Euro Share Lab

How to really cut your time to valuing US companies an interview with Jae Jun

tdutoit@eurosharelab.com (Tim du Toit) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 19:26:13 +0000

I have been an avid reader of Jae Jun’s blog Old School Value since at least 2009.

From a modest start, writing about his own value investing experiences, and companies he was investing in he has built his blog and website into real treasure trove of information you can use.

And best of all it’s nearly all free.

As you will see in the interview below Jae is a Benjamin Graham type of investor, preferring to invest when a company trades at less than net current assets or meets the classic Ben Graham checklist.

And to help you identify this type of companies he has a free screener on his website you can use.

Capital preservation first - 10 questions for Tim Price

tdutoit@eurosharelab.com (Tim du Toit) — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 14:14:43 +0000

If you have been receiving my newsletter for some time you may have noticed that I am very fond of articles written by Tim Price Director of Investment at PFP Wealth Management in London.

Past articles I have shared with you are:

Printing money - A warning from history

A case for gold

Indecent Haste

Happy New Fear

Hitting it out of the park

All articles are definitely worth a few minutes of your time.

Tim was recently kind enough to agree to an interview where he talked about his investment philosophy, mistakes and explains how you can invest with a focus on capital preservation.

Here's the interview (emphasis mine).

Market madness opportunity for value investors

tdutoit@eurosharelab.com (Tim du Toit) — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 08:29:34 +0000

Are you worried about your investments?

Have you thought of selling your whole portfolio to re-invest when things look more stable?

I recently received quite a few questions from subscribers and friends that have been asking themselves exactly that.

What really got them worried were the wild movements in their portfolios. Down more than 7% in a day which is then all made up over the next few days until the next round of bad news breaks, causing another fall.

I am sure you have experienced the same and have been asking yourself the same questions.

The hedge fund manager that gave back fees

tdutoit@eurosharelab.com (Tim du Toit) — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 09:51:19 +0000

Ever met a hedge fund manager that gives back fees if future years are bad?

Me neither, until I met this manager.

I first heard of this manager in a September 2005 interview she had with the excellent investment newsletter called Value Investor Insight.

She gave the interview shortly after leaving Legg Mason where she worked with the legendary Bill Miller for more than 10 years.

The interview was full of valuable insights that made me a better investor.

For example:

You vs. the bear market – how to win

tdutoit@eurosharelab.com (Tim du Toit) — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 13:15:53 +0000

Do you also have the feeling that you cannot do anything right with your investments at the moment?

Everything you buy, irrespective of how undervalued it is, falls even more shortly after you bought it. And worst of all for no apparent reason, no company specific news or announcements.

This is definitely been the case with me.

As I've told you recently my portfolio looks quite bombed out at the moment. Mainly because investments that were undervalued when I bought them declined even more and became even more undervalued.

The only advantage of the market decline is that I am finding a lot of really good companies available at outstandingly cheap prices.

But the same as you, something has been keeping me back from buying them.

I was wondering what that was when I received an e-mail from my friend Vitaliy Katsenelson with the catchy title You Are Not as Dumb as You Think that explained why I was hesitant to make new investments.

Interview with a remarkable value investor - Josh Tarasoff

tdutoit@eurosharelab.com (Tim du Toit) — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 13:31:35 +0000

I met Josh the first time in 2006, at the value investment seminar I attend each year in Italy. In that year Josh was finishing up his MBA at Columbia University specialising in value investing.

Since then we've kept in touch through e-mail and each year had long talks at the seminar in Italy where in 2010 he also started presenting.

In 2007, directly after finishing his MBA Josh started an investment partnership called Greenlea Lane Capital Partners, named after the street he grew up on.

At the seminar in 2011 all the investors were licking their wounds and discussing how the last few years of dreadful stock market performance has impacted their net worth as well as that of their clients.

Josh surprised everyone when he mentioned that from 2007 to the end of 2010 the partnership he manages returned 55% to investors compared to the 2.4% of the Russell 3000 index. On a yearly basis over four years this equals 11% compared to the 0.6% of the index.

Needless to say we were all very impressed with the performance in arguably the worst for years of market performance in the last half a century.

What you will immediately notice when meeting Josh is his soft-spoken nature. He does not boast, is not arrogant and will hardly say anything about his partnerships or its performance except if he's asked about it.

But when you start talking to him you will immediately notice that he knows exactly what he's doing. He has excellent investment ideas which he has researched from top to bottom. With no question about numbers, business strategy and management’s incentives he cannot answer immediately.

After hearing his presentation about pricing power at the value investing seminar in Italy in 2011 I immediately thought that you will benefit if I could convince Josh to explain his investment approach, where he gets his investment ideas and mistakes he has made in an interview.

I was really pleased when Josh agreed to the interview below (Emphasis mine).

How to find the most undervalued companies in Europe and elsewhere.

tdutoit@eurosharelab.com (Tim du Toit) — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 09:48:45 +0000

Do you know the best and easiest way to find undervalued (value investment) companies in Europe?

This is a question I get quite a lot.

I have a great source of ideas that surprisingly few value investors have even heard of.

Before I tell you exactly where to go (and show you a special offer) let me start with the story of how I found it.

The Difference: Making money investing vs. Having fun playing the market

tdutoit@eurosharelab.com (Tim du Toit) — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 05:55:17 +0000

There are a few timeless laws you simply have to follow if you want to make money investing.

You can do everything else wrong but if you follow these laws you are virtually guaranteed to make money in the stock market over the long term.

I was going to do a lot of research to come up with my best ideas of the laws but then I read a March 2011 paper by a market strategist, and now also fund manager, I greatly respect and have followed for a long time.

He also works for an investment firm that does excellent work. The quarterly letter of the CEO which I recommended in the article The only quarterly market letter and worth reading is a must read.

Worst investment ever - My story and how you can avoid it

tdutoit@eurosharelab.com (Tim du Toit) — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 13:58:00 +0000

Do you also find it hard to remember your investment successes - but your failures haunt you for ever?

For the life of me I cannot remember what my best investment was. I can however easily say what my biggest mistake was.

This article is about exactly that, my worse investment ever and some tips on how you can avoid the same happening to you (see end of article).

My other large mistake was the sofa retailer SCS Upholstery that went into administration after credit insurers cancelled its cover.

You can read all about my experience with SCS in the article It’s never too late to sell.

Here is my story.

The best 16 rules of investing you will ever read

tdutoit@eurosharelab.com (Tim du Toit) — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 07:06:48 +0000

Sir John Templeton was a remarkable man, outstanding investor and mutual fund pioneer.

He left a great heritage when he passed away in July 2008 at the age of 95.

In this article I want to share John’s valuable 16 rules of investing, but before I do that some background information.

John Marks Templeton was born in the USA in 1912. He attended Yale University where he financed a part of his tuition by playing poker, a game he was very good at. He graduated in 1934 near the top of his class and went on the Oxford University in the UK as a Rhodes Scholar and earned an M.A. in law.

Upon his return to the USA he went to work as a trainee for Fenner & Beane in New York. One of the predecessor firms of Merrill Lynch.

In the depths of the Depression in 1937 Templeton co-founded an investment firm that would become Templeton, Dobbrow & Vance.

John is famous for his controversial investment in 1939 which is also the hallmark of his contrarian investment style.