Everybody knows that Warren Buffett gets his investment information largely from annual reports. Today, companies call him; but, fifty years ago, Buffett was not the go-to guy if you wanted to sell your company or raise capital for your failing bank. In an interview with Warren Buffett, Adam Smith, author…
If you don’t have a few thousand dollars to blow each month on a data service that scans the SEC’s database, aggregates the full financial statements (instead of summarizing them like Yahoo! Finance), and puts relevant information at your fingertips, I’ve got good news for you – you no longer…
In yesterday’s comments, Vik, Jeff, Miguel S, and likely a number of others that did not post comments were curious: How the heck did I find Graham, and why was I looking at it in the first place? I think that question is posed to a lot of non-conventionalists that…
I have to admit – going to the EDGAR database every day to look for new filings is not one of my favorite tasks. When engaged in workouts, I find myself checking EDGAR multiple times a day to see if there is anything upsetting my applecart. Then there’s the issue…
I want to invest like Warren Buffett. Who doesn’t? To understand how he invests, I have purchased and read every book ever written on the man. A good starting point. The problem is that they all talk about the same few investments (e.g., Coca-Cola, American Express, GEICO). The no-brainer type…
For seven months now, I’ve been talking about “going straight to the source” to find information and financial statements to analyze companies. Websites like Morningstar are great starting points and usually have accurate financial information; still, nothing beats reading quarterly and annual reports, proxy statements, and contracts as they were…
I’m a business owner so I know what it means to be cheap. Okay, that sounded bad; still, I like the philosophy of “why pay for what you can get for free.” In business, just as in your personal finances, cash is king-so you don’t want to blow it unnecessarily.…
Analyzing companies is fairly straightforward. Finding companies to analyze is a different ballgame. In the U.S. alone, there are more than 10,000 publicly traded companies. With the power of the internet, we can now invest worldwide-bringing the number of available investment options to staggering proportions. Let’s narrow it down a…
Moat-one of the most important concepts in value investing. Every company has a value; but, the companies with big moats are generally less sensitive to outside forces which means you can invest with more confidence and comfort. There are a million different types of moats. Some are economic; some are…