow it for years, and buy it when it comes into your range.

Source: Daily wealth

[winston]

The Three Most Important Concepts in Investing By Porter Stansberry


No. 1: The most important thing for investors to understand about investing in stocks is simply what kind of businesses make for great investments and how to properly value these kinds of businesses.

Here's an example of what I mean: Do you think Markel (MKL) – trading around $770 a share – is an expensive stock? Why or why not?

If you can answer this question within 30 seconds by looking at a few key statistics, then you're ready to cross the desert. If you can't… you're just not ready. You have to power up your satellite phone and spend more time studying your maps.

If you have no idea whether Markel is expensive or cheap, don't worry. You're not alone. Judging by my experiences with wealthy and business-savvy subscribers, I would estimate less than 10% of our subscribers really understand these concepts. Without this knowledge, I'm nearly certain you can't be successful as an investor. Not for long, at least.


No. 2: The second thing I know you must have to "cross the desert" successfully is a strategy that will continue to make you money even when you're wrong about the big picture.

I've been expecting a serious crash in stocks since 2013. So in my Investment Advisory, we trimmed our long positions by selling some stocks. And we hedged our exposure to the market by selling short some stocks.

But we didn't sell everything. And we didn't move to a 100% short portfolio. We've done great with our investments since 2013, even though my market outlook has been 100% dead wrong (so far).


No. 3: The last thing I think most individual investors either never learn or only learn the hard way after several big beatings is to[b] never, ever chase what's "hot." [/b]

These investment "mirages" will cost you almost every time. It takes a lot of discipline to stick with great businesses that you can personally understand. It takes discipline to buy them when you can get them at a reasonable price. It takes discipline to follow your position-size limits.

When a great new business comes along – like online auctioneer eBay (EBAY) in the early 2000s – learn to be patient. Follow it for years, and buy it when it comes into your range.

Source: Daily wealth

[winston]

What You Need Instead of Income

by Alexander Green

Source: The Oxford Club

http://www.investmentu.com/article/deta ... ZCEq9Kqqko

[winston]

Important Questions That Investment Professionals Rarely (or Never) Hear

Source: GuruFocus

http://www.thetradingreport.com/2015/07 ... ever-hear/

[behappyalways]

Six of the oldest tricks in Wall Street's book
http://www.cnbc.com/2015/07/10/six-of-t ... ntary.html

[winston]

Five "Total Wealth" Principles to Use Forever

By KEITH FITZ-GERALD

Source: Money Map Report

http://moneymorning.com/active-premiums ... e-forever/