The site title comes from how I view my own investing journey. An engineer by
trade, I started out investing in actively-managed mutual funds in the
mid-1990's. I figured that fund managers and analysts knew more than I, and
could deliver satisfactory results beyond what I, as a technical wonk, could
do. After a few years of (how do I put this) unacceptable results, and growing
dissatisfied with the whole process, I resolved to learn what I could about
this whole investing thing.
I became a voracious reader of investment books, with one of the first being
The Motley Fool Investment Guide. Their message - that the individual
could outperform the market and most professionals - resonated with me. (In
fairness, they never claimed to have invented the concept, paying appropriate
reverence to Peter Lynch's
One Up On Wall Street). I loved the idea of beating the street, taking
responsibility for my own financial future, and sharing this idea with others.
Moreover, this investment thing was addictive! Reading about companies. How
companies create (or destroy) value for shareholders. How to assess what the
intrinsic value of a company might be, how it often differed from what the
market might be offering at any particular time, and how the concept of buying
a dollar's worth of value for seventy-five cents just made obvious sense. At
one point, my wife, tiring of listening to my latest enthusiasms told me, "You
need to make some new friends who understand what you're talking about!"
Flash Forward to Today
One departure from the world of engineering, one MBA in finance, and one
Candidacy in the CFA program later,
I now spend my time as an independent investment analyst and writer. Most of my
time is contracted to that same Motley Fool that
awoke the investing passion in me a decade ago. (How's that for what goes
around, comes around?). I write for the main site, and serve as an analyst for
the
Hidden Gems and
Hidden Gems: Pay Dirt newsletters.
My personal portfolio returns (coming soon!) have been outstanding since
starting my self-investing journey. But at the end of it all, I'm still just
the guy who got fed up with the disappointments of the management of others,
and set out to do something about it. Just an Ordinary Investor.
Charlie Munger, Jim Gillies and Warren Buffett - May 2007
Jim Gillies and Warren Buffett - May 2006