Episode 8: Macro outlook, Microcap investing & Scorecard review

45% growth in sales was not enough for Mr Market…

What can investors learn from a 1200% gain?

When a share price underperforms the market, how much of that can be blamed on management? Conversely, when prices surge higher, how much credit do the senior execs deserve? Of course, in the short run, the answer is probably ‘not much’. But even over a period of a year or two it can be hard to connect executive decisions to […]

Utilities and airport software specialist Gentrack (ASX:GTK) has today told investors to expect a full year operating profit (EBITDA) of between $27 – $28 million, less than previous guidance which called for a result “marginally ahead of FY18 ($31 million)”. Gentrack said the downgrade was due to delays in customer projects and contracts as well as bad debt risks in […]

We love our small caps here at Strawman. And not without good reason. The trouble is, at least according to conventional wisdom, that things are far riskier in that space. Perhaps that’s true, to some extent, if by risk you mean volatility. And it’s not an unfair characterisation if you assume, as many do, that “small cap” must mean pre-revenue, […]

Herbert Stein, an American economist, once observed that if something cannot go on forever, it will stop. That’s hardly a groundbreaking insight. But just because something is self-evident doesn’t mean it’s widely understood. Indeed, much of modern economics and finance is predicated on the belief that the future will largely mirror the past. To be fair, that’s not a terrible […]

Between 2019 and 2020 Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK) underperformed the S&P500 by 37%. It was one of the poorer periods of relative performance for the Oracle of Omaha, who was “burdened” with loads of cash and missed out on a lot of the boom in technology stocks. As you can see, Buffett regularly lags the broader index. And sometimes […]

Discussion, analysis and investment ideas from three investing tragics