{"id":5501,"date":"2025-10-03T10:37:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T00:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/strawman.com\/blog\/?p=5501"},"modified":"2025-09-30T16:39:39","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T06:09:39","slug":"the-perils-of-perfection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/strawman.com\/blog\/the-perils-of-perfection\/","title":{"rendered":"The Perils Of Perfection"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

One of the great things about equity investing is that you can be extremely fussy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You don\u2019t need to buy hundreds of stocks. A dozen or so can give you solid diversification, provided they\u2019re not all marching to the same beat. And you\u2019ve got literally thousands of candidates to choose from. Tens of thousands, if you’re happy to look offshore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But if you\u2019re too fussy, you\u2019ll never buy anything. And if you do, you won’t hold it for long. Perfect, as they say, is the enemy of the good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the trick is to be picky, without being precious. Selective, but also practical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Catapult Sports<\/strong> (ASX:CAT) has gone up tenfold in the past 30 months. Yet back then, anyone buying was overlooking a business that was bloated, burning cash and regularly failing to deliver on promises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ResMed<\/strong> (ASX:RMD) has doubled in just two years. But investors had to contend with a serious existential threat, namely the risk that weight-loss drugs like Ozempic might make their core product redundant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Energy One<\/strong> (ASX:EOL) has tripled in the past year alone. But last October it was dealing with shrinking margins, rising debt and a nosebleed valuation of 98 times earnings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Codan<\/strong> (ASX:CDA) is up almost 7x since late 2022, despite a 33 percent drop in net profit at the time and major issues with key distributors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that\u2019s just a quick skim of the Strawman leaderboards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The point is, no company is perfect. And the ones that look close to perfect are usually priced to reflect that. So even if they deliver, there may be little upside for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, you could argue that a few blemishes are almost a prerequisite for a good bargain. It\u2019s precisely because something looks a bit rough that you get a shot at outsized returns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, that doesn\u2019t mean you should run out and scoop up every stock weighed down by bad headlines. A lot of the time, the market\u2019s pessimism is completely justified. But you do need to recognise that imperfection doesn\u2019t mean uninvestable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes, the warts are overstated. Sometimes, they\u2019re temporary. And sometimes, they\u2019re more than offset by strengths elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buying into that kind of situation isn\u2019t easy. And holding on while you wait for the business to prove itself, and for the market to catch up, is even harder. It takes time. And in the meantime, the share price can get worse before it gets better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s the paradox. The best opportunities often look the worst at first glance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You simply won\u2019t get a bargain unless there\u2019s something others are worried about. The question is whether they\u2019re right to worry — and whether you\u2019ve got the patience to wait for the story to turn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This game isn\u2019t about perfection. It\u2019s about perspective, judgment, and a stomach for short-term discomfort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Strawman is Australia\u2019s premier online investment club.
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One of the great things about equity investing is that you can be extremely fussy. You don\u2019t need to buy hundreds of stocks. A dozen or so can give you solid diversification, provided they\u2019re not all marching to the same beat. And you\u2019ve got literally thousands of candidates to choose from. Tens of thousands, if you’re happy to look offshore. 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