The Last Straw

Strawman Premium

Strawman is a private online investment club for those that are serious about taking control of their financial future. As part of our inner circle, Strawman Premium members enjoy exclusive access to: The portfolios, trades, research & valuations of all Premium members. The trades and composition of the Strawman Index. Live & interactive online monthly meetings, featuring company deep dives, […]

Not Too Big, Not Too Small

We tend to lump stocks into two camps: small and risky, but with tantalising upside, or big and boring, plodding along with dependable (but modest) returns. But that’s a false binary; there is, of course, a vast and often fertile patch between these two extremes. Not that this is news to Strawman members. But Corey Leung from WCM Investment Management makes a compelling […]

Beware The Helpers

In his 2005 shareholder letter, Warren Buffett shared a neat little parable about a wealthy family called the Gotrocks. It’s a sharp jab at the investment advisory industry — and it clearly struck a chord with Vanguard founder Jack Bogle, who later gave it a starring role in The Little Book of Common Sense Investing. Here’s the gist: The Gotrocks family […]

The 3 Levers Of Growth

There are really only three levers a business can pull to juice its profits: price, cost, or volume. That’s it. As an investor, your job is to figure out which of these levers matters most for any given company — and how management plans to yank it. Because if you don’t know what’s driving growth, you’re essentially investing on hope. […]

Super Simple Valuation Model

How much is a share really worth? There’s no one answer, but you can approach the question intelligently by employing the humble PE ratio and making a few assumptions. How this calculator works:Enter your assumptions for each scenario — including forecast earnings per share (EPS), the price-to-earnings (PE) multiple, time horizon, and discount rate. The calculator projects a future valuation […]

Profit With Purpose

When Harvey Firestone published Men and Rubber back in 1926, he wasn’t just telling war stories from the factory floor. He was laying out a blueprint — a business philosophy that, nearly a century later, still feels radical. Not because it’s new, but because so many have forgotten it. In his view, if the only reason you’re in business is […]

No Pain, No Gain

Everyone loves a good stock chart. Up and to the right, all green candles and glory! But that is rarely how things play out in the real world, at least not over any meaningful time frame. What the latest research from Michael Mauboussin and Dan Callahan makes painfully clear is this: if you are aiming for outsized returns, you will […]

Swing For The Fences

Babe Ruth is one of baseball’s greatest players, but he also led the league in strikeouts. Over his career, he walked back to the dugout about one in every eight times he stepped up to the plate. And yet, he’s remembered as the GOAT. Why? Because when his bat did connect, it often left the park. 714 times, to be exact. […]

Don’t Trade The Lull

Making money in the market is hard. Not just because spotting an undervalued stock is tough, or because you have to stomach the occasional dump. The real challenge, most of the time, is staying sane through the long, mind-numbing stretches where nothing happens and doubt starts whispering in your ear. Understand the following, however, and you’ll be less likely to […]

Four Inches Into The Future

In a 2014 interview, Lloyd Blankfein, then CEO of Goldman Sachs and part-time Bond villain lookalike, was asked a simple question: How far into the future can you see? Now, given Goldman’s reputation for spotting market trends before most, you’d expect a confident answer.  Instead, Blankfein deadpanned: “I don’t think I could see four inches into the future.” Not exactly […]