Greenblatt on the small investors’ advantage
From a (recording of a) live chat with Joel Greenblatt. We’ve heard the most important advantage value investors have before, but its worth repeating to stop us trying to play [...]
The Peter Cundill Investment Approach
I’ve chosen the strapline of this book, rather than the title, to headline this review because on its own the title doesn’t mean much. It’s There’s Always Something To Do [...]
The Turnaround Experience
Is there a companion to Hidden Champions of the 21st Century? Hidden Champs uses quantitative and qualitative research to explain what makes medium sized market leaders so successful. But there’s [...]
The Turnaround Experience
Is there a companion to Hidden Champions of the 21st Century? Hidden Champs uses quantitative and qualitative research to explain what makes medium sized market leaders so successful. But there’s [...]
Hidden Champions of the Twenty First Century
What makes a good company? Reading Hidden Champions of the Twenty First Century, I feel I’ve taken a step closer to understanding. It’s not an investment book. It’s about well-established [...]
Hidden Champions of the Twenty First Century
What makes a good company? Reading Hidden Champions of the Twenty First Century, I feel I’ve taken a step closer to understanding. It’s not an investment book. It’s about well-established [...]
There’s Always Something To Do
First look…
Though I’d never heard of Canadian value investor Peter Cundill, I requested There’s Always Something to Do from its UK publisher when I discovered:
Cundill has been applying the value investing techniques of Benjamin Graham since 1973
The book is based on the journal he kept for 45 years.
Cundill died in January, but he invested...
Book of the year, and time to read it
Back in Jan!
This isn’t a book about investing, but it contains lessons about markets.
Red Plenty describes a period in the history of the Soviet Union when politicians and scientists supplanted markets, initially by diktat, and then with computer programs.
Reviewers, universally positive as far as I can tell, draw modern parallels. Russians hoped, and Westerners...
The Warren Buffetts Next Door
Our generation
I rarely review a book sent on-spec by publishers, because they’re rarely about the subjects I write. The Warren Buffetts Next Door, is an exception. Due to be published in the UK next week, its a series of affectionate portraits of “regular” people, truck drivers, djs and dropouts, who have made a lot...
Buffett Beyond Value
Oracle or octopus?
Unlike Snowball, the recent biography of Warren Buffett, the even more recent Buffett Beyond Value promises to help us understand and emulate the World’s greatest investor, rather than tell his life story.
It does, to a degree. Author, Prem C Jain, a finance professor, has studied 50 years of annual reports and earlier partnership...
From understanding to action part 2: Action
Getting your hands dirty…
Value investing goes against the grain. A rising share price is a sign of success, and investors favour companies that are doing well. But buying shares cheaply often means investing in unpopular companies. To pick decent companies and stick with them, requires knowledge and confidence. As I wrote in part 1 last...
From understanding to action part 1: Understanding
First steps in value investing
Last year I offered a course in value investing through our local adult education service. The course never happened because only one person applied, but my applicant became a correspondent and is now on the way to becoming a self-taught value investor. But as she’s discovering, learning is one thing, doing...
