Graham And Doddsville

The Value Investing Capital of the World
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SuperInvestor Wisdom

This is a page of quotes, ideas, and worldly wisdom I have learned from various SuperInvestors, professors, mentors, spiritual leaders, and friends.

The content comes from reading, from what I learned in the Value Program at Columbia, or from anywhere else I could learn how to be a better investor.

Management

  • Don’t by fat CEO’s, those with a Napolean complex, or those with high pay vs the industry. (-James Barrow)
  • “Many corporations reported something along the lines of: “the rate of decline is slowing. ”  Dusting off my old college calculus book, I figured out this statement seems to mean that the second derivative of sales with respect to time is positive.  By why stop at the second derivative?  I suspect it is only a matter of time before we go to the third derivative of sales and some company reports the “great news” that: “the rate of the rate of decline is slowing” (Ori Eyal – Emerging Value Capital Management)
    The lesson here is to be very careful about what you are paying attention to.  Very often management, or sellside analysts, or anyone whose has incentives other than that of a shareholder can find many ways to twist their words and divert your focus.


Management

  • “…our appraisal assumptions are probably overly conservative.  We use the depressed 2009 numbers as the base for normal growth going forward rather than assuming normalized levels of cash flow from an average of the last several years.  a stock’s price must be significantly discounted from what current business levels justify for us to buy.” (Mason Hawkins – Longleaf Funds – 2009 Shareholder Letter)

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