Scorecard # 37 – The Golden Rule
“Buy quality companies when they are on sale. Avoid leverage, folly and big mistakes that set you back. It is simple, but not easy.”
Scorecard # 34 – Bedrock
Trying to predict and successfully time when the next storm will arrive is not a substitute for sturdy construction. Financial storms tend to arrive with little warning. The key to resilience is to know that they will inevitably come and to prepare in advance.
Scorecard # 32 – The Other Virus
…when we see foolishness all around us, we remind ourselves that we are investors. Not speculators, investors. Value will once again have its day. It always does.
Scorecard # 30 – Flashback
“As Mark Twain so aptly put it, history doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes. The current market environment — especially in certain tech stocks — reminds us a little of the late ‘90s stock market.
Scorecard # 28 – Momentum
“This past year was our eighth consecutive year of positive returns. Our two biggest contributors to the portfolio in 2019 were our investments in Apple +58.8% (AAPL) and Facebook +56.6% (FB), both of which were purchased during the Q4 2018 selloff. Just a few meaningful and timely decisions can make a big difference to portfolio returns.”
Scorecard # 24 – Facebook Redux
The Value Fund returned +5.3% in 2018 net of fees and expenses (or approximately +7.1% gross). We managed to outperform both of our benchmarks in 2018. The S&P/TSX Total Return Index finished down -8.9% for the year. The S&P500 Total Return Index was down -4.4% for the year. Measured in Canadian dollars (the Value Fund’s reporting currency) the S&P500 Total Return was up +3.9% for the year.
Scorecard # 22 – Index Surgery
… Our large bet (6.8% weighting) on Express Scripts (Nasdaq:ESRX) is performing according to plan with the stock up +16.4% since we purchased it in April. Our recent writeup of our investment thesis for Express Scripts can be found in Scorecard #21. Our idea was published in Barron’s and was recently ranked as one of the best performing ideas from the View From The Buyside column. In an expensive market, good ideas are hard to find. But they are out there. It just takes a lot of effort to uncover them.
Scorecard #5 – Birdy Num Nums
… Markets will forever continue to oscillate between the extremes of panic and greed. The common thread is that at both extremes, most people ignore valuations to their peril and become transfixed with stock price movements. It has happened for centuries and will continue to as it is simply in our nature.