Category Archives: Portfolio Management

I often get messages from some of you expressing a desire to invest but not wanting to sign up for a life buried in balance sheets or income statements.  The good news: In investing, you can do extremely well if you have a few good, big ideas in your lifetime.  You don’t have to become a master of everything.  You just need to understand what you are doing, focus on it with the persistence of a pit bull, and be patient during the periods when there is nothing attractive to do, content to sit on cash.  There is no need to master every industry, or spend your evenings pouring over the disclosure documents of a pharmaceutical giant to make money.  It isn’t necessary.

One technique I find helps a lot of investors act more rationally is one I developed during my late teenage years.  I would convert all companies I was analyzing to $100 per share to make comparison of the figures and yields easier.  In essence, this allowed me to ask the question, “How much profit am I buying for every $100 I put into this company?”  If I paid a high multiple for a particular business, it forced me to justify the higher valuation by writing down my reasons for my belief.