Value Investing 01 (May 08 - Dec 08)

[winston]

Winston, if you have chance get a book on Tao.....many interesting ideas....

In my twenties, I did read a book about the gods in Taoism. A bit too complicated for me..

However, the Dao De Ching is more profound ... Wu Wei

[winston]

Just like documentary of SG flyer , before Mitsubishi start building the sg flyer....they Pai Sin for peaceful job......
after completion , they Pai sin again for smooth rotation.....

apparently....buay leng hor ....

maybe pai wrong sin.......

Maybe if they did not pai sin, they would be stranded for 12 hours or something worse could have happened ..

We would never know ...

Wah, very off off topic liao ...

[ucypmas]

Here's something to think about (for everyone).

If a fund manager comes to you and make the following pitch, would you put money for the fund manager to invest.

- fund manager warn investors that he would not disclose about where money is invested
- investors will only be provided with a year-end summary and nothing more
- investors can only add or withdraw on only one day a year (eg. Dec 31)

Interestingly when Warren Buffett ran his partnership from 1956 to 1969 he did the same thing. He did not tell his partner where the money was invested and reported to them only once a year (not too sure about his withdrawal process). All in all it turned out rather well, for him

[iam802]

yes, that is where... I got the idea.

those were supposedly WB's rules..

And with the recent Madoff case...., would you have know whether that is a ripoff?

Some says Madoff case..returns is too good to be true. Likewise we can say that for WB.

So, how would one go about differentiating the truth?

[kennynah]

my sentiments exactly.... if i have to lose money playing the market, i'd rather have the pleasure of doing it unto myself...why pay someone to possibly lose money for me...especially one who's cocky enough to name such ridiculous terms... if i cannot be responsible for my own investments, how then can i hold someone else responsible for my inactions...

WB may be a great investor, and in a league quite unmatched by most mortals, probably unlikely matched by another individual. yet, i remind myself, he was responsible for his own success. he and he alone accumulated his wealth over his lifetime...his employees are merely his stooges... in any case, i envy him not. rather i respect him for his ability to amass such riches; and no doubt from his incredible abilities in investments, foresights and surely enormous hardwork.... and then perhaps some amount of great luck in his endeavour...

i once said...we must have faith, BUT not in man....to do so, will be a sure failing over time...

by the way, do we know why WB has been accused on many occasions his "buy and hold" style as being erroneous? i'm sure most of us are aware of the 2 main reasons why he held onto his investments even when the price of his stocks fell....
a) taxation concerns
b) elephant footprint of his actions, which will drive prices even lower if he had acted on his sale...

if we dont even know about this small fact.... let's not always use his name and cloud our own thoughts unnecessarily...

[helios]

warren B at his young age did studies all the TA books, he slaughtered many at his Ping-Pong table ... (he was a super duber kid);

he went to the racetrack which his dad never did ...

when he talked about value investing, literally he meant valued businesses that can grow substantially ...

at the age of 21, he was pushing his capital from $9,000++ to $19,000++ ...

[kennynah]

he was quite a prodigy, wasn't he...and most of us men at 19.... washing army barrack toilets...

but great to know that his capital was $9k, which though a small fortune at his time, is not dissimilar to many of our capital sum when we started...

in any case, someone today with a modest S$5K capital, who can manage to make a 60% annualized return, will be able to achieve a S$2.25million in 13 years... not impossible, just requires alot of discipline, knowledge and not without some lady luck on the side...

[Musicwhiz]

WB had an extraordinary talent for growing wealth, I would say he's one in a gadzillion. Most of us could never hope to duplicate those returns. What we can do is to distill the principles and ensure a steady, decent return for ourselves. The journey is long and arduous but we must perservere !

[kennynah]

MW ...time for an avatar man....everyone has one here and it is almost mandatory, according to the boss of this forum

[ucypmas]

Hi iam802

I think if I am presented with that situation, I don't know what I'd do. I suppose it would depend very much on whether I have any trust in that person. When WB started his partnership, he got his closest family members to participate - people who can trust him and live with the conditions that he imposed upon starting the partnership. And the context to his decision to be "secretive" is his early experience buying a stock on behalf of his sister which scarred him somewhat and made him resolve to be free of second-guessing when it comes to his investment decisions. So in hindsight from the book documenting his experience we now know, and understand but back then it would have boiled down to only one thing - trust.

I would like to be like him when it comes to investing. Most of us would. But its not possible and I know that. But I do think of him and his principles a lot in hope that it will make myself more disciplined when it comes to putting out my money to work somewhere.