Friends,
Even though I have only started this Substack a month ago, my intention was to make the content paid at some point. I’m unapologetic about this. As Don Barzini said in The Godfather:
Surely [Don Corleone] can provide a bill for such services. After all, we are not communists.
So with the swagger of a fictionalised mafia boss, I will be crossing the Rubicon into uncharted waters. For those brave enough to join me now, and in the future (you can alea iacta est at your leisure), you should be aware of what you are signing up for.
I write two kinds of articles:
The Weekly Investing Digest: is part personal journal, part periodical, and a third part interesting resources I come across. Content will change with current events, news, and happenings in the investing world.
The Issue: is my take on the high quality . It is a fortnightly issue directed at addressing an investing topic in a much more in depth way. I will be hoping to build up a platform here for others to contribute work.
Firstly, it is my intention is to keep The Weekly Investing Digest free. This is no great liability to me in terms of time or effort. Those who find the blog should be able to get a sneak peak into what greater treasures may await them behind the paywall.
For the most part, The Issue will be a paid product. I reserve the right to make the occasional post publicly accessible. I do, however, deeply respect anyone’s decision to invest in paid content so it is my seldom promise that this would be a rare event, with reasons that I will provide at the time of publication. I’m going to commit to making this a fortnightly long-form publication.
Costs?
The paid tier will be a very modest amount - I don’t know where the final price will end up though so I’d like to extend everyone the following offer: the pledge amount on offer at the moment is probably lower than where I see it long term. Those who would pledge now will enjoy this price permanently.
Why should you care?
The financial and investing community is typically heavy on quantitative analysis, modelling, and other formulaic exercises that fit neatly into a finance degree. These are great, but an over-optimisation of that kind of analysis fails to respect investing for what it really is: a liberal art.
I plan to tie together colourful writing, storytelling, and analysis in a way that I have always enjoyed - narratives supported by numbers, not vice versa.
While it has never been my intention to do stock write ups or deep dives into companies - I will do these from time to time. I don’t find good investment ideas every day, every week, and sometimes not every year. Opportunities avail themselves in their own time, not simply because we have made x amount of progress around the sun.
The following articles should give you an idea of the kind of business I enjoy learning about and investing in:
Issue No.1: Peter Thiel’s Success Cases in Zero to One & Buffett’s ‘Gross Profit Royalties’
Issue No. 2: 'Paying Up' for a Great Business
The Weekly Investing Digest (06/02/2023)
What you should expect on this front is a journalistic approach to investment research. I like to follow companies for a long time. While familiarity breeds contempt in human relationships, familiarity begets clarity in our investments. Simply doing large quantities of condensed research over a short period of time isn’t how I come to understand a business, so why should I burden you with that kind of experience?
Personally, I trade very seldom - and I don’t plan on pursuing an investment approach that demands hyperactivity. I would usually post my portfolio once a year, and review my positions at that same interval. I am happy to continue doing so, with the understanding that I am not an investment professional, and that I am by no means an investing guru - I’m just a guy with a PA.
While I believe the quality of my writing is high, my editing abilities leave something to be desired. Corrections will be made with the same haste with which I aim to produce content.
The last thing that I will commit to is not being rigid. If I decide to pursue new mediums (be that podcasts, long form video etc etc) you’ll be the first to experience it - and you and I can have another conversation about what the expectations will be there.
You should also be aware of what you are not signing up for.
This is not a stock picking service. I pursue a concentrated, low turn over strategy, focused on investing in high quality businesses purchased at prices which I think provide a large margin of safety.
I understand investing through the following principles:
My ability to comprehend any particular business, vastly limits the number of investable opportunities for me,
Businesses of phenomenal quality are rare. Studying businesses of indiscernible or mediocre quality is not a good use of time.
A business that is both comprehensible to me, and is truly high quality is an uncommon happenstance. That such qualities overlap with an attractive price is even rarer.
This writing is not meant to be a substitute for independent thinking. I have made many investing mistakes, in large part, by outsourcing my own critical reasoning. I encourage you to not follow in my tracks, in this respect.
I’d like to thank you for the support you have shown so far, and any you might avail yourself of in the future.
Larry.
Best of luck bud!
Good luck, mate. I have no doubt you will excel.