Sources for ideas

[Packer16]

What sources for ideas (outside of this board) do folks use?  I use Value Line (paper - I am a dinosaur) as a top level screen and look at holdings of other value investors I like (Fairholme, Baupost, etc.).  Has anyone subscribed to the Deep Value letter?  TIA

 

Packer

[yp]

I'm guessing you've heard of Dataroma but I'll post the link anyway for people who may not have:

 

http://www.dataroma.com/m/home.php

 

For those who don't know, it's a listing of the holdings (by # of shares & increase/decrease) of many of the top value investors (WEB, PW, Ackman, etc.).

I don't think it's updated regularlly but it's a decent resource for raw ideas I think. :)

[siddharth18]

http://www.valueinvestorwatch.com/ too

[stylized_fact]

www.whalewisdom.com is my favorite way to view institutional holdings.

[ericd1]

I look at 52 week lows

[LC]

I like screening for high margin businesses with low PE's. It won't capture everything but it's one place to start. I also screen for low P/B and sort by industries I have a grasp of.

[mikazo]

So far, I've had more success finding stocks that I eventually end up buying by screening for profitable businesses with high ROE/ROA and sifting through the results one by one. If the ones I like are too expensive, I keep them on a watchlist, if they're cheap enough, then I'll buy them. I'd rather look for quality businesses first, then worry about whether they're cheap.

[Palantir]

I like the watchlist idea....sadly all the ones on my watchlist went up....they're not undervalued anymore AND I missed out. Damn you Samuel Adams!

 

Frankly, I just stumble around, for ideas, and they just randomly come to me, and something clicks. Usually it is a company that I have heard of know well but suddenly I just start seeing it differently. It's like developing feelings for a girl (or guy) that you've been in the "friend zone" with.  :)

 

One way that I've developed ideas is by actually starting out trying to research a different company. I started studying Citrix Systems and ended up with a long position in Red Hat. I started studying MSFT, and noted how much it was struggling to enter search, and bought Google. I looked at Actuant but was like....wait Parker-Hannifin is better. But I'm a novice investor, so feel free to ignore this post. :)

[augustabound]

I've attempted Buffett's "Start with the A's" twice now.  I even started with the Z's once (my thinking was his A's comment went viral through the investing boards, blogs and general media that lots of people would start at A). 

I have yet to make it to B...............or Y that other time.

 

Adam at valueuncovered made it through the OTC market http://www.valueuncovered.com/a-journey-through-the-pink-sheets-3698-stocks-later .

He's got a great blog if you haven't seen it.  He's been pretty quite for a while now (lack of ideas) but his blog along with Nate's oddballstocks are my 2 favourite for sure.  Always quality posts at both.

 

 

 

 

[DCG]

I go to the mall, out to eat, shop online etc..

[Guest deepValue]

Cap IQ saves a ton of time if you want to just go through a list of companies and quickly decide which to research further.

[augustabound]

Four sources of buy ideas from The Aleph Blog.

 

[bargainman]

Some interesting screens:

 

http://www.grahaminvestor.com/screens/

http://www.magicformulainvesting.com/

 

you might want to check out aaii too.