Author: Andrew Page

Any investment that promises low risk and high returns is almost certainly a scam. It’s the financial equivalent of getting something for nothing — a fantasy that ends only in disappointment. In the real world, certainty comes at a price. And that price is lower returns. Think about it; if a largely ‘risk-free’ but high return investment were available, it would attract a […]

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 […]

When it comes to investing, mistakes are unavoidable. Even the best investors get it wrong — a lot. But here’s the thing: it’s okay to be wrong, as long as you handle it the right way. The trick is to make sure being wrong is rare, quickly admitted to, swiftly corrected, and (importantly) learned from.  Rare, Not Never No investor can […]

During the week I caught up on a podcast with Howard Marks and Morgan housel — two thinkers in the financial space I greatly admire. (Shoutout to Karmast for suggesting it!) The main topic was debt, and how it narrows the range of outcomes an investor can endure. And it showed how successful investing is less about brilliance and more about […]

Reporting season is a busy and often stressful time for investors. There’s a deluge of information to digest, synthesise and (potentially) react to. And all at a time when the broader market is responding in significant, and oftentimes unexpected ways. Well, I’m here to tell you that it doesn’t need to be this way.  The reality is that you’re never going to […]

There’s a lot of distance between broad, abstract investing concepts and placing actual trades with your hard earned. 7 Powers: The Foundations of Business Strategy by Hamilton Helmer makes a good attempt at focusing the investor’s attention on the things that matter, and putting it in a way that feels a bit more actionable. It’s basically a book about ‘moats’, as Buffett would call them, […]

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 […]

I recently re-read Robert Pirsig’s classic “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values“. Penned in 1974, it’s a philosophical reflection on values and the art of living. I highly recommend it. What has that got to do with investing? Well, as it turns out, a lot—at least in my opinion! Here are some of the insights from […]

PayPal and Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel has some interesting takes, not all of which you may agree with. But he said something back in 2015 which was bang on: “I’m always sceptical of sectors and trends. People always ask me what some trends are that I see happening in the future, and I have never liked the question because I’m […]

There’s no area of the market where you’d say stock picking was ‘easy’, but some sectors tend to offer fewer challenges than others. For Luke Winchester (aka Wini), whom we spoke with last week (see below), the preferred hunting ground is in the B2B industrials space. One of the key reasons being that these types of companies tend to offer better […]