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Being contrarian can be very lucrative

...
a BMI, or "Big Money Indicator".
Once I detect such "purposeful" activity, I look for evidence that they're all but finished and about to let the sp snap back up; ...

You listen for the cranking of the handle ... and wait for the "Thwak"!
 

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Well

Maybe its time to come over to the dark side?

Thought I might update this little portfolio to explain in part why I am happy with my chosen investment philosophy.



This portfolio is starting to diverge a little from my personal portfolio as I have sold JBH to free up cash to participate in the FRI spp and to leave a little spare cash for the next bargain to turn up. For the sake of this exercise I will adopt a buy and hold strategy.

DWS Advanced Business Solutions Limited
Average price paid $1.294
Price Today $1.425
Paper Profit 10.1%

FGE Forge Group
Average price paid $2.582
Price Today $5.30
Paper Profit 105.3%
Dividend received $0.05

JBH JB HiFI
Average price paid $18.636
Price Today $19.21
Paper Profit 3.08%
Dividend received 0.33

FRI Finbar Group
Average price paid $1.061
Price Today $1.175
Paper Profit 7.00%

In my personal portfolio the initial investment in these companies was far from equally weighted.

FGE is my largest holding at 32.5% of my total portfolio after selling half my holdings at ~$4.15

My next largest holding is MCE currently 29.8% of my portfolio bought @ a average cost of $4.127 - no profits taken yet.

Not trying to sound smug just trying to explain why I am happy learning from Messers Graham, Buffett, Munger and Montgomery and co.
 

Motorway your post reads for me as " you cant pick bottom so don't try, just buy into the rally when others are buying, safety in numbers, don't stick your neck out etc.

While that's a valid strategy i cant help but think its also a little middle of the road and sheepish...in many threads we encourage people to think and do research, read books etc and think for themselves...and now here you are suggesting to just go with the flow, seems a little defeatist to me.

----------------------------
I am kind of lost in this discussion. Maybe I should stay in HotCopper.

We expect a little more than what's usual at HC
 
Not smug at all.
Success seems to be frowned upon here.
By paper profit you mean open Profit?

How long did you held these?

The reason I ask is without FRG results are pretty average.
How long will you hold a trade which "Goes off the boil"?
Why would you sell a trade?---IE take profit---or Loss?

Without being smug.
LEG returned 100% on capital in 5 days.
UNX 80% in 5 days as well.

Your doing well and if it suits you style of trading and Thats the way you know how to trade then Thats where you should stay.
 
Well how are you going to Pick a Bottom is maybe the point

And maybe was the point

Better how do You IDENTIFY A BOTTOM


Just knowing "your" values does not do it imo
Bottoms are not made by doing some sums

I do not want to follow the crowd
or fade the crowd.
that is too prescriptive and not suggestive of working in Harmony.

Sometimes the crowd has wisdom .. Sometimes it ihas totally lost it..

The key is to distinguish Beginnings from endings
there is a cycle and rhythm to things..

Many posts on ASF of mine deal with this

This old quote I like was in one...

Psychology of the Stock Market

by G. C. Selden

Ticker Publishing, New York, 1912
Talking about the older material
G C Seldon was Richard Wyckoff's associate editor
at the "ticker" the name was changed in 1912 to "The Magazine of Wall Street."





No following there !

and this


The concept of the Composite Operator imo became watered down into MR market
To fully appreciate the difference is something those interested can study..


Here is something From a time when RDW was making a bit more use of value
( Times change )



7 8 9 10 or relate to Mt market,,, But in the proper guise of the Composite Operator.


Nothing defeatist here

Identify a bottom
If you can
If you can't learn HOW

Then ask Tech/A what to do about it

He will tell you what you do is what is important

Motorway
 
Not smug at all.
Success seems to be frowned upon here.
By paper profit you mean open Profit?

Yes

How long did you held these?

FGE about 8 months
FRI about 5 months
DWS about 6 weeks


The reason I ask is without FRG results are pretty average.

True but these positions are still open...time will tell

How long will you hold a trade which "Goes off the boil"?

Indefinately

Why would you sell a trade?---IE take profit---or Loss?

Only a few reasons:
1) The sp exceeds my calculation if the iv by a significant ammount.

2) I identify a better prospect

3) To rebalance my portfolio ie FGE was ~ 65% of my portfolio at one stage.


Without being smug.
LEG returned 100% on capital in 5 days.
UNX 80% in 5 days as well.

Your doing well and if it suits you style of trading and Thats the way you know how to trade then Thats where you should stay.

Thankyou. It works for me. My SMSF has returned 55.3% this calendar year after contributions, brokerage, fees and taxes.

I could never trade like you do re LEG and UNX
 

Just wanted to join the Tysonboss cheer squad. Hard to argue with most of his coments.
 
I try to beat the market !

In the bull run, I invariably succeed.

In the bear run, I invariably get savaged.

Happened to me three times now ... You'd think I'd learn??!
 
Well how are you going to Pick a Bottom is maybe the point

And maybe was the point

Better how do You IDENTIFY A BOTTOM

I would say that you don't really need to pick the bottom, You just have to buy what makes sense.

Remember value investors are not traders, we are not banking on selling the stock in a week a month or a year. We buy good businesses when they are at attractive prices and hold them as long as the business is operating well. I only sell something if fundamentally the business changes or it's price rises to a level well above it's fair value and the price is dangerously high or alternativly I may sell somthing to free up cash for somthing else thats better value.

If I can identify a company with a sound business and it's share price suffers falls, But after I re assess things I can see that all is still good and the earnings and cashflow is high compared to the share price, the dividend is high, mangaement are doing smart things with retained capital, I will buy some.

It does not matter to me if the share price falls after I have bought in because this may give me an opportunity to deploy some more capital at a later date.

This may sound crazy, But as a general rule I prefer prices going down, even I stocks I already have a holding in. Every month I have about $10,000 to deploy and I can deploy this much more effectively when share prices are lower.

Offcourse I can't stop the share prices rising, and traditional the bargains I find do double or triple in price, and that is nice. But I would have much prefered they stay at lower levels for a longer period.

I have posted this video in another thread, But the first 2mins 30 has some logic that is missed by most.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sgCYOeYrnw
 

Very insightful video.

I have often noticed I buy into stocks in a falling market early. Trying to wait for the bottom may cause me to miss out all together.

The way I invest after identifying EXCEPTIONAL businesses is to work out my estimation of the iv. If the price is 20% below my iv then I may alocate 5% of my portfolio to that business. If the price drops to 25% below iv then all things being equal and this still being a EXCEPTIONAL business then I might double my initial holding.
 
Are you a trader or investor.

Hi Tysonboss1,

I started out an investor but greed slowly descended over my plan.
I like to think I have a foot in each camp, if that's at all possible.

Currently holding ADN AXE CIG EXM EXMOA FMS

CIG was a straight out gamble, lost plenty,
learnt plenty, they're in the bottom drawer!

EXM and EXMOA: I was unaware that they
had "lost" near 900,000 ozs of gold reserves,
til I read it here at ASF!

I hold out great hope for the rest!

When Warren Buffet decided that energy was the way forward,
he bought Burlington Northern Railways.

I like the thinking but my pockets aren't that deep!
 
Speculating when you think your investing is the worst type of speculation.
Hi Tysonboss1,

EXM: I had traded them a lot, based purely on their JORC reserve of circa 1.2 million ozs.
Three good holes, from memory, and an electronic database from previous owners.

All that being said, I agree it was a speccie,
as they were years away from production, i.e. profit.

How was I to know the company had lied to the ASX about the JORC reserve?

It's unheard of ... isn't it?

An independent review downgraded the JORC reserve to roughly 279,700 ozs.
 
Indeed, and I hasten to add that "investing" in penny dreadful mining stocks is also the worst type of speculation.

Indeed,,
I made mistakes!
These are what I got stuck with during the GFC.
A 1 in 100 year event with no precedent!

They do not represent my ideal portfolio.

Not unlike a used car yard when the pretties have
been purchased and the trade-ins dumped in their place.
 
I have often noticed I buy into stocks in a falling market early. Trying to wait for the bottom may cause me to miss out all together.

I think that alot of success can come in just trying to buy the bottom, buying at the lowest point is near impossible, however what i have found is that in attempting to buy a bottom i actually end up buying close enough that i doesn't really matter that i missed the bottom or got in to early....most of the time.

Fact is that stock can only be brought at very cheap price levels by those actually trying to buy bottoms and or interested in value.
 
I consider myself as a contrarian investor. Buying really good stocks at really cheap prices is my game. In 2009 at the height of the GFC I was 99% invested which going against the grain of most who were "waiting" for clear signs before buying. By the time they saw the signs the market had jumped 30%. I was very lucky at one stage, I put my last lousy 2k into my ASX 300 ETF on March the 9th. 2009. The rest of my money I had in at higher prices but for me it was value at those prices anyway. No one can pick bottom that's for sure.

At the end of the day you got to do what you feel is right. Some of those so called pros got it all wrong, VERY WRONG. I remember at one time in 2009 one of those pros said that now you should cash in and get out of stocks altogether, what friggin genius he was. Thinking for yourself and being contrarian could be very lucrative indeed.
 
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