one-foot-hurdles
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Posts posted by one-foot-hurdles
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2015 was a volatile year (personally speaking). Been attached to a 4-yr business project that has tested my patience, my sanity and my family. In 2016, I''ll be finally moving on.
2016 Goals
1. Get a new gig - anything will do, so long as I'm not working from home and get some work/life balance.
2. Health and well being - my health has taken its toll over the last 4 yrs, so getting back into jiu-jitsu training, finding a tennis partner, bike-riding with friends
3. Family - more fishing trips with my son, finally make my wife happy and commit to more DIY projects at home and take her for salsa classes.
4. Learn to code (VB, C#, C++ and Python for now), a means of career development, I plan to create small projects for myself and basically learn by doing. (For those who have taught themselves.. Any advice/resources are welcome).
5. Attend more meetups, join a local Toastmasters club.
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Not sure how big your project will be, but here are some quick points from my experiences:
A - how hard this game is - if it was easy everyone would be doing it successfully
B - the importance of governance
C - the importance of infrastructure (varies based on operational process, e.g. for systematic ctas/quantitative-based funds - algos and automation for entire execution and operational process, this needs to be in place from Day 1)
D - the need for experienced people (Everyone knows a thing or two about food, but there's a big difference between eating in a restaurant and cooking in the kitchen)
E - Flexibility in your personal finances - a cash buffer (maybe 1 yr living expenses), a spouse that can bring home extra income - anything that helps you not tax the business too much in its first year of operation -
F - if you have a complex tax structure - then the importance of quality legal and tax advice - sometimes having a member/non-exec working for a top law firm or big 4 acctng can go a long way in negotiating fees
G - Importance of negotiating contracts with your service providers - all first drafts of service provider contracts will, at some level, make them non-liable for the very service you are hiring them for (Custodian, Prime brokers, Administrators, PMS providers, etc) - paying up for a good lawyer that understands this and negotiate on your behlalf can save you heaps in future.
H - the importance of planning
I - the importance of communication & culture
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Not sure what is his cost or %holdings on the indian banks but they are down 30-40% over the last 12 months(roughly the same time when we first heard of these new investments).
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+26% YTD & +31% 1yr, I would attribute the performance to favourable ccy movements (base is AUD, and this has weakened abt 15% YTd against USD, EUR, GBP - majority of my holdings) and a bit of luck (sizeable position in NTLS and GNCMA). Quite a bit of volatility in my returns YTD, given my exposure to O&G and Russia.
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Planmaestro, bluegrasscap, barbarian cap, ed borgado, valuetakes, ben carlson, brattle st cap, tadas viskanta, johan hjortsson, elliott turner, greenwood investors, liberty, irrelevant investor(for this wit), nasim taleb(for his expletives)
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Added to my positions in AIQ, FCAU and my HK realestate investment basket
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http://money.cnn.com/2015/08/18/investing/oil-prices-15-kotok/index.html
"There is no evidence whatsoever to suggest we have bottomed. You could have $15 or $20 oil -- easily," influential money manager David Kotok told CNNMoney. "
Who this "influential" money manager is... I don't know.
Though, here was a line he wrote in 2007:
"At Cumberland, we remain fully invested in the world’s stock markets using exchange-traded funds. Our taxable and tax-free managed bond portfolios target a neutral duration. Our assumption is that the Fed will remain vigilant AND that we will have a moderate rate of economic growth in 2007."
And from another letter in 2007:
"Cumberland remains over weight the energy sector in our ETF portfolios. We continue to consider the global energy issues in the deployment of our international portfolios. We disagree with those forecasters who are predicting an oil price collapse into the $30s."
And here is in in March of 2009:
"We are still in very uncertain and high-risk times. Our current deployment is about 50% stocks, 50% bonds, and zero cash. This is 20 points under the normal 70% stock weight and 20 points above the normal 30% bond weight. We have sold Treasuries. For individuals we emphasize the terrific bargain available in the tax-free municipal bond sector. We advise that bond selection must be done skillfully. The days of relying on bond insurers and credit-rating agencies are over. On the taxable side we emphasize higher-grade corporate credits and taxable municipal bonds."
I'll give him props though for leaving a list of his commentary, wrong as it may have been. To be fair, he was pretty bullish in sept of 2011.
I receive his newsletters and I know a lot of institutional investors, SWFs read his commentaries.
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A corner boy from the Wire discovers value investing ;D ;D
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Eric, you have a blind spot here. You are being a real jerk. Stop.
I'm curious. Why is adesigar not getting the same comment?
+1
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NTLS and Clarke this week
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I was determined to sit for the CFA exams more out of interest and finance education. Completed all three levels but havent bothered with applying for the charter.
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Thought this might be of interest:
https://www.foragerfunds.com/bristlemouth/verizon-blows-apart-bundle#
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A related question, anyone has a recommendation for portfolio management software, that can help to reconcile, calculate returns, aggregate client accounts and generating client reports? Basically I am trying to find a cheaper version of InData IMS and Advent. thanks
Ezesoft's Tradar PMS should be more than adequate for your needs.
Advent is the rolls royce of PMS providers, industry standard, used by all top Fund Admins, you will never outgrow this system but they are prohibitively expensive for the average start-up fund and we question how they justify some of their setup costs
cheers
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B&C Speakers (BEC.MI) - Italian, family-controlled small cap, speaker component manufacturer for professional audio market. Its fallen quite a bit over the last year and trading around my cost. Its a full position for me so not keen to buy unless well below my cost price. Dividend yield currently about 5.6%
Austex Oil (ASX: AOK) - Another one I've owned for little over a year and still holding.
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5% for 2014, but I'm mostly flat if you remove currency effects. My biggest detractors have been my investments in Russia (around 10% of portfolio), O&G (another 8%) and Mining (5-6%). Positives have been diversifying away from Australian equities (this used to be the bulk of my portfolio) into US and Europe (hence +ve ccy effect), Fiat, GNCMA(thanks Packer!) and investments in Indian equities (thanks Modi!).
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I think the Institute did a tremendous job by creating the curriculum body of knowledge materials for candidates. I recall in the 90s you had to source your own textbooks, there were no finite list of learning outcomes (just read the textbooks and hope youve covered everything for exam), no free mock exams, no test preps, review classes. I would argue its easier to pass exams today. The high failure rate says more about the quality of candidates than the difficulty of the exams.
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...the practice of taking the exam without immediate feedback and with the pressure clock ticking has been good prep so I can hopefully be less stressed at the actual test and also have an idea of my pace and time per question.
I think this is the best approach for this stage of prep. imo, 2 points to address for success:
1) Knowing the curriculum: this simply requires time, you can't cheat this - last 2-4 months of prep would have addressed this
2) Exam sitting skills: last couple of weeks before exam. You have to condition yourself for exam day and that means simulating as many 2X3hr sessions as you can. This cements everything you've acquired in part 1)
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Shulte is excellent, we used them to assist in negotiating most of our service provider agreements. Quick turnaround of docs, general comments from our service providers: "we haven't seen so many ammendments/redline comments to our contracts before"
DLA piper is another we have used and we have been pleased with.
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[amazonsearch]Investing Between The Lines[/amazonsearch]
Has anyone else read this book? Just received my copy this week and I'm already halfway through it. I think it is a fantastic read and one for every investor's library.
The book focuses on the softer side of analysis which is deciphering CEO letters and management communication. Some notes:
- "Executive communication is the window into the culture, value, operations and prospects of the business"
- A sustainable business model is based on 7 primary systems: Accountability, Strategy, Vision, Leadership, Candor, Relationship and Capital Stewardship
- A strong system of accountability supports the execution of strategy. No accountability, leads to squandering of investors capital.
- Strong leadership is required to support a corporate vision. Without strong leadership, a company is likely to have a diffuse and unoriginal vision that can waste shareholder equity.
- Candor ensures that stakeholder relationships are built on trust. Without Candor, trust cannot grow or flourish.
- Capital Stewardship is the hub of the model, it reveals whether managements actions are based on attitudes of being entrusted with or entitled to investor capital.
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You have to be careful with frugality, and weigh it against the income you would make with the time spent saving money.
For example, a lot of these behaviors have become habit for me over two decades, such as cutting coupons when I buy groceries every week. But as time went buy, I realized that if I spend half an hour cutting coupons that will save me $5, but in that half hour I earn $100, it's probably not the best use of my time.
So a lot of frugal behaviors that I carry out now, I always weigh them against the value of that time. If I'm not doing anything, then sure I'll save that $5, or research that discount on phones, cars, furniture, etc. I'm not the most handy of individuals, so I'm never going to spend hours remodelling my kitchen myself. So I'll seek out deals, haggle, etc and get great work for a fair or cheap price.
What I've found is that I can get better discounts by simply calling up the retailer and haggling with them on the phone. That's what I do for my smartphone, computers, furniture, cars...just about most things. If you ask or haggle, generally you will save a fair amount of money without wasting too much time. Any fee or bill I receive that I don't like...I phone them up and seek a reduction or haggle for a fee removal. Cheers!
Took the words right out of me Sanj. This is exactly how I've learnt to think.
I am frugal by nature, but I've learnt that Time is a scarcer resource, and sometimes there is a high cost associated with a low price.
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“When a person with money meets a person with experience, the person with the experience winds up with the money and the person with the money winds up with the experience”
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I thought "There is always something to do" was dry and a little overhyped with mentions from Price and Watsa.. So hope the new book is a reboot and not a sequel.
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Thanks netnet!
Current Holdings
in General Discussion
Posted
Tanla Solutions (india) ~50% (mostly from capital appreciation)
Subex (india) - 5%
Umanis SA - 7%
Telecom Italia - 6%
SHSP -5%
LICT - 5%
Bollore - 4%
DFIN - 3%
MMAC - 3%
LBRDA - 2%
OPXS - 2%
TMDX and DMTK ~ 4%
Few other tiny positions in Hong Kong