"Tunnel-vision" investing

Investing is simple but not easy.  

It is important to have a strong philosophy, strategy and method.  Stay discipline. 

 

Stock Selection

Just follow the teachings of Charlie Munger and Warren Buffett.  They teach their 4 tenets:

• 1.      Know the business
• 2.      The economic moat of the business
• 3.      The integrity of the managers
• 4.      Always buy with a margin of safety.

Their focus is on great businesses with strong economic moats managed by honest managers bought at fair or undervalued prices.  Their teaching is so simple, and they are surprised not many follow their investing style.

Invest for the long term.  Also reinvest all dividends and returns for the long term.  Why long-term?  The power of compounding is truly magical and this is especially so after a long period of investing. 

Only invest the money that you do not need to use in the short term, e.g., the next 5 years.  This is to avoid you having to sell to raise cash for emergency use at the time when the market prices may not be favourable for you.  You should have a sum of money set aside for emergency use.

Portfolio Management

Monitor the business of the companies you own.  Keep track of their quarterly results.  Read the news that are relevant to your companies.  This will not take up a lot of your time.

In general, for the majority of the well selected stocks, you can hold for the long term. 

There maybe an uncommon occasion when a particular stock need to be sold urgently due to permanent deterioration of its business or fraudulent accounting (dishonest management).  Sell early.

Sometimes, a stock has risen to a very high price.  Yes, you may wish to sell some or all of the stock.  Yet, if you choose not to sell, it is also alright too, especially if you are holding the selected great company for the long term.  You may find that in a few years, the stock may have risen to new high prices.

Very occasionally, you have identified a fantastic new great investment with very high upside and low downside relative to your present stocks in your portfolio and which you wish to put in a lot of capital. You may wish to sell some preexisting stocks in your portfolio to redeploy into this new investment. 

Sell and replace your losers and underperformers, let the winners run.   

These strategies ensure that your portfolio is high quality and well managed optimally, to meet your investing objectives.

 

 

Investing style of Peter Lynch

Yes, Peter Lynch is a great investor and teacher, and you can benefit from employing his methods too:  cyclical plays, asset plays and turnarounds.  

You have to think differently from the crowd.  Get in ahead of the smart investors (institutions) and the herd.  By the time they spotted these and repricing comes around, you are ready to cash out.

[GCB, Hai-O, APM, KAF, and others were among these types of stocks that have been rewarding in the past. ]

  

How many stocks are investable for the long term in the stock market?  

Around 2%.  That is, in Bursa, just around 20 stocks.   You just need 7 to 10 stocks in your portfolio and you are well diversified.  Focus investing.  Invest a meaningful amount into each stock.

Worldwide, there are about 36,000 stocks.  Only 900 are investable, that is, 25 out of 1,000 are investable for the long term.   

 

Speculation / Intelligent speculation / Short term trading

For those who must play, ensure you set aside a sum of money separate from your long-term investing for the above purpose and most importantly, never add more money to this activity.  This is to avoid permanent harm to your financial health.  Majority of players historically lose money in these activities.

 

Stay within your circle of competence

Very important to know the company you invest into.  Must know the boundary of your own circle of competence and never stray outside it.  Keep educating and learning.

 

Know yourself

Know yourself.  

1. What is your financial capacity?  
2. What is your tolerance to risk?  
3. What is your investing time horizon?  
4. What are your investing objectives?

 

Keep your investing simple and safe (KISS).  

You do not need to spend excessive amount of time analysing a company if you have a well defined philosophy, strategy and method.  Use check lists.  

Organise the analysis of the stock in the format you like.  Better still, seek out the sites where the information are available in the format you like:  pay if you must.   

20% of the time spent provides you 80% of the information on the company.  Be disciplined.  Be smart.  

 

Be decisive

When the opportunity presents, and with your right preparations and knowledge, have the courage to act.  Be decisive.

 

 

Happy investing for the long term.   Yes, you also need a bit of luck .. just a wee bit.    😊