The Purpose
I’m DJ and I started this blog for you, if you’re reading this, as well as for myself.
For myself, this is a way to start writing. It has been my goal to write more and it specifically was my resolution for the year 2025.
For you, as the reader, I think this site will be helpful because you will be able to follow a regular individual investor’s journey and it will show you how investments work –– at least, my investments.
Over the years I have had many stock ideas, some have proven to be very successful. But admittedly, that doesn’t happen every day. Writing this blog is a way for me to show my work, as Austin Kleon would say. It will also help me to stay disciplined with my research and analysis, because I don’t want to let you or myself down.
My Investing Style
Investing is a long-term activity. It’s not a get rich quick scheme. I have found it to be easier to focus on the long term rather than short term. It makes me feel comfortable knowing that my projections are not supposed to happen immediately, but rather over time. Then I can keep my projections in mind, as I periodically monitor the companies to see if things are going as expected.
I always anticipate ups and downs, but the decision whether I sell is mine, if I believe that things are not going to go as I may have planned. I have learned to buy and/or sell based on MY analysis and MY predetermined allocations. I do not buy and/or sell just because the stock price is moving up or down.
Sometimes the stock for a company I follow may drop drastically lower and then even lower. The old me would assume something is wrong. “There must be something I don’t know happening,” I would think. But, my investing style now –– I may BUY more of that stock. Why? Because I would have only bought and held it if I felt strongly about it. If the price is significantly lower than it was when I bought it, I might believe it is selling at a significant discount. Which is a good reason to buy.
DJ’s Story
In regards to my story of becoming an investor, it started over 25 years ago, during the Dot-com bubble. I was a young man and was told, by a gentleman I respected, about how he made a ton of money trading stocks and how he would have made millions had he traded stock options. That got my attention.
I had no formal financial education, but after speaking with that gentleman about stocks and stock options, it sparked a lifelong interest in me.
I started off very risky. Investing on margin and putting all of my money in one or two positions. Then I moved to stock options. I luckily made some quick financial gains, but it didn’t take long before my luck changed, and I started losing … BIG.
The truth is I did not understand what I was doing. I thought I was “investing” but in reality, I was GAMBLING and I didn’t even know it.
Finally, after a few years, and after the market and my portfolio crashed, in an effort to learn more, I studied and read every investment book I could find. I still do that now. From then on, I needed to learn everything I could about stocks.
Back then, stocks did not make sense to me. The stock ticker prices were just numbers that moved up and down for no apparent reasons. But, I eventually discovered value investing. I now consider myself mostly a value investor, but I allow myself certain exceptions where my philosophy would not match a typical value investor.
For instance, there are times when I give myself the personal privilege of opening a small allocated position for a trending, momentum, or even speculative stock. Even then, it still follows my philosophy of investing “like an owner.” Some companies have small exploratory or growth divisions, right? –– Why can’t I?
No Controlling Interest
I used to follow the textbook philosophy of a value investor. I would listen to Warren Buffet and Charlie Munger and disregard diversification. If a company was trading significantly under its intrinsic value, that would be enough for me to put as much into it as I could afford, regardless of suitability. Sometimes it worked but sometimes it didn’t. I’ve held shares in several companies –– value stocks –– that have gone bankrupt and shares dropped to zero.
Then it hit me. I realized that as a small individual investor, regardless of how confident I was in the numbers, that the intrinsic value of a stock was mispriced, I had no control over the outcome. In many ways it did not matter whether the stock was underpriced, because I could not do anything to make it correct to its proper value. I was not Warren Buffet. I was not Charlie Munger. I could not buy the entire company at a discount, if the market value of the company remained below its intrinsic value.
Based on that, my philosophy again changed slightly from a typical value investor. That is when I realized that I had to have a maximum allocation for each position, which would also result in diversification.
Of course, with that change, I can not get all of the gains a win would otherwise deliver –– like from a mispriced value stock that price suddenly corrected for a 100% gain. But, it would also protect me from sudden downside risks, like from failed companies. I could sleep at night.
The Only Stocks I Buy Now
I found that the only way for me to choose stocks is to be a “true believer” in the company. I have to have a real commitment to the investment, up to 100% commitment of the amount I deem for the allocation. After I realized this, everything started to make sense to me … perfectly. All the questions about when to buy –– when to sell –– when to hold, it all was evident and automatic with my philosophy.
I understand how I feel and understand what my personal rules are. I know my predetermined allocations and I follow them. That is what I will demonstrate on this site with my future investments.
Invest Like An Owner
After I learned this way of investing, I wished I would have come across a site like this, www.InvestLikeAnOwner.com, when I was getting started. It would have saved me a lot of time and effort. So, I hope this site will help someone else.
I hope people will benefit from the information that I provide here that will make their investing life easier and more successful, particularly small investors. That is why I created this site.
This will be a space for conversations, because I plan to leave the comments open for some time. I will respond whenever possible. Perhaps individuals will communicate with each other about investments, as long as the philosophy is the same, investing like owners.
Opinions may be different, but the philosophy should be the same. Invest in every investment as if you were the only true owner. The numbers have to make sense.
Please Leave A Comment
Please give me your thoughts and comments below. Just take a second to let me know that you read this.
Do you think this site is a good idea? Is there something I’m missing? Did you have any other thoughts? Is there something else you would like to see or hear? Any tips or stocks you think I should take a look at? I look forward to hearing from you.
I invite you to follow my journey. Save this site in your browser. Bookmark it. Investing is a long-term process, so I can not guarantee each post will be the most exciting. But, each post will be informative and over time I hope we all will benefit and grow.