Investment Principles
Investment is a game of who makes fewer mistakes. Like the game of golf, it does not matter you hit an eagle occasionally. What really matters is to avoid making big mistakes such as hitting the ball into bush or sand traps. At the end, what counts is the total scores of 18 holes.
In investment, we believe in 'Don't do the things that are not right'.
- We don’t invest in new businesses unless we know this company very well. How well? We often ask ourselves these questions: Have I used the products of this company before? What is the reason in one sentence that I should choose this product over its competitors’? What do I see this business in 10 years? Who are the executives and the board? Do I trust them? If I cannot answer any of these questions with high confidence, I am happy to pass the opportunity. We don’t understand most of businesses in the market.
- We don’t participate in swing trading. We believe frequent trading won’t make us rich and will only make our brokers rich. The best investments are the ones that we can hold forever.
- We don’t time the market. The best timing to plant a tree is 10 years ago. The second-best timing is right now.
Here is the universe of knowledge.
And here is what we know (an approximation with high degree of optimism).
We feel comfortable staying within that red circle and hope that we will still be in the game in 10 years.