From the Presidential Medal
of Freedom presentation

Warren E. Buffett : as a world-known investor and philanthropist, Warren E. Buffett business acumen is matched only by his dedication to improve the lives of others. He is the co/founder of the Giving Pledge, an
organization that encourages wealthy Americans to donate at least 50percent of their wealth to philanthropic causes.

Warren Buffett’s example of Generosity and Compassion has shown us the power of one individual’s determination in inspiring countless women and men to help make our world a brighter place.

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“Personal History” by Katharine Graham

Be like Buffett, Be thankful, be lovable, THE BUSINESS OF LIFE

 

“Personal History” is Katharine Graham’s autobiography. A memoir that shines for its honesty, the remarkable wide range of stories and people she met. I’m a voracious reader of biographies, and I found this one wonderful. The Washington Post saga is a lesson in business and life in itself that should be taught. It contains the power of a family driven and committed to its passion and business. It shows the magic of consistency and persistence in building a dream more than a newspaper. It’s the story of years struggling under the radar and years with great economic loss endured by Katharine Graham’s family until the genius of Kay’s husband Phil Graham took over. I obviously grabbed the book because of Warren. (1 dollar at a book sale in Bonita Springs! I proposed successfully to pay for it 2 dollars knowing it was going to be such a good book worth much more than the 15.00 priced on the cover). I was right. I will pause a bit on the pages in which Buffett pops up, but the lessons from this personal history are multiple. I would say the 625 pages are an endless source of teachings about how to react to a personal tragedy (Phil Graham shot himself in the basement of their house) as well as how difficult was to run a newspaper through hard times and big challenges. The challenges accepted gradually but strongly and courageously by a woman in a time in which all the newspapers and boards in general were run by men, and only men. A time in which unions and scandals were going strong.

The story encompasses crises and victories as huge and critical  as inspiring : the Pentagon Papers, Watergate, the strikes of the early seventies. Thrown without her will and consent by the husband’s suicide in a business in turmoil, Katharine Graham overcame her insecurity to finally discover herself and her potential. In a fascinating adventure he accepted to fight to survive personally and financially. The burden never became less complicated but Katharine Graham faced every obstacle. Only this way they became lighter to carry through the bumps and curves of the journey. A journey she never looked back to refuse, neglect , not to endure or simply live. It is to me (and after reading will be to you) so clear why such a woman was so interesting a friend and a business partner for Warren Buffett.

For the Buffett students the investment in the Washington Post in the early 70s is pretty much straightforward and typical to understand. The passion and competence of the sage in the newspapers field was proverbial. The bargain was in plain sight considering the price of the stock. The entire group (not only the Post) was selling for roughly 100 million dollars compared to an intrinsic value of at least 400 million. Problems were always present and others will come for the management but trust in the Graham family to face them, and the ridiculous selling price were enough margin of safety for Warren. Add his famous patience and long term look together with his presence on the board in the following years and you will have a perfect picture of a Buffett deal.   Also Warren will be tireless and always responsive in advising Katharine Graham and actually became her teacher and Pygmalion from a business point of view. He played a big part in the repurchase of shares at such an undervalued stock price, and was so immensely useful in many other managerial decisions and critical moments.

The book is a gold mine not only for the Buffett student but for every business enthusiast and why not, for everybody that really likes a good, true story of courage and fulfillment. I wouldn’t add much more to let Katharine Graham speak for herself, since she does it tremendously well. I learnt a lot from this book in the last month in which it was with me everyday and everywhere. I was so eager to see “what’s next? What’s next?”. I’m sure soon I will read it again. Now, wrapping up for the Buffett maniacs like me, here’s few lines that will sound like music to our ears. A music for us, “Buffettists” that Graham in the book really played so well:

“(…).And it led to some sort of rationale that I can live with about the goal of each individual being to fulfill the unique potential within-and do it to the utmost…This is what you do Warren-or you are in the process of doing. Your intensity, concentration and drive almost scare me, but are luckily and happily relieved by those other things you also possess-decency, gaiety, enjoyment and warmth.”

Let’s write down all of those qualities on a piece of paper and keep them handy in your heart.

Happy Investing,

Marco Turco

marco@blikebuffett.com

“

Berkshire in 2071, a dad’s dream

Be like Buffett, Education

Let me be clear from the get-go: I’m not against business schools or formal training of any sort. You have to learn the basic tools and they will underpin all of your assumptions and decisions about investing and the market. But, and this is a big BUT, the way and the talent you may develop to make money can come from a different education as well.

I have a completely different and unconventional education in business if compared to any professional investor out there. You can also say that I’m an amateur. As long as my results for my partners and me are way beyond average and/or outstanding, I really don’t care. I rely upon the Graham’s line in the “Intelligent Investor” in which more or less he said that some regular non-professional investors are able to beat professionals at their own game. How? Basically, if they are equipped with the adequate attitude towards the market. The famous temperamental quality that Buffett stated very clearly decades ago and still he will confirm today. Human nature will not change now and fifty years from now. And so the human animal. The “academics” will still be teaching you all kinds of things to make you look like a “high priest” and not an amateur; but how about to make money? How about make 20, 30 or 50percent a year from your small portfolio? That’s another story.

When I was in Warsaw I took a course to prepare for CFA, and one of the “academics” was frequently lamenting how amateurs were acting in the market. Clearly he was so keen in calculating a duration of a bond that he simply forgot about all the rest to make money in the investment world, and he neither was himself an amateur or a professional. It was just clear to me as a lifelong Buffett student that he never managed money in his entire life.

I’m reading the wonderful book of Guy Spier: “The Education of a Value Investor” and I’m happy to find in his story that Guy learned the hard way what I taught to my son since a very young age. Actually my son was born in a Buffett World because of me. He knows Buffett and Graham have been my only business school. Studying him and Berkshire relentlessly is my only university. He knows since he was 8 or 9 that he will be better off staying away from Wall Street, and learn how to think and analyze with his own mind. We read together 2 pages a day of chapter 8 and 20 of the Intelligent Investor when he was 11 and decided to buy his first stock: Sony Corp around 33 dollars. BRK.B followed and after 4 years he is very well aligned to my results. At 13 I passed him a copy of “The super Investors of Graham’s and Doddsville” (one of my favorite Warren’s pieces of work of all time) and from that day we speak of “flips of the coins” and “orangutans” in the “Zoo of Omaha” like it’d be our own special lingo. Funny and educational (K Graham will approve immensely). I taught him that “piling up” doesn’t make sense if it is not meant to give back to society. And if not coincides with happiness in the “journey” it is not worth your while. Never trade agony for money. Never.

Now at 15 he wants to be a pilot, of which I’m thrilled as it should be every good father. The Zoo in Omaha in which I fed him after 15 years seems to have already paid off. He will be applying most of the analytical “Investor skills” while flying safely around the planet. And I’m sure he will underspend his income and become a hugely successful “amateur” in investing in common stocks. So great a pilot that he will beat the market over the long term. Needless to say, he will not need anymore my money to educate himself or paying back the loan of the flying school. If so I wish at that point I can give it all away. Regardless of the amount left.

Things will come full circle. I’m so curious how much an 11 years old value investor’s portfolio will grow when he will be 65. It will be the year 2071, time in which his net worth will probably explode. Berkshire will be still there as our permanent holding, and I may be not and I really wonder now how much a A-share will be worth in 2071. 4M? 5M? Hard to say. I’d ask Warren and Charlie if they have a clue. One thing I’m pretty much sure: my son will not get any dividend yet and neither there would be any split of the stock. Charlie would add: “..and rightly so”.

Happy Investing, 

Marco Turco

marco@blikebuffett.com    

 

Boredom is fun

Be like Buffett

In investing Boredom is fun. True investing or Intelligent Investing incorporates boredom and requires boredom as one of its components. It’s a fact. It is one of its main traits. If you are capable of a sound big decision you don’t wiggle around much. It’s not only the fourth law of motion by Buffett (“For Investors as a whole returns decrease as motion increases”) but it’s just the nature of the game for a “business mind” that knows what is doing and knows what he owns.

In fact if you have a participation in a business that is a wonderful business and you are confident that is going to do well and be profitable for the next 10 or 20 years or more you don’t think about selling it, right? Actually if you paid a reasonable price, so that you have a margin of safety, you want to find the time to keep an eye on it to see if you just can buy more pieces of that same business.

It’s as simple as that. So why few people think this way when it comes about owning stocks that are pieces of a business? Because the type of education makes all the difference. It’s about the approach. We agree with Buffett that the reason is “just because it is so simple” and people want to feel they are in the big league of the business world and they think they can be pros in that world only if they apply arcane formulas or concepts they only can learn through complexity. It is difficult to teach the opposite: simplicity. I can tell as a teacher that to make things simple is a difficult task. But it is the only strategy that pays off in the stock market and in business.

Teaching is a way to learn. It is a way to clarify your thoughts and ask yourself always the right questions. You master a subject for real only if you are able to explain that subject to a 6 years old or at least a 10 years old. If you want to be a “learning machine” you want to help and teach others. You challenge yourself in passing along what you have learnt in a way that is comprehensible. You can’t make it more simple than how it is, but you have to sharpen your skills in enunciating your thoughts when it comes to investments. Don’t fool yourself. Don’t think you know if you are not able to explain what you know.

I’m not talking about a language barrier or something of the sort, even though language is key and you can’t blink to somebody else in the dark, right? But If you really know what you know, you will find a way to communicate.

Having said this let’s come back to Boredom. Boredom is part of our life. A friend of mine would say that Boredom is a “happy accident”. Because you can turn it into something different if you have the right mind set and if you worked on yourself enough to control your emotions. You will discover than in true Investing Boredom is your friend. Let me say this:

I think you invest with Intelligence, Speculate with some emotionality (every now and then if you feel to) and day-trade with a big passion for gambling (that is a strong trait of human nature).

I can do some intelligent speculation every once in a while and I did. Multiple times, and I made a few bucks too. But I knew that I was not investing. I didn’t fool myself. The third activity, day-trading is just not my game. It’s not my personality, like I don’t sell short anything and I don’t like options. I just love the first activity. That’s who I am. I love to work a lot on something I like. I become obsessed in pursuing an interest or a goal and getting to a conclusion and if i do I make the purchase. Subsequently I stick with that thing. I was partly born that way because I remember I was that way as a small kid and then meeting Buffett strongly re-enforced this trait of my temperament. That’s what blikebuffett is about. Like I said multiple times blikebuffett is a catchy way to teach you that it is first and foremost about temperament.

You can blikebuffett and you can’t, but it’s not determined by how much money you manage or how many hours you spend reading financial reports and 10ks. If you think so you don’t know that much about investing and you don’t know that much about Buffett. Don’t get me wrong Buffett was and still is more disciplined than you and I combined together, but before that (and not only) first he has the “right mind set”.

It’s first the “How” and then comes the “What” he does. Today 2022 you can’t replicate the “What” but you can replicate the “How”. I put my Money on that, so to speak. I still do. And I’m so confident in doing so that I turned even boredom into something else, maybe a “happy little tree”. Actually I became that little tree so much that now I love Boredom, because it gives me plenty of time to do what I like!

Happy Investing!

Marco Turco

Feel free to reach out to me if you find my thoughts about investing interesting enough to break your boredom

marco@blikebuffett.com 

Now you can also text me if you are interested in “Sunrise Wise” my educational program about “Value Investing”

+1 (954) 632 96 89 

Buffett Talk – Pizza for Capitalists

Be like Buffett, Uncategorized

The first “Buffett Talk” meeting is on! Let’s meet in person and share our stories and passion for the “Oracle” of Omaha and his teachings over the last 70 years or so! Let’s talk about :

  1. How he changed our lives (self-introductions)
    2.How he shaped our minds about investing
    3.Is Value Investing “out of date”? (look at the discussion bullet about the Super Investor of Graham-and-Doddsville on            meetup.com)

I’m sure it will be an awesome evening and pizza is on me! (beverages not included, cherry coke neither!).

Come to share your knowledge and passion about the greatest investor ever. Bring your favourite quotes of his brilliant, funny and unpretentious mind and be ready to make new friends and learn from each other!

Save the date:

Wednesday March 23rd 2022 – 06.30 to 08.30 pm

“PIZZA LOVERS BISTROT” 1860 N Nob Hill Rd · Plantation, FL 33322

Wednesday, March 23, 2022

1860 N Nob Hill Rd · Plantation, FL 33322 USA

 

Letter to partners

Uncategorized

“There are undoubtedly more mercurially-tempered people in the stock market now than for a many good years and the duration of their stay will be limited to how long they think profits can be made quickly and effortlessly(…)

I make no attempt to forecast the general market – my efforts are devoted to finding undervalued securities. However, I do believe that widespread public belief in the inevitability of profits from investment in stocks will lead to eventual trouble. Should this occur, prices, but not intrinsic values in my opinion, of even undervalued securities can be expected to be substantially affected.”

(Warren Buffett, Letter to his partners 1958 “The general Stock Market”)

 

Dear Partners,

albeit it’s useless to time the market, I feel the urge to update you very briefly about the most important thing for all of us: our future. Some of you, especially in European countries that face a slow and weak recovery from Covid, (and maybe debatable political choices of their governments), may need to put on notice again my essential recommendation: we are here all together for outstanding, not mediocre results, that are  achievable only over the long term.

Even if possible I don’t expect anyone of you to withdraw money from MT Capital after just 5 years. The magic of compounding will be totally missed for those who will do that. At risk of being redundant I will outline again why, very briefly.

  1. The gains you are obtaining so far are just the inception for our standards. They have importance to me in relation to the fact that they are obtained with virtually no investments made in the “fashionable” area of tech, crypto or something we are not competent about. I expect, just like Buffett in 1958, that history will “rhyme” again. Even if I don’t know when and in which proportion. It means that the price of our securities can go down but the values of the businesses I have been choosing over time will remain intact. And with them their capabilities of earning money and positive operating cash flows and profits in the future. In fact I hope that Mr. Market will be giving me the opportunity to buy more of what we already have and apply my full strategy of gaining for you much more over a longer time span.
  2. The real important signals of our future growth are contained in what is happening now and in the next few years, that is: A) we avoided many losses, NOT investing in many businesses. B) I’ve been respecting my established rules and so we have 11 stocks as of November 2021 with only one losing a bit of money (the smaller position) and the one with the major gain being the bigger one (38%of the entire portfolio). It means a key thing: we are on the right path and we are owners of businesses that are wonderful and we don’t want to sell just because the stock market will go down. C) They are and will be part of the American Tailwind. Dancing in and out of the market is not our game and will do no good to our basket of good businesses.
  3. We want to have , and now we have, other 4 stocks (totaling 15 positions) as of January 2022 that we want to be down and in red for the time being. Because we want to buy them at low prices maybe for a long time. That would take our overall temporary result to get down, hopefully like in march 2020, but then up substantially in the future.
  4. In order to pursue this “Buffett/Value” proposition we are also looking closely to some controlled businesses that we want to acquire as direct owners. We don’t even consider to invest in start-ups until they don’t show at least a good initial record and the capability of not losing money. But in the States the system is not like in Italy or Europe in general. A new business can die easily in its infancy, but if it doesn’t, the growth can be based on an economic structure that works efficiently.

 

CONCLUSIONS

 

This was a simple remainder of our “Ground Rules”. We are newborns awakening. If someone thinks that the profit made so far are what we are looking for, that someone is not on our same page. Read again our IPS (Investment Plan Statement). I work everyday including Saturdays and Sundays for partners that want to stay (and add more) and do more than ok over the long term. I don’t work and plan results for those who plan to leave in the short term, collecting from our table the mediocre results they should deserve. Partners don’t pay a management fee for a reason. I’m all invested, me and my family, with you, and I’m cooking the same food we will be sharing, so to speak.

 

If you are there it’s because we also share the same principles and values in Life. So this brief letter was just a remainder of the “second rules” that are “don’t forget the first rules” that mean “don’t forget what you already know” before venturing out in uncharted territories. Don’t. We won’t, so stick with me.

 

I wish you all you desire and hold in your hearts for you and your loved ones. We are still not too many so that I happen to know everyone of you personally and I know you deserve as human beings to live all the ambitions you have for your lives. That’s why I’m here on this beautiful sunny Sunday working for you. Good people of America around me are doing the same (some in the snow today though). You put the money in the right land.

 

God bless

 

Faithfully,

 

Marco Turco

marco@blikebuffett.com

 

 

 

You are not an Investor

Be like Buffett, Education

Rational Walk is the only newsletter that I read among the many I receive about investing. I found almost a waste of time all the rest. Too much noise. Many talk about money, finance and other interesting topics but they are not about investing.

Rational is exhaustive, accurate, drops some knowledge, and even if you are a full time Buffett student like me, you always find something new, interesting and well written. Topics and books mentioned that are not about investing are usually a good source of inspiration, for investors and not.

On the other hand, sometimes I find so called “experts” or Value investors misquoting and also misunderstanding some basic traits of investing.

Example: There’s no such thing as Value Versus Growth. But it seems that so many professionals liked the distinction that the illness affected also some “intelligent investors”. And so they talk about Value stocks VS Growth stocks and Value Investing VS Growth Investing.

Buffett made it so clear during the 2001 Shareholders meeting. “They are part of the same equation”. And if you read Graham very well it is clear that there can’t be such contrast or opposition.

Growth is part of the Value you want to asses. When you look for Value you are taking into consideration how much growth can be inside your investment that is so a Value decision.

A business can grow and have more revenues in a way that causes less profitability or losing money in the future. And that’s not investing. Sometimes there’s good value even without the business growing or expanding so much. Because it will constantly deliver in the future more capital than the one you are laying out today to buy it. And that is investing.

But at the end it is all part of a Value decision, if you are an investor. If you are a stock speculator you can talk about “growth opportunities”, “buying momentum” and you can trade “growth stocks” or whatever. Simply you are not investing. Like if you buy on margin: you are not an investor.

marco@blikebuffett.com

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“Personal History” by Katharine Graham

Be like Buffett, Be thankful, be lovable, THE BUSINESS OF LIFE

 

“Personal History” is Katharine Graham’s autobiography. A memoir that shines for its honesty, the remarkable wide range of stories and people she met. I’m a voracious reader of biographies, and I found this one wonderful. The Washington Post saga is a lesson in business and life in itself that should be taught. It contains the power of a family driven and committed to its passion and business. It shows the magic of consistency and persistence in building a dream more than a newspaper. It’s the story of years struggling under the radar and years with great economic loss endured by Katharine Graham’s family until the genius of Kay’s husband Phil Graham took over. I obviously grabbed the book because of Warren. (1 dollar at a book sale in Bonita Springs! I proposed successfully to pay for it 2 dollars knowing it was going to be such a good book worth much more than the 15.00 priced on the cover). I was right. I will pause a bit on the pages in which Buffett pops up, but the lessons from this personal history are multiple. I would say the 625 pages are an endless source of teachings about how to react to a personal tragedy (Phil Graham shot himself in the basement of their house) as well as how difficult was to run a newspaper through hard times and big challenges. The challenges accepted gradually but strongly and courageously by a woman in a time in which all the newspapers and boards in general were run by men, and only men. A time in which unions and scandals were going strong.

The story encompasses crises and victories as huge and critical  as inspiring : the Pentagon Papers, Watergate, the strikes of the early seventies. Thrown without her will and consent by the husband’s suicide in a business in turmoil, Katharine Graham overcame her insecurity to finally discover herself and her potential. In a fascinating adventure he accepted to fight to survive personally and financially. The burden never became less complicated but Katharine Graham faced every obstacle. Only this way they became lighter to carry through the bumps and curves of the journey. A journey she never looked back to refuse, neglect , not to endure or simply live. It is to me (and after reading will be to you) so clear why such a woman was so interesting a friend and a business partner for Warren Buffett.

For the Buffett students the investment in the Washington Post in the early 70s is pretty much straightforward and typical to understand. The passion and competence of the sage in the newspapers field was proverbial. The bargain was in plain sight considering the price of the stock. The entire group (not only the Post) was selling for roughly 100 million dollars compared to an intrinsic value of at least 400 million. Problems were always present and others will come for the management but trust in the Graham family to face them, and the ridiculous selling price were enough margin of safety for Warren. Add his famous patience and long term look together with his presence on the board in the following years and you will have a perfect picture of a Buffett deal.   Also Warren will be tireless and always responsive in advising Katharine Graham and actually became her teacher and Pygmalion from a business point of view. He played a big part in the repurchase of shares at such an undervalued stock price, and was so immensely useful in many other managerial decisions and critical moments.

The book is a gold mine not only for the Buffett student but for every business enthusiast and why not, for everybody that really likes a good, true story of courage and fulfillment. I wouldn’t add much more to let Katharine Graham speak for herself, since she does it tremendously well. I learnt a lot from this book in the last month in which it was with me everyday and everywhere. I was so eager to see “what’s next? What’s next?”. I’m sure soon I will read it again. Now, wrapping up for the Buffett maniacs like me, here’s few lines that will sound like music to our ears. A music for us, “Buffettists” that Graham in the book really played so well:

“(…).And it led to some sort of rationale that I can live with about the goal of each individual being to fulfill the unique potential within-and do it to the utmost…This is what you do Warren-or you are in the process of doing. Your intensity, concentration and drive almost scare me, but are luckily and happily relieved by those other things you also possess-decency, gaiety, enjoyment and warmth.”

Let’s write down all of those qualities on a piece of paper and keep them handy in your heart.

Happy Investing,

Marco Turco

marco@blikebuffett.com

“

Berkshire in 2071, a dad’s dream

Be like Buffett, Education

Let me be clear from the get-go: I’m not against business schools or formal training of any sort. You have to learn the basic tools and they will underpin all of your assumptions and decisions about investing and the market. But, and this is a big BUT, the way and the talent you may develop to make money can come from a different education as well.

I have a completely different and unconventional education in business if compared to any professional investor out there. You can also say that I’m an amateur. As long as my results for my partners and me are way beyond average and/or outstanding, I really don’t care. I rely upon the Graham’s line in the “Intelligent Investor” in which more or less he said that some regular non-professional investors are able to beat professionals at their own game. How? Basically, if they are equipped with the adequate attitude towards the market. The famous temperamental quality that Buffett stated very clearly decades ago and still he will confirm today. Human nature will not change now and fifty years from now. And so the human animal. The “academics” will still be teaching you all kinds of things to make you look like a “high priest” and not an amateur; but how about to make money? How about make 20, 30 or 50percent a year from your small portfolio? That’s another story.

When I was in Warsaw I took a course to prepare for CFA, and one of the “academics” was frequently lamenting how amateurs were acting in the market. Clearly he was so keen in calculating a duration of a bond that he simply forgot about all the rest to make money in the investment world, and he neither was himself an amateur or a professional. It was just clear to me as a lifelong Buffett student that he never managed money in his entire life.

I’m reading the wonderful book of Guy Spier: “The Education of a Value Investor” and I’m happy to find in his story that Guy learned the hard way what I taught to my son since a very young age. Actually my son was born in a Buffett World because of me. He knows Buffett and Graham have been my only business school. Studying him and Berkshire relentlessly is my only university. He knows since he was 8 or 9 that he will be better off staying away from Wall Street, and learn how to think and analyze with his own mind. We read together 2 pages a day of chapter 8 and 20 of the Intelligent Investor when he was 11 and decided to buy his first stock: Sony Corp around 33 dollars. BRK.B followed and after 4 years he is very well aligned to my results. At 13 I passed him a copy of “The super Investors of Graham’s and Doddsville” (one of my favorite Warren’s pieces of work of all time) and from that day we speak of “flips of the coins” and “orangutans” in the “Zoo of Omaha” like it’d be our own special lingo. Funny and educational (K Graham will approve immensely). I taught him that “piling up” doesn’t make sense if it is not meant to give back to society. And if not coincides with happiness in the “journey” it is not worth your while. Never trade agony for money. Never.

Now at 15 he wants to be a pilot, of which I’m thrilled as it should be every good father. The Zoo in Omaha in which I fed him after 15 years seems to have already paid off. He will be applying most of the analytical “Investor skills” while flying safely around the planet. And I’m sure he will underspend his income and become a hugely successful “amateur” in investing in common stocks. So great a pilot that he will beat the market over the long term. Needless to say, he will not need anymore my money to educate himself or paying back the loan of the flying school. If so I wish at that point I can give it all away. Regardless of the amount left.

Things will come full circle. I’m so curious how much an 11 years old value investor’s portfolio will grow when he will be 65. It will be the year 2071, time in which his net worth will probably explode. Berkshire will be still there as our permanent holding, and I may be not and I really wonder now how much a A-share will be worth in 2071. 4M? 5M? Hard to say. I’d ask Warren and Charlie if they have a clue. One thing I’m pretty much sure: my son will not get any dividend yet and neither there would be any split of the stock. Charlie would add: “..and rightly so”.

Happy Investing, 

Marco Turco

marco@blikebuffett.com    

 

Boredom is fun

Be like Buffett

In investing Boredom is fun. True investing or Intelligent Investing incorporates boredom and requires boredom as one of its components. It’s a fact. It is one of its main traits. If you are capable of a sound big decision you don’t wiggle around much. It’s not only the fourth law of motion by Buffett (“For Investors as a whole returns decrease as motion increases”) but it’s just the nature of the game for a “business mind” that knows what is doing and knows what he owns.

In fact if you have a participation in a business that is a wonderful business and you are confident that is going to do well and be profitable for the next 10 or 20 years or more you don’t think about selling it, right? Actually if you paid a reasonable price, so that you have a margin of safety, you want to find the time to keep an eye on it to see if you just can buy more pieces of that same business.

It’s as simple as that. So why few people think this way when it comes about owning stocks that are pieces of a business? Because the type of education makes all the difference. It’s about the approach. We agree with Buffett that the reason is “just because it is so simple” and people want to feel they are in the big league of the business world and they think they can be pros in that world only if they apply arcane formulas or concepts they only can learn through complexity. It is difficult to teach the opposite: simplicity. I can tell as a teacher that to make things simple is a difficult task. But it is the only strategy that pays off in the stock market and in business.

Teaching is a way to learn. It is a way to clarify your thoughts and ask yourself always the right questions. You master a subject for real only if you are able to explain that subject to a 6 years old or at least a 10 years old. If you want to be a “learning machine” you want to help and teach others. You challenge yourself in passing along what you have learnt in a way that is comprehensible. You can’t make it more simple than how it is, but you have to sharpen your skills in enunciating your thoughts when it comes to investments. Don’t fool yourself. Don’t think you know if you are not able to explain what you know.

I’m not talking about a language barrier or something of the sort, even though language is key and you can’t blink to somebody else in the dark, right? But If you really know what you know, you will find a way to communicate.

Having said this let’s come back to Boredom. Boredom is part of our life. A friend of mine would say that Boredom is a “happy accident”. Because you can turn it into something different if you have the right mind set and if you worked on yourself enough to control your emotions. You will discover than in true Investing Boredom is your friend. Let me say this:

I think you invest with Intelligence, Speculate with some emotionality (every now and then if you feel to) and day-trade with a big passion for gambling (that is a strong trait of human nature).

I can do some intelligent speculation every once in a while and I did. Multiple times, and I made a few bucks too. But I knew that I was not investing. I didn’t fool myself. The third activity, day-trading is just not my game. It’s not my personality, like I don’t sell short anything and I don’t like options. I just love the first activity. That’s who I am. I love to work a lot on something I like. I become obsessed in pursuing an interest or a goal and getting to a conclusion and if i do I make the purchase. Subsequently I stick with that thing. I was partly born that way because I remember I was that way as a small kid and then meeting Buffett strongly re-enforced this trait of my temperament. That’s what blikebuffett is about. Like I said multiple times blikebuffett is a catchy way to teach you that it is first and foremost about temperament.

You can blikebuffett and you can’t, but it’s not determined by how much money you manage or how many hours you spend reading financial reports and 10ks. If you think so you don’t know that much about investing and you don’t know that much about Buffett. Don’t get me wrong Buffett was and still is more disciplined than you and I combined together, but before that (and not only) first he has the “right mind set”.

It’s first the “How” and then comes the “What” he does. Today 2022 you can’t replicate the “What” but you can replicate the “How”. I put my Money on that, so to speak. I still do. And I’m so confident in doing so that I turned even boredom into something else, maybe a “happy little tree”. Actually I became that little tree so much that now I love Boredom, because it gives me plenty of time to do what I like!

Happy Investing!

Marco Turco

Feel free to reach out to me if you find my thoughts about investing interesting enough to break your boredom

marco@blikebuffett.com 

Now you can also text me if you are interested in “Sunrise Wise” my educational program about “Value Investing”

+1 (954) 632 96 89 

Buffett Talk – Pizza for Capitalists

Be like Buffett, Uncategorized

The first “Buffett Talk” meeting is on! Let’s meet in person and share our stories and passion for the “Oracle” of Omaha and his teachings over the last 70 years or so! Let’s talk about :

  1. How he changed our lives (self-introductions)
    2.How he shaped our minds about investing
    3.Is Value Investing “out of date”? (look at the discussion bullet about the Super Investor of Graham-and-Doddsville on            meetup.com)

I’m sure it will be an awesome evening and pizza is on me! (beverages not included, cherry coke neither!).

Come to share your knowledge and passion about the greatest investor ever. Bring your favourite quotes of his brilliant, funny and unpretentious mind and be ready to make new friends and learn from each other!

Save the date:

Wednesday March 23rd 2022 – 06.30 to 08.30 pm

“PIZZA LOVERS BISTROT” 1860 N Nob Hill Rd · Plantation, FL 33322

Wednesday, March 23, 2022

1860 N Nob Hill Rd · Plantation, FL 33322 USA

 

Letter to partners

Uncategorized

“There are undoubtedly more mercurially-tempered people in the stock market now than for a many good years and the duration of their stay will be limited to how long they think profits can be made quickly and effortlessly(…)

I make no attempt to forecast the general market – my efforts are devoted to finding undervalued securities. However, I do believe that widespread public belief in the inevitability of profits from investment in stocks will lead to eventual trouble. Should this occur, prices, but not intrinsic values in my opinion, of even undervalued securities can be expected to be substantially affected.”

(Warren Buffett, Letter to his partners 1958 “The general Stock Market”)

 

Dear Partners,

albeit it’s useless to time the market, I feel the urge to update you very briefly about the most important thing for all of us: our future. Some of you, especially in European countries that face a slow and weak recovery from Covid, (and maybe debatable political choices of their governments), may need to put on notice again my essential recommendation: we are here all together for outstanding, not mediocre results, that are  achievable only over the long term.

Even if possible I don’t expect anyone of you to withdraw money from MT Capital after just 5 years. The magic of compounding will be totally missed for those who will do that. At risk of being redundant I will outline again why, very briefly.

  1. The gains you are obtaining so far are just the inception for our standards. They have importance to me in relation to the fact that they are obtained with virtually no investments made in the “fashionable” area of tech, crypto or something we are not competent about. I expect, just like Buffett in 1958, that history will “rhyme” again. Even if I don’t know when and in which proportion. It means that the price of our securities can go down but the values of the businesses I have been choosing over time will remain intact. And with them their capabilities of earning money and positive operating cash flows and profits in the future. In fact I hope that Mr. Market will be giving me the opportunity to buy more of what we already have and apply my full strategy of gaining for you much more over a longer time span.
  2. The real important signals of our future growth are contained in what is happening now and in the next few years, that is: A) we avoided many losses, NOT investing in many businesses. B) I’ve been respecting my established rules and so we have 11 stocks as of November 2021 with only one losing a bit of money (the smaller position) and the one with the major gain being the bigger one (38%of the entire portfolio). It means a key thing: we are on the right path and we are owners of businesses that are wonderful and we don’t want to sell just because the stock market will go down. C) They are and will be part of the American Tailwind. Dancing in and out of the market is not our game and will do no good to our basket of good businesses.
  3. We want to have , and now we have, other 4 stocks (totaling 15 positions) as of January 2022 that we want to be down and in red for the time being. Because we want to buy them at low prices maybe for a long time. That would take our overall temporary result to get down, hopefully like in march 2020, but then up substantially in the future.
  4. In order to pursue this “Buffett/Value” proposition we are also looking closely to some controlled businesses that we want to acquire as direct owners. We don’t even consider to invest in start-ups until they don’t show at least a good initial record and the capability of not losing money. But in the States the system is not like in Italy or Europe in general. A new business can die easily in its infancy, but if it doesn’t, the growth can be based on an economic structure that works efficiently.

 

CONCLUSIONS

 

This was a simple remainder of our “Ground Rules”. We are newborns awakening. If someone thinks that the profit made so far are what we are looking for, that someone is not on our same page. Read again our IPS (Investment Plan Statement). I work everyday including Saturdays and Sundays for partners that want to stay (and add more) and do more than ok over the long term. I don’t work and plan results for those who plan to leave in the short term, collecting from our table the mediocre results they should deserve. Partners don’t pay a management fee for a reason. I’m all invested, me and my family, with you, and I’m cooking the same food we will be sharing, so to speak.

 

If you are there it’s because we also share the same principles and values in Life. So this brief letter was just a remainder of the “second rules” that are “don’t forget the first rules” that mean “don’t forget what you already know” before venturing out in uncharted territories. Don’t. We won’t, so stick with me.

 

I wish you all you desire and hold in your hearts for you and your loved ones. We are still not too many so that I happen to know everyone of you personally and I know you deserve as human beings to live all the ambitions you have for your lives. That’s why I’m here on this beautiful sunny Sunday working for you. Good people of America around me are doing the same (some in the snow today though). You put the money in the right land.

 

God bless

 

Faithfully,

 

Marco Turco

marco@blikebuffett.com

 

 

 

You are not an Investor

Be like Buffett, Education

Rational Walk is the only newsletter that I read among the many I receive about investing. I found almost a waste of time all the rest. Too much noise. Many talk about money, finance and other interesting topics but they are not about investing.

Rational is exhaustive, accurate, drops some knowledge, and even if you are a full time Buffett student like me, you always find something new, interesting and well written. Topics and books mentioned that are not about investing are usually a good source of inspiration, for investors and not.

On the other hand, sometimes I find so called “experts” or Value investors misquoting and also misunderstanding some basic traits of investing.

Example: There’s no such thing as Value Versus Growth. But it seems that so many professionals liked the distinction that the illness affected also some “intelligent investors”. And so they talk about Value stocks VS Growth stocks and Value Investing VS Growth Investing.

Buffett made it so clear during the 2001 Shareholders meeting. “They are part of the same equation”. And if you read Graham very well it is clear that there can’t be such contrast or opposition.

Growth is part of the Value you want to asses. When you look for Value you are taking into consideration how much growth can be inside your investment that is so a Value decision.

A business can grow and have more revenues in a way that causes less profitability or losing money in the future. And that’s not investing. Sometimes there’s good value even without the business growing or expanding so much. Because it will constantly deliver in the future more capital than the one you are laying out today to buy it. And that is investing.

But at the end it is all part of a Value decision, if you are an investor. If you are a stock speculator you can talk about “growth opportunities”, “buying momentum” and you can trade “growth stocks” or whatever. Simply you are not investing. Like if you buy on margin: you are not an investor.

marco@blikebuffett.com