Unlocking Value Investing

When someone tells you that they are value investors, what first comes to mind? "Buy and Hold" strategy, invest for the long term, it is futile to time the market, buy on value at a margin of safety and invest in your circle of competence. Is that all? So easy? That is what I thought at first. OK, besides those difficult to understand FA analysis and valuation of companies, I shall touch on the general concepts of value investing that most value investors have not noticed.

"Buy and Hold"

Warren Buffett popularised this strategy and practices it more than often because he had an eye for scouting what I called "super companies" like Wal-Mart, Coca Cola, GEICO. They had superior earnings growth year after year for many years in the past(or now? I haven't looked at their income statement). They had ROE>20%, EPS growth per year and quarterly of >25%. Superb growth companies. Looks like C=current quarterly EPS and A=annual earnings increases, from the "CAN SLIM" method popularised by William O'Neil. They always look for companies with exceptional growth.

What most value investors did not notice is that Warren Buffett do not buy-and-hold forever for every company he bought. He sells off companies that he thinks is over-valued like PetroChina or mistakes like Dexter Shoe and US Air. Although there were no losses but very little gains as capital was not properly allocated. He did not allow his portfolio to tank 50% in value and more or even average down on them. Warren Buffett soon realises his mistake and did not chase good money after bad companies. In fact, he averaged up on Wal-Mart when prices kept soaring over the years with earnings.

If you had read his letters to partners, the Buffett Partnership performed better in a bear market than in a bull market using the Dow as yardstick. In fact, his portfolio has never recorded losses in a bear market. I believe he took some profits when signs of the bear is clear.

On investing long term

Benjamin Graham said "In the short run, the market is a voting machine but in the long run it is a weighing machine."

Value investors never realise that in the short run the market is always correct. Never try to beat the market because the market is bigger than you. It is like trying to out debate with millions of people and you will lose badly. If you think Citi was cheap when it is trading at $30 and 2 months before it was $50, you are so wrong. The market does not think this way and prices continue to tank until $20. At $30, I believe most investors know that prices will definitely go down further and why would someone buy at $30 knowing that it would fall further?

I used to think that it is futile to "time" the market. However by saying that, I am telling myself that I do not understand market psychology which is a very important characteristic in investing. By timing the market I do not mean by the exact buy and sell point of the stock. It is more of demand and supply. Take Koda for instance, I know it has very good management, stock selling at below NAV. However I would not buy it now because demand for their products are decreasing due to the slow down in global economies. Most value investors fail to revalue their companies realising that the bear is coming and sell them when they think it is overvalued.

By failing to do so the value investor did not realise that earnings would slow down or turn negative in a bear market, hurting overall performance of the company in the long term. If in the next 10 years the company can collect 100M of free cashflow, adding 3 years of bear market, they might have 60M at the end of 10 years. That is why prices go down from the high valuation in the previous bull market. Things would have been so different if we are in a bull market now right? It is not very difficult to tell from a bull and bear. Nevertheless nobody can predict the extact top of the bull or the bottom of the bear. We just have to be patient and analyse the market and companies carefully. Warren Buffett also did not rush to buy companies immediately few weeks after the sub-prime crisis. He knows the market very well.

Ps: Have been reading on "Can Slim" and TA stuffs. Some of the concepts makes sense to me and might have influenced my thoughts on value investing. I find that I understand value investing a lot better now. =D On 2nd thoughts, buying SBSTransit might be a mistake.