Guarding against ego risk
In practice:
Up fell, down dale
I’ll start today’s blog more or less where I finished Monday’s appraisal of Anite, a profitable software company, with strong finances that is maybe, kind of, but not certainly, cheap.
Like most value investors I think much more about safety, than I do about returns, taking the view, contrary to conventional thinking,...
Thrifty Anite tests resolve
In practice:
A little patience, a lot of profit
Anite (AIE) presents something of a dilemma. The figures are very enticing. For financial strength, the company scores a perfect nine. It’s cheap too, the share price is just eight times its average profits over the last ten years. Beneath lies a more complicated story, though.
The company...
Dart still flying
In practice:
A bump in the night
Not one, but two charts grace today’s blog on Dart (DTG). The short-term price line describes a curious hump this summer. A 20% run-up in price coincided with the announcement of the company’s full year results on 30 July, and an announcement from a different company, Ryanair, sent the...
The not-so Thrifty
In practice:
Not like the good old days
Sadly my plan to create a model portfolio of good companies at cheap prices, the Thrifty 30, by going back through the companies I’d profiled in the last year-or-so and including those that still fit the template, is snagged on the rusty nail of exuberance.
Since investors have enjoyed...
In a Solid State
In practice:
Running fast into a headwind
Perhaps it’s the remarkably chipper state of the market that’s forcing me to look for bargains amongst the smallest of companies.
Solid State’s market value is £3m and it employs just 14 people manufacturing rugged and industrial computers and batteries and 25 people selling them and other manufacturers’ electronic components.
Most of...
Eeny, meeny, miny, moe
In practice:
Catch a share near its low
Starting off where I finished last week, clicking through the companies I’ve profiled over the last year to determine which are suitable for the Thrifty 30 portfolio, I’m rejecting Business Post (BPG) again.
Although most of my junk mail and a lot of actually quite useful mail seems to...
Step forward… The real Thrifty 30
In practice:
I name this portfolio…
Regular readers will be familiar with my Thrifty 30 portfolios. They are portfolios of thirty shares in financially strong companies at cheap prices. I first tried it on this blog, then I had a go for Money Observer [pdf]. Up to now, though, I have not maintained a Thrifty 30 portfolio....
