Apologies for missing last week’s email update. Since it’s Easter and we all have a lot of chocolate to eat I’ll keep it short and sweet (no pun intended) and get right down to the links:
How to become an even better investor – This is a post I wrote last Friday in response to a reader’s question about how to improve as an investor. Ever the contrarian, my response was the opposite of the ‘work harder’ and ‘read more’ doctrines that seem so common.
Defensive Value Portfolio 2012 Q1 update – This one went out the door just a few hours ago. I haven’t spoken about my portfolio since it went ‘underground’ at the end of last year for paid subscriber eyes only. Well it’s the end of the first quarter and a quarterly public review seems like a reasonable frequency. For those who aren’t paid subscribers you can still get the basic idea of how I run this portfolio (and my own money) and how it’s performing.
Latest Oaktree Capital Memo (PDF) – Always a good read from Howard Marks, and a Warren Buffett favourite too. This month Marks looks at how recent history can skew the thinking of all but the oldest and experienced of investors.
What goes up must come down (PDF) – The latest whitepaper from GMO’s James Montier, on profit margin mean reversion. Although the paper focuses on the US, the same arguments probably apply to some extent in the UK too; I’ve been surprised by the levels of profit being generated in the FTSE 100 given that we’re supposed to be in a borderline recession. However, personally I find it difficult to put this information into an investment process and it seems to rely on speculation about how much the profit margin will mean revert by and when and over what time period. So while the article is interesting it’s not something that I would spend much time thinking about.
As always, if you’re interested in my premium newsletter you can trial it for 60-days here.
And, if you want to get in touch you can just reply to this email and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can (but probably Tuesday at the earliest).
Happy Easter,
John Kingham
