Best of Old School Value 2017
5, 4, 3, 2, 1~!
We made it ????
This is the last post in 2017 and starting 2018, we are rebranding the weekly and monthly emails that I send out as the “Old School Value Nugget“.
Much better than Weekly Links and News don’t you think?
First, as the last email for 2017, I want to stretch out my hand to shake your hand and simply say thanks. Most likely you’ll speed read through this sentence with all the other million things you read 🙂
But thanks!
2017 marks the end of the 10th year since Old School Value was born. It’s a labor of love and it’s a blessing to be able to do what I love daily and hopefully for the next 10, 20, 50 years to come.
Now, if you are like me and can’t remember what happened this year, here’s a quick refresher.
2017 in Review
Earlier in the year, we saw Britain exercise its decision to divorce the EU. They have until March 29, 2019 to come up with the terms and to have it signed and delivered. Maybe if things don’t go as planned, 2019 will finally be the year the market gets a cold.
2017 also marks the 10th year after the great recession, and it’s a been massive bull run since then. It isn’t going away either. Check out the chart further down. Markets across the board have shot up.
In October, The IMF mentioned that “The outlook is strengthening, with a notable pickup in investment, trade, and industrial production, together with rising confidence.”
The US economy grew 3.3 percent in the third quarter of 2017, which is a 3 year high and unemployment is the lowest it’s been since 2000.
We also experienced a defiant fat head idiot in North Korea testing missile after missile. The US has taken the hardest stance ever against the North and although we didn’t have any wars in 2017, who knows what will happen in 2018.
Xi Jinping’s rise to power continues. His current status has been elevated to the party founder Mao Zedong. With the goal of globalization and bringing down protectionism, China is expected to exert more influence and power into the world economy as long as Xi Jinping is at the head. Will be interesting to see where we are 5-10 years down the road.
Natural disasters also took a toll this year. Devastating hurricanes wiped out power, food, water and home in the US and the Caribbean. We have it good here where we rally and have the resources to help each other out. In other places like the Caribbean and Puerto Rico, only a little more than 50% of the population have power – 2 months after the damage.
But do we really want 2017 to end?
The Dow is up 25%, the S&P500 is just under 20%, and the Nasdaq is up over 30%.
It’s a sad farewell to an amazing 2017 for the markets.
You have to see it yourself to believe it.
Still nothing compared to bitcoin which is up 1460% YTD. Ethereum is up over 9000% and Litecoin is up over 5400%.
I’m not a fan of bitcoin as there is too much speculation, but there was one inverse comment I did appreciate about bitcoin.
I have 0% in bitcoin or crypto, but if I put in 1% or even 0.5% of my portfolio into bitcoin, what type of affect would that have had
Interesting question in hindsight, but interesting none the less. 1% wouldn’t affect my portfolio on the downside, but even $1,000 in bitcoin, ethereum or litecoin.
Wow.
With Bitcoin futures now available, does this mean bitcoin is taking further strides to become mainstream? Or just another vehicle for speculation?
2017 for Old School Value
We hit many milestones with Old School Value, but also fell short on many levels too.
Several hundred thousand lines of code was added as our team worked round the clock to bring OSV Insiders the best features and bug fixes.
- The screener was released at the start of the year and we added features to make it more customizable to your needs. Along with additional data points and filters, we literally have the biggest inventory of value focused data points than anywhere else. This makes it easier to screen and find stocks you won’t find on any other service or screener.
- Countless fixes, upgrades and enhancements were added to make things easier.
- Our latest big addition was the new Stock Portfolio feature to help you track your performance in a highly visual and well summarized format.
A plethora of upgrades, speed improvements, new code and tweaks were made all year, and I’m super proud of the quality we are able to offer as an all-in-one analysis tool to make your research and investing that much easier.
If you need a tool to help you cut through the noise, make it easier for you to make decisions and find unique opportunities, then sign up to Old School Value. You have a day left before the new year.
This year more than ever, Old School Value is transitioning further into a fintech company as we continue and cut our way through data, analytics and come up with new and better ways to make investing easier, faster, intuitive.
The INVEST1000 portfolio is doing great after 6 months. You’ll be surprised at the results achieved by Lester in his INVEST1000 portfolio when I share them in January.
Much better than my list from earlier in the year.
There’s also plenty to open up about the fails this year. A couple of the main ones include:
- Not being able to release some highly anticipated features by the end of the year. We’ll be working on finishing up the new Charts section for next year.
- The 2017 OSV Action Score portfolio did not perform up to standards and is well below the benchmark performance. More on that in another email/post as I go through the results of what worked and what didn’t.
As the final reading list for the year, here is the round up of most popular articles from 2017.
Top 10 Most Read Articles in 2017
- The Best Free Stock Portfolio Tracking Spreadsheet using Google Drive
- Changes in Working Capital and Owner Earnings – The Complete Guide
- 20 Balance Sheet Ratios Every Investor Must Know
- How to Value a Stock with the Benjamin Graham Formula
- 7 Cash Flow Ratios Every Value Investor Should Know
- The Evolution of Warren Buffett’s Career from 1936 to 2013
- Practical Guide and Explanation to Discount Rates for Value Investors
- Does the Magic Formula Really Work?
- Details of the FIFO LIFO Inventory Valuation Methods
- How to Calculate Maintenance Capital Expenditure
Top 10 Most Popular Articles Published in 2017
- Altman Z Score Useless? Here’s Why I’m Still Using It
- Google Finance Portfolio Discontinued. Our Alternative Portfolio.
- Our Market Beating Action Score – How Combining Quality, Value, Growth Metrics Produce the Best Results
- How to Calculate Your Time Weighted Return Portfolio Performance
- My Detailed Notes to Moats and Competitive Advantages
- Revealing My 2017 Action Score Portfolio and Why I’m Selling
- How to Leverage Ugly Net Nets to Time the Market
- The 2017 Action Score Portfolio That Will Beat the Market
- Top 15 Books on Every Investment Professionals Reading List
- Why People Are Wrong About Wal-Mart
INVEST1000 Case Study
If you missed the $1000 challenge, where Lester takes $1000 and uses Old School Value to pick the stocks and buys them using Robinhood, check it out in the 3 part series below.
- Introducing the INVEST1000 Case Study and Our Brave Hero
- INVEST1000: How to Pick Stocks with $1000
- INVEST1000: This is the $1000 Portfolio
In the coming month, we have a LOT of updates to send out. Check back as I share the results for the screeners, OSV 2017 portfolio, Lester’s INVEST1000 portfolio and more.
Have a safe and wonderful new year!
See you next year my friend ????????
Sign Up to Old School Value before the end of 2017
Before I head off, if you’re serious about wanting to make better and quick investment decisions without having to grind through hours of searching and digging for data and calculation – sign up for old school value and expense it for your taxes.
