Episode 8: Macro outlook, Microcap investing & Scorecard review

If you’re not growing, you’re dying. Businesses need at least a modicum of growth to push back against the relentlessness of cost inflation. And then there are cost of capital and opportunity cost hurdles one must consider.  Furthermore, if you’re standing still, there’s a chance your competitors aren’t —  which means you’re bleeding market share and relevance. Stagnation is also a […]

At Strawman we’re all about small-cap investing. “Crypto”, in the main, isn’t much of a focus for most of our members. Magic internet tokens are almost antithetical to any notion of sound, time-honoured investment principles. And it’s hard to think of an industry that has a worse history of blow-ups, Ponzis and grift. But with Bitcoin now back at all time highs […]

Market history is a graveyard of great companies that were terrible investments. Not necessarily because that perception of ‘greatness’ proved unfounded, though that is common enough. But because people buy in at prices that are simply way too optimistic. “No matter how wonderful [a business] is, it’s not worth an infinite price” — Charlie Munger. The reality is that the stock […]

Environmental monitoring company Envirosuite (ASX:EVS) saw shares explode higher today, after the company released details of a strategic agreement to enter the lucrative Chinese market. The company has agreed to sell Mr Zhigang Zhang — described as a prominent leader in the Chinese environmental protection sector, and General Manager of Beijing BHZQ Environmental Engineering Technologies Co. — 50 million shares […]

We at Strawman know that bigger isn’t always better. There are plenty of reasons for that, but one of the more enduring comes from William H. Whyte’s classic The Organization Man from 1956. His central point was that large institutions tend to nudge everyone toward the middle. The bigger the machine, the more it wants predictable cogs. Comfort goes up, […]

What you need to know

In a world obsessed with instant results, it’s easy to get discouraged when our efforts don’t seem to pay off right away. Hit the gym every day for a week, eat nothing but kale and quinoa, and what do you get? Sore muscles, aching limbs, and… nothing. The scale hasn’t budged, your six-pack is still in hibernation, and all that […]

Zoom out on any major developed-market index and you see a steady wealth-creation engine: a polite upward march fueled by human progress. It is a phenomenon hiding in plain sight, available to anyone with the vision and patience to seize it. Of course, such a panoramic view obscures the true nature of the journey. To the investor who has actually […]