Learn from your mistakes ASAP

Only way to improve yourself on anything you do is admitting mistakes and learning from it. 

Everyone makes mistakes and the faster you admit your mistakes, the faster you will improve.

When it comes to investing, you need to be honest with yourself and you better be quick about it because you would lose your hard earned money if you are not quick enough.

Admitting your mistakes will hurt your feeling temporarily but you will feel great after admitting and moving on when it comes to your investing. Don’t sit on losers expecting that they would magically turn into swans. Investing isn’t ‘The Ugly Duckling’.  9 out of 10, the ugly duckling will still be the ugly duckling day after day.

Or read books that I recommended and learn from the best!

Refine your investing strategies

I lost my hard earned $$$ in investing in stocks. Real hard earned money… but each time I make mistakes, I polish my strategies.

I have completely changed my investing strategies… I think 4-5 times so far.

Let’s quickly recap…

1. I thought investing was a losers’ game and saving was a winners’ game. That preconception resulted in huge opportunity cost. Unfortunately, many people are thinking that investing is the most scary thing in the world. Scary like one day, big muscles knock your door and start to take your couches, kitchen table and xbox.

2. Next, I changed my mindset and started investing in mutual funds thinking that it was all free and that TD bank was an angel organization that charges me nothing year after year while made me 5-6% year when S&P 500 went up by 12- 15%.

3. The moment I realized that TD bank was basically robbing me with fees from mutual funds investing, I opened up direct investing account and started buying ETFs- S&P 500 and Canadian index funds.

4. When things started to get boring with index funds and I thought I gained more knowledge, I started picking stocks on my own based on all kinds of nonsense. More psychology than actual fundamentals (shame that I am an accountant). I thought I was a solid value investor but I did ok but certainly not great on many stocks that I considered as cigar butts.

5. When things aren’t any better with so-called value investing, I moved on to dividend &dividend growth investing. I did alright but the results was not impressive. Almost better or worse than ETF investing.

6. Finally, based on countless hours of readings, researching and thinking about the mistakes I have made, I made a big decision and finally settled with GARP investing strategy supported by detailed fundamental analysis. This resulted so far highest outcome and I cannot think of any stocks that I lost money on ever since I employed GARP investing strategy and started picking GARP stocks.

Jason Del Vicario- BNN Market Call

I was in the office cafeteria making my espresso and I saw Jason Del Vicario doing BNN market calls yesterday. I don’t typically pay too much attention to many of the fund managers in BNN other than only a few… and Vicario is one of those few. To be honest, it is quite hard to find fund managers who buy and recommend what I have as core holdings…

Why you as a small investor can do better than fund managers

There are many advantages as a small investor when it comes to managing funds vs Investing on your own with your small funds because

-Fund managers are restricted in buying certain stocks due to many reasons

-Fund managers aren’t very flexible. Often they are not allowed to buy small cap stocks because small cap stocks are too small for their size of funds.

-Fund managers often have to promote the stocks they own maybe through private placement they did with the companies they invested in or many other political reasons other than real fundamentals of the companies.

-Fund managers are restricted in buying illiquid stocks with large spread between bid and ask.

-Some fund managers are really short term focused- maybe quarter after quarter or even day after day.

-Some fund managers really do not know what they are talking about as they are just sales people.

-Some fund managers are not really interested in companies do not issue stocks and fund all cash flows for expansions and acquisitions internally because they cannot make money through brokering or putting together deals.

-You are not restricted to anything above and you won’t have anyone (probably other than your wife) to yell at you day after day based on daily volatility of the stocks you bought. (Just don’t tell your wife… 🙂 )

So when I started to notice that Jason recommends so many stocks that I already have as core holdings at least prove that we think alike and maybe Jason’s firm is less restricted in what they can buy.

Can’t say every pick of Jason was great (e.g. Data Communications Management which may turn out great if the turnaround is successful) but at the least, he likes to buy winners and keep them as long as fundamentals are supportive.

My anchor stocks VS Jason’s top picks

His one of top picks is Lassonde industries.

Last time Lassonde was mentioned in BNN was more than 4 years ago in October 2013 and the one before was more than 6 years ago in September 2011… Lassonde is the company that no fund managers care about ever and stay under the radar of 99% of Canadian DYI investors. If you held Lassonde 4 and 6 years ago, you would have more than doubled your money and quadrupled your money respectively. So Jason coming out recommending Lassonde as top pick is totally unexpected.

You should know by now that Lassonde is one of my top 10 largest holding.

He also recommended MTY as another top pick… This stock isn’t something people really care much about (but more than Lassonde).

Again… this is my top 10 largest holding.

What about his other picks?

• New Flyer Industries- another top picks by Jason. On my watch list but I have not had time to research about the company yet. Seems to be solid
• CCL industries- One stock that I missed the boat on. On my watch list and I think the company is quite solid on almost every aspect other than this company being a bit cyclical
• Constellation Software-CEO and Chairman, Mark Leonard is one of top 3 capital allocators of Canada if not the best. Solid growers with huge ROE
• Open Text- Great company. Going through large acquisitions so could be a good entry point. I have been watching this company for a while.
• Shopify- This is the company that does not fit into my investing criteria however its potentials is huge. I may initiate a very small position someday or not invest any at all…
• Stella Jones– One of my big positions (probably 8-9%). Jason likes this quite a bit. I always thought this company as a turtle race. Growing slowly but consistently while acquiring small shops across North America.

There were companies that I do not understand (e.g. Data Communication Management) but in general Jason likes many companies that are my core holdings.

Coincident? Or do we just think alike?

Either way, I like the way he invest.

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Investing is Art, Science and Your Own Homework.

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You should ask this question before buying anything!

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