In investing, knowing what not to do is more important than knowing what to do. But since we don’t have all the time in the world to make all the possible mistakes to figure out what not to do, the best way is to learn from other’s mistakes. In What I Learned Losing A Million […]
In my previous post, I wrote that to achieve outperformance or above-average returns, your investment process has to be ‘unconventional’ compared to the majority. And that can only be achieved through originality, independent or contrarian thinking, and making connections from disparate information. Bill Miller, the former Legg Mason portfolio manager, emphasizes the importance of making […]
The stock market is like a pari-mutuel system of horse racing. Everybody goes there to make a bet and the odds change based on what’s being bet. Everyone can tell a quality company has better profitability, higher return on capital than a company with a terrible record. But when you look at the odds, the […]
What does going into space and investing in the stock market have in common? Both activities engaged in a high risk, high uncertainty environment. Whereas astronauts have to deal with the risk of 526,000 gallons of propellant blowing up beside them during takeoff or the shuttle disintegrating during re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere at 7.8 km […]
Philip Tetlock spent 30 years exploring what makes someone a superforecaster (not the ones you see on TV). In his book Superforecasting, he distills his work into several commandments on how we can improve our judgment without any complex algorithm. 1. Triage: Focus on questions where your hard work is likely to pay off […]
1. Experience may not be a good teacher Most elderly who died in Hurricane Katrina dies not because of their health, but because of confidence and denial. They have survived several hurricanes over their lifetime, so they believe Hurricane Katrina is no exception. Experience can create a close attitude that prevents us from seeing things […]