What is this website about？
This website is about my personal thoughts and insights on value investing. On the website, I will post my recent research write-ups, general thoughts on the philosophy and practice of value investing, as well as some investment principles. I sincerely hope that the content on this website will provide the viewers with value at the very least.
What drove me to create such a website?
My plan is to conduct investment research on a great number of companies (mainly retailing and banking) by myself in my free time, and then develop my investment thesis on some of the opportunities that is deemed to have a substantial upside and a minimal downside. At first I would like to publish the write-ups on Seeking Alpha or Value Investor Club, but later I realised that since I consider investment research to be something that I am willing to do even at the age of 90, it would be much better to write everything on yibodomus.com in order to preserve a more comprehensive overview about my investment thinking. In this way, I can keep a record of my ideas at any given time period, and interact, if possible, with other value investors.
What kinds of research write-ups will I post on this website?
I tend to be very flexible about investment that I will cover. I always use bottom-up methods to conduct my research. Concerning the scope, I am personally economy agnostic, country agnostic and market cap agnostic.
Countries: I started with US and some other English-speaking countries. Generally speaking, those countries have 1) a long-existed financial market 2) better protection for property rights 3) better information disclosure and corporate governance. Then I enlarged my circle of competence to include more and more countries in my scope.
Types: I am especially interested in GARP (growth at a reasonable price; 15-25% growth), undervalued stalwarts (~10% growth; waiting for multiple expansion or else), spin-offs (maybe even other special situations in the future), and cyclicals (a close examination on the industries and companies is needed). I will also cover some other types of investment for the sake of learning and practice.
Economy: I have a degree in economics. As a result, I tend to minimise any kinds of assumption based on economic predictions, unless the company/industry is directly impacted by some clear economic dynamics. After all, I am not equipped with a crystal ball to tell fortune or predict economic conditions, nor does the economy function precisely according to the models and formulae I learned.
Style: I tend to make it more personal. My ultimate goal is to better illustrate my point, not to sell my idea.
What preparations did I make upfront for value investing?
a) Books: I read about 90 books on investing over the last year, most of which are on value investing. The book that has the hugest influence on me is One Up On Wall Street. Many books concerning the commercial world, mostly biographies and professional books, also contribute to my understanding of business dynamics and how to recognise a great entrepreneur.
b) Annual reports: I read hundreds of annual reports since 2022. I also check the proxy statements and shareholder letters. What caught my interest is the company that demonstrates features of deep moats, unique assets/business models, solid financial positions, incentive plans that align the interest of employees and management with shareholders, long-termist operation philosophy, etc.
c) Value Investor Insight: I read all the issues of Value Investor Insight since 2017. I always try to evaluate the authors’ investment theses and line of thinking by myself. (an observation: when the author uses some exaggerated or even extreme languages to describe a business, chances are high that things will never )
d) Value Investor Club: Sometimes I source my idea from the write-ups in Value Investor Club. It is very handy to know about some great businesses that draw value investors’ attention.
e) 13F of other value investors: It is always a good thing to learn from great value investors, including but not restricted to examining their holdings.
f) Letters to investors or memo by some value investors
g) Interviews and public lectures: for example, I watched every single video on the YouTube channel We Study Billionaires, which is in essence a channel on interviews with value investors.
How do I source my ideas on investment research?
I use various methods to find potential investment. 1) my own screening by screening tools 2) 52-week lows and 52-week highs 3) news and idiosyncratic events 4) going through annual reports 5) 13F 6) VIC and VII 7) real life experience from myself and others (mostly to-C business; Internet creates opportunities) 8) temporarily unloved and under-appreciated business and industries 9) insider trading (low price combined with substantial insider buying) 10) spin-offs
The value investors I admire most?
Peter Lynch, Joel Tillinghast, Ben Gratham, Nick Sleep, Terry Smith, John Templeton, Joel Greenblatt, Seth Klarman, François Rochon, Mohnish Pabrai, Mark Mobius. Did I forget to mention Charlie Munger and Warren Buffet?