Episode 11: Audinate, Volpara, Dicker Data, locality Planning and listener mailbag

Trump’s trade war is dumb in almost every way. The tariffs are crude, cruel, and unfair. The execution is clumsy, and the rationale behind it, at least as presented, is vapid. The economic fallout will likely be painful. But whether he knows it or not, he’s grappling with a real problem. One that’s been building for years. One that was […]

After steadily climbing the Strawman company rankings, New York based LiveTiles (ASX:LVT) has just qualified for entry into the Strawman index. If history is any guide, that’s a very bullish signal… Comprised of the most popular recommendations from our community of investors, the Strawman Index has delivered market beating returns since inception: What does LiveTiles do? LiveTiles is a software […]

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 […]

With the latest half-yearly reporting season now over, it’s a good time to reflect on our investments. At least, that is, in a more considered way than is possible in the heat of the moment. The spray of numbers, often coming from multiple companies on the same day, can be extremely hard to digest. It’s like drinking from a fire […]

One of the great things about equity investing is that you can be extremely fussy. You don’t need to buy hundreds of stocks. A dozen or so can give you solid diversification, provided they’re not all marching to the same beat. And you’ve got literally thousands of candidates to choose from. Tens of thousands, if you’re happy to look offshore. But […]

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, […]

So I’m long Bitcoin. It’s a bit uncomfortable to admit, because there’s such wide scepticism concerning crypto among a lot of smart people. And it’s hard to deny there’s a huge amount of hype and speculation surrounding the whole affair. I’m sure a lot of people will get burnt. Back in 2017 when Bitcoin first came to global attention, I […]

Accounting may not be the most enthralling of topics, but some basic literacy here is vital if you fancy yourself a stock picker. As Buffett put it: “You have to understand accounting and you have to understand the nuances of accounting. It’s the language of business and it’s an imperfect language, but unless you are willing to put in the […]