Caveat Emptor

How inflation swindles the Equity Investor The equity markets continue to trend downward over the month of May. This is the one of the more sizable stock market downturn since I started investing, with the first one back at 2015-2016, the second at May 2020, and the third one which started around Jan 2021. As the valuation metrics has been extremely elevated in the US market on 2020, I believe this is a fairly healthy correction and I am not too concerned about the inflation / interest rate impacts on the companies I hold. As a bottom up investor, I believe this is one of those rare times that I can build up my positions in the higher quality companies at a more reasonable valuation, and I will try to consistently execute on my accumulation plan for the months ahead. Despite the stagflation, supply chain, and nuclear warfare worries, I still prefer an aggressive allocation to ownership stakes to a diversified portfolio of cash generative assets. As my workplace has fully transited back...

Multiverse of Madness This week of one of the most volatile period in the equity markets, as volatility spiked and market participants started their frantic selling. This week's market movements has shadows of the Mar2020 period whereby rapidly shifting market conditions resulted in billions of dollars being snapped away.  At this period of sharp volatility, the fundamentals focused investor can take comfort in the words of Benjamin Graham in (The Intelligent investor) and metaphors of Mr Market, as a (maniac depressive) person whom is merely there to deal with you. There are underlying companies and cash flows behind the stock and difference between price and value is what the investor benefit from. The inability of the investor to fight head-on against a massive all-powerful incorporeal being. And how your mindset towards dealing with it determines whom is the master and whom is the slave. If Benjamin Graham was born a millennial, he will have thought of the Marvel cinematic univ...

Dormammu, I've Come to Bargain The month of April is characterized by the Great Valuation reset. A lot of the highly priced growth stocks had their prices and multiples reset back to 2020 BC (Before Covid), and this is a particular painful period for newly minted investors. Certain speculative /highly priced growth stocks and managed funds / ETFs had their losses up to 50%++, and even the high flyer blue chip SandP companies (Netflix, Facebook) are not spared from this bloodbath. Although I did not average heavily into the more high priced growth stocks throughout the course of last two years, certain holdings I held like Coinbase and Paypal registered heavy unrealized losses despite having their long term fundamentals remain intact (in my biased opinion). Nonetheless, per the latest quarter earnings release from various companies, a lot of the growth from the pandemic lock-down has tapered off and there is no certainty if it will return. Specifically for Paypal, the CEO has guided...