A Brief History
I was never interested in finance. Never took a commerce, accounting, economics class or any subject related to finance in High school or University. I literally abhorred the whole financial industry and couldn’t care less about the economy.
While I was in High School my father started to invest. I remember telling him (with absolutely no knowledge and just from what I heard about the stock market) how risky the stock market was and it was close to gambling. I don’t recall the exact details of his investing portfolio but I do recall that he did find some winners and losers.. I remember he was devastated about some huge losses.. I figured my father would be able to handle the situation and I went on living in my own little world… How little it was…
Just Another Sucker
I was always led to believe that the professionals could make money for you. That I was never savvy or smart enough to know about the vast world of investing. That was before I got angry…
The Anger
As a favour (long story), I went to a see a financial advisor at AP Financial and listened to a sales presentation tell me how I needed to take action in order to receive the maximum benefit to prepare for my retirement. The first day, I listened to her explanations about how money had to be professionally managed through mutual funds and life insurance. I was pressured into signing some papers and on the second day I sealed my fate with the final signature. I failed to exercise my power of ‘NO’.
3 months and $3000 later, I wised up and realised that the financial advisor was selling me rubbish. She and the mutual funds were the only ones getting rich. My rate of return was close to 1% after all the fees and commission. I was pissed…
I cancelled my contract, lost the $3000 and started to learn with determination. I was pissed…
Old School Value
I subscribed to a few trial newsletters from Fool.com and read all the investing basics. I slowly saw the bigger picture and began to understand what investing was all about.
By chance one day, I picked up The Intelligent Investor
I was hooked with the concepts and it suited my personal attitude and character.
The Beginning
With a clearer idea on investing, I stumbled upon Joe Ponzio’s www.fwallstreet.com which is by far the best blog I have seen. I read and studied his methods and started to fully understand what investing was really about.
From there, I started to read up on Warren Buffett, his annual shareholder letters, books based on his methods as well as other great investing minds such as Philip Fisher, Charlie Munger, Monish Pabrai and Pat Dorsey.
So What Now?
Im here to offer my thoughts about investment in a value oriented way. There are so many investment blogs out there and it will be tough to fight with the herd. However, I hope I can add a twist or different view on investing conceptions and misconceptions, company analysis, books and other general things related to investing.
I am ALWAYS welcome to newer and better thoughts and reasoning behind any topic. Please help my leaving comments and thoughts.
As Charlie Munger puts it;
if a new and better idea comes along, we must be able to throw out our old ideas and replace it with the new.
Disclaimer
I am by no means an expert. I hold no responsibility for financial decisions made based on the contents of this blog. I offer a means to a start in broader thinking and research in investing.
December 21st, 2008 at 11:58 am
재형씨,
I really like your site. I’m impressed with the professional outlook and the the layout of your site. Also, regarding other sites referencing your analysis. Keep up the good work!
April 17th, 2009 at 9:25 pm
Hi Jae,
You have a very good blog. Your hard work and dedication shows in the quality of your posts.
As a novice investor, I am getting to learn a lot.
Keep up the good work.
Thanks,
Santosh
April 23rd, 2009 at 10:31 pm
Hey Jae,
You’ve done some pretty impressive work with your site. My story is very much like yours. I favor the value investing concept, as it makes the most sense to me. I have no financial background and had to learn by trial and error, though great advice from the masters certainly makes it a whole lot easier.
Thanks for sharing your ideas. Good luck in your work.
Andrew
April 24th, 2009 at 1:34 am
Hi Andrew,
Thanks for commenting. I agree that value investing makes the most sense and it suits my character as well. I too am still certainly trying to learn more and I’m glad you enjoy the site. Hope to see you around more often.
May 17th, 2009 at 6:40 am
Annyong ha-se-yo Jae-shi,
Nicely done. I am impressed with the layout, clarity and honesty. Thanks for sharing the updates on Forbes 200 and posts to Seeking Alpha.
Khamsa hamnida
May 17th, 2009 at 9:03 pm
hahaha not bad yourself Rajiv. Where did you learn that?
September 6th, 2009 at 11:58 am
Dear Jae,
I just wanted to drop you a line and thank you for ‘the value’ that you are adding and bringing rational investing to the minds of novice investors.
I am extremely impressed with your commitment and search for discovering an investment style that makes sense, and your desire to learn.
One quick question – and you may have already dealt with it in a previous post: I am playing around with the OCV 10-year Basic valuation. Is there a reason that you dont take into consideration Cash, Cash Equivalents, or Long Term Debt in your Final ‘Total Value’ result?
Keep up the great work,
AJ
September 6th, 2009 at 3:26 pm
Hi AJ,
If you look at the formula for the total value, you’ll see that shareholders equity is included which takes into account total assets and subtracts total liabilities.
Hope that answers your question.
October 9th, 2009 at 9:39 am
I am looking for some advice on creating 2 portfolios-one of equities and one on fixed income. Will your service help me to decide what investments will make up the portfolios?
Royal Taxman
October 9th, 2009 at 4:21 pm
Royal Taxman,
It depends on what your goals are. If you are after quality investments to make up the stock portfolio and your definition of fixed income is dividends, then doing your own research with the spreadsheet should do.
You just have to know what your goals are and what asset allocation you are comfortable with.
November 1st, 2009 at 8:02 am
I am always amazed by how much of an eye-opener the ‘Intelligent Investor’ is. As Buffett says people either get it or don’t and it seems that the ones who do get it, become passionate about it.
I worked in consulting and foudn it hard to find my career and now that I have read the book and Security Analysis, I know what I want to do and your website has helped me learn more about the subject so Thank you !!
November 2nd, 2009 at 12:46 pm
Thanks for the visit and comment Petrean. Appreciate it.
It really is as Buffett says, if you don’t get the concept of buying 50c dollars within 30secs or less, you’ll never get it.
I wish you great success now that you have a passion in investing.
November 12th, 2009 at 5:49 pm
Jae – you did a very interest analysis of BNI. I had a debate with some guys at a local “hang-out” spot over the issue that Warren “didn’t pay enough”. The “other” guys worked for Norfolk-Southern, which he also owns a piece of, and the guys all said he should have paid more. I said he paid too much, but maybe about right. (This was before reading your article today.)
If it’s not too difficult, could you do a similar analysis for Norfolk-Southern, CSX, and Union Pacific? I think the results would be very interesting – and quite honestly – help me win the debate that he paid “just right” or maybe a little too much for BNI.
Thank you!
p.s. My grandfather, who’s been gone for many years, retired from CSX (C&O at the time). My father worked for a few years for C&O as well. Railroads are in my blood. I grew up in Kentucky/Ohio but now live in Atlanta.
March 4th, 2010 at 4:06 am
Hey Jae,
Great work here. I particularly like the backtesting work you’ve done on the various strategies. This is so often lacking when people talk about different investment styles.
Just interested to find out where you got all your data in the early days. Like you, I’m after 10 years worth of financial statements. Is there anywhere you used to download this data? Any free sites, or are they all paid for?
Thanks