Hi
One of the things that really frustrates me about investing is the amount of wasted opportunity that goes on out there. I think about 90% of the people I talk to who are active, stock picking investors, just have no clue what they’re doing.
It’s a case of throwing some ideas at the wall and seeing what sticks. I’ve thought about printing off some copies of my Guide to Defensive Value Investing, but they’d probably think I was weird, or a salesman or something.
That’s why I’ve come up with the idea of getting a book published – a proper, real paperback that you can hold in your hand. Hopefully then I won’t seem so crazy when I say, hey, here’s a book I’ve written on investing, why don’t you have a copy.
So my recent posts have been a kind of skeleton for this book, and that’s continued with the posts this week.
The first post finishes up the basic strategy of defensive value investing and why I think it’s a sensible, usable approach for most normal people who like to pick stocks and don’t want to just invest in the index or some fund with excessive fees. It’s called:
Why the FTSE 100 is so hard to beat (and what to do about it)
The second post of the week covers the first step in finding companies that Warren Buffett called The Inevitables; which are those companies that can grow consistently for years and years. The slightly OTT title for this second is:
The shocking truth about growth investors
Don’t skip that post because it goes into quite a bit of detail into how I look for long-term growers.
This week’s 5-star review is…
Go-Ahead Group
This company is one of the major public transport firms in the UK. It is the ‘busiest’ rail company and run more busses in London than anyone else.
At a price of 1,200p its stats are:
PE10 = 10.0%
G10 = 11.1%
Yield = 6.8%
Public transport is a very defensive, recession ‘proof’ industry, so their earnings and dividends are very stable. They do carry quite a lot of debt, with interest covered only 6.6 times, which is pretty close to my limit of 5. However, they are very defensive and stable and have far much better interest cover than their main rival, First Group, which has interest cover of only 2.7 (which is why I haven’t invested in First Group).
As always, this isn't advice, it's just information about a company that you may (or may not) want to look at in more detail.
Disclosure: I own shares in Go-Ahead Group and they are also a holding in the Defensive Value Report’s model portfolio.
Yours sincerely,
John
P.S. You can reply to this email if you want to get in touch.
One of the things that really frustrates me about investing is the amount of wasted opportunity that goes on out there. I think about 90% of the people I talk to who are active, stock picking investors, just have no clue what they’re doing.
It’s a case of throwing some ideas at the wall and seeing what sticks. I’ve thought about printing off some copies of my Guide to Defensive Value Investing, but they’d probably think I was weird, or a salesman or something.
That’s why I’ve come up with the idea of getting a book published – a proper, real paperback that you can hold in your hand. Hopefully then I won’t seem so crazy when I say, hey, here’s a book I’ve written on investing, why don’t you have a copy.
So my recent posts have been a kind of skeleton for this book, and that’s continued with the posts this week.
The first post finishes up the basic strategy of defensive value investing and why I think it’s a sensible, usable approach for most normal people who like to pick stocks and don’t want to just invest in the index or some fund with excessive fees. It’s called:
Why the FTSE 100 is so hard to beat (and what to do about it)
The second post of the week covers the first step in finding companies that Warren Buffett called The Inevitables; which are those companies that can grow consistently for years and years. The slightly OTT title for this second is:
The shocking truth about growth investors
Don’t skip that post because it goes into quite a bit of detail into how I look for long-term growers.
This week’s 5-star review is…
Go-Ahead Group
This company is one of the major public transport firms in the UK. It is the ‘busiest’ rail company and run more busses in London than anyone else.
At a price of 1,200p its stats are:
PE10 = 10.0%
G10 = 11.1%
Yield = 6.8%
Public transport is a very defensive, recession ‘proof’ industry, so their earnings and dividends are very stable. They do carry quite a lot of debt, with interest covered only 6.6 times, which is pretty close to my limit of 5. However, they are very defensive and stable and have far much better interest cover than their main rival, First Group, which has interest cover of only 2.7 (which is why I haven’t invested in First Group).
As always, this isn't advice, it's just information about a company that you may (or may not) want to look at in more detail.
Disclosure: I own shares in Go-Ahead Group and they are also a holding in the Defensive Value Report’s model portfolio.
Yours sincerely,
John
P.S. You can reply to this email if you want to get in touch.
