Curiosity@Intelsense
Multidisciplinary learning is one of the best ways to improve our investment acumen. Here is a summary of some of the best learnings of the week.
Investing is a lot like dieting or exercising. We know what we should be doing. But we don't. In this article the author talks about the knowing-doing gap.
You tell yourself I’m reading, thinking, and talking about whatever it is I want to be doing, so I’m good. But reading, thinking, and talking about something isn’t the same thing as doing it. If you really want to change, you’ve got to start doing it.
Investing is a practice. It needs active participation. Just reading about investors and talking about investing is not enough. Go through annual reports, listen to concalls now that everything is so easily accessible on YouTube, read trade journals and business magazines, talk to your friends about the businesses that they run, take a class on understanding basic financials and so on. Just don't sit there, watch business TV and think you are in the game.
Once you start the journey of investing, it’s valuable to have a rigorous process reflecting years or even decades of experience and learning from painful mistakes. But this process can get in our way.
The stakes increase once our identity attaches itself to being a professional, an expert, someone who is good at doing the thing. Mistakes risk embarrassment. They endanger our reputation. How easy to forget the joy and curiosity that brought us to our craft. How easy to become a slave of the process that was supposed to serve us.
I have seen enough people get stuck in their process. A process is not meant to be sacrosanct. A good one evolves. You need to test it with time. Be curious and open minded to what is happening around you. Just look at Buffett and how he evolved as an investor. From shunning tech stocks, to buying IBM, Apple (though some would argue apple is more a consumer electronics & lifestyle equipment company than a tech company and I would tend to agree ) and now TSMC.
Thought of the Week
To others, being wrong is a source of shame; to me, recognizing my mistakes is a source of pride. Once we realize that imperfect understanding is the human condition, there is no shame in being wrong, only in failing to correct our mistakes.
~ George Soros
The idea is to have a process while investing, learn from your successes and failures and learn from the mistakes and successes of others. And keep updating the process.
Video of the Week:
Meb Faber is a quant. He is the co-founder and the Chief Investment Officer of Cambria Investment Management. Meb Faber is the host of The Meb Faber Show podcast, one which I listen to regularly.
Insights@Intelsense
The markets are in a slumber. Nothing much is happening. This is like the time when a runner slows down to rest a bit before picking up speed again.
Quiver, from Intelsense, is a trend-following, concentrated portfolio of 10 stocks that try to catch business and price trends. It has been outperforming the market since its inception with a 1-yr CAGR of 26% since inception (May 2021).
If you are looking to invest, take a look at Quiver at https://intelsense.smallcase.com/smallcase/INSMO_0005