Tag Archives: Philosophy

The Stoics and Investing; Volatility and the Prisoner’s Dilemma

dionges

The Stoics

Stoics understood that if negative emotions such as anger, envy, greed, fear, and grief plague your life, then soundness and peace of mind will elude you. Serentiy in the midst of adversity–which is hardly the same thing as the modern, Western and secular notion of “happiness”–is a necessary condition of a well-lived life.

nov15_newsletter-1 How the Stoic Philosophers influenced Ben Graham

feb16_newsletter-2 Part 2

Volatility

Artemis-Q32015-Volatility-and-Prisoners-Dilemma

Treasure Trove Discovered! and Build a Multi-Billion Dollar Business Case Study

The link below will take you to many other links to investing resources like case studies, business histories, foreign stock information, value investing ideas.  There is more here to keep you learning for the next few months. I can’t vouch for the quality of all the information, but you can root around for yourself. Tell me your favorite links: http://www.scorpioncapital.com/manual/links.php. A potential treasure trove!

This brings me to the philosophy of this blog. In the Value Vault you will find the book, Applied Investing and a Powerpoint of Porter’s Five Forces. I do not feel those works are particularly useful. I wrote a critical review on Amazon of Applied Investing here:

http://www.amazon.com/review/R25P1MHUTA7C3J/ref=cm_cr_pr_cmt?ie=UTF8&ASIN=0071628185&nodeID=&tag=&linkCode=#wasThisHelpful

I find many of the readers’comments on Amazon’s book review section ludicrous. Do the the author’s students write the reviews?

But I do not want to censor material because of what I think; instead make up your own mind.  Greenwald in his book Competition Demystified says that Porter’s analysis is four forces too many. I would rather have you read Porter’s book, Competitive Strategy (1980) or view the Powerpoint of the Five Forces than exclude them. If you find material totally misleading or harmful to learning how to become a better investor, let me know.

TEST QUESTION

To prepare yourself to read the world’s best business analysis ever done (to be posted Friday December 16th) please read Munger’s, The Art of Stock Picking.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/75389403/Charlie-Munger-Art-of-Stock-Picking

Next, sit quietly and write to your investors how you will build a multi-billion dollar business from scratch.  Take no more than an hour. You can go into the Value Vault* and read Bruce Greenwald’s Competition Demystified and the Powerpoint of Porter’s Five Forces to assist your understanding of competitive advantages since if you are to succeed you will need several or many working for you.

Good luck.

To gain access to the Value Vault (a collection of videos and materials on business and investment analysis) just email me at aldridge56@aol.com with VALUE VAULT in the subject heading. I will email you a key provided you use the materials for your own use.