Sharktown

Journey of a DIY Value Investor

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Investment Idea: LinkedIn (LNKD)

Professional networking website, LinkedIn, is a stock that fills me with regret. I bought this stock while I was very new to stock investing and had only a vague idea as to what value investing was. My ‘value investing’ strategy was to invest in big name stocks when they fell hard from bad news, it worked to some degree, finding success in Netflix (NFLX) and Tesco (TSCO.L). I bought LNKD stocks back in April 2015 after some bad news caused the stock price to drop from around $250 to $200, which was the price I bought at.

After properly researching value investing a few months later, I decided that LNKD was overpriced. I should have sold at that point, and I had multiple chances to do so including a stint in November 2015 where the stock hovered above $250. However I got greedy, and held onto it thinking it could go higher (important lesson on investor psychology!). Instead of going higher, the stock dived to $100 after unfavourable results. It was pretty depressing that I had gone from a 25% gain to a 50% loss. At this point, I decided I may as well hold onto the stock. This paid off in June 2016, when the stock rocketed up to around $193 on the news of Microsoft’s acquisition at $196 per share.

Since then, the stock has mostly been hovering between the $190 and $193 mark. However recently, I assume due to election uncertainty in USA, the stock has been drifting lower (along with the rest of the market), as low as $187.35 yesterday. With Microsoft paying $196 per share, and the deal supposedly closing by the end of the year, the stock should hopefully return 3.9% on the $188.58 which I paid for. In two months, this is an annualised return of 26%, pretty decent. I like to aim for 10% annual return on investment, so with that in mind, plus the fact that these deals can sometimes take a little longer than expected to close, I think LNKD is a buy below $191. If buying, take note of any transaction fees, as that may be a higher proportion of any gains you make.

I did something similar where I bought shares from a company pending being acquired with a company CTC Media (CTCM) which I wrote about here.

I own shares in LNKD. Please note that I am not qualified to give financial or investment advice. This post is my opinion and should not be taken as a de facto recommendation (as with any stock advice from any source!).

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Investment Ideas: Halfords Group (HFD.L) and Lands Securities Group (LAND.L)

This week I trawled through the magic formula list of UK listed companies. The magic formula being a strategy suggested by Joel Greenblatt in his book The Little Book that Beats the Market, which I wrote about here. The strategy can be run along with many other strategies using MeetInvest, a nifty tool I found a few months ago.

Of the 45 or so companies that I examined, there were two which I particularly liked the look of:

Halfords Group (HFD.L) is a retailer specialising in car parts and cycling equipment. It’s one of those brilliant companies that have consistently delivered positive free cash flow every year for the last ten years and has a decent amount of book value per share (185p vs about 330p which it currently trades at). Taking into account that Brexit may hurt sales a bit, I’d still expect Halfords to achieve in the long term something similar to the average free cash flow they achieved previously. For me, this makes Halfords a buy, anywhere below 357p with a current target of 429p.

Land Securities Group (LAND.L), a constituent of the FTSE 100, is the largest commercial property development and investment company in UK. The attractive factor of this stock is the book value per share which stands at 1480p, nearly 50% more than the 995p per share it trades at currently. Not that I’m an expert, but I don’t believe Brexit will be that detrimental to the property market. However, even if I was pessimistic about cut back at the assets and cash flow, I still make this a buy below 1000p and a sell at 1200p.

 In other news:

I sold my shares in Barclays (BARC.L) which I jumped on during the panic selling after the Brexit vote (mentioned briefly here). I bought at 144p and sold at 175p, picking up a small dividend payment on the way.

Meanwhile Deutsche Bank (DB), on the back of a potential $14bn that it wouldn’t be able to afford, the stock was sent plummeting a few weeks ago. DB started negotiating with USA’s Department of Justice, and they seem confident that they won’t be paying the full fine (still no news on the outcome). I also don’t believe the DoJ will fine DB enough to go under as it would send very damaging shocks to the banking system. Further, the book value per share was at four times the share price. I bought some at $12, and opted to make a quick buck selling at $13.43 a week or so later.

I own shares in HFD.L and LAND.L. Please note that I am not qualified to give financial or investment advice. This post is my opinion and should not be taken as a de facto recommendation (as with any stock advice from any source!).

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How I played Brexit (BARC.L, DEB.L & DFS.L)

I meant to type this up much earlier, but I was taking a long holiday. Now seems like as good time as ever to look back on my post Brexit plays.

The fact there would be a shock if UK voted leave was always clear, and had the vote gone the other way I’m sure the market would have shot up. I thought, quite confidently, that UK would remain, and as a result, I kept hold of all my stocks and even bought a couple more (DEB.L and MAB.L which I wrote about here) not long before the vote.

Following the vote, the UK stock market took some massive hits, with many stocks losing over 20% of their value pre-vote. This seemed to be a textbook case of herd mentality, markets panicked, and everyone sold. Meanwhile, as difficult as it is, as a value investor, I held all my stocks and instead bought more. The question to ask was whether Brexit would really make the intrinsic value of these companies worth 20% less. I didn’t think so, which made many of these stocks a bargain.

I jumped on several stocks, I bought Barclays (BARC.L) at 144p, though watched it continue to fall immediately after I bought it, suspension in trade actually triggered for this stock that day because it was free falling so badly. It continued to fall to its lowest point of 121p, before slowing making its rise. I had set a target to bag some more had it fallen to 115p, but that never happened. I mentioned in a previous post that I’m not hugely confident in valuing financial companies, but with a book value of 373p, and positive cash flow in recent years this feels too cheap to ignore.

I bought more of Debenhams (DEB.L). The stock fell some 30% to the price I bought at initially, selling at 51.25p at its lowest. I thought it was a good buy at 75p, so 53p which was the price I got in at seems like a bargain.

I also bought DFS (DFS.L), a popular UK furniture seller. It was trading at around 300p pre-vote, but at its lowest traded at 175p. I jumped on a bit too early at 236p. However with its consistent free cash flows, I make this a buy anywhere below 300p, and a sell somewhere closer to 450p, assuming it can keep up its free cash flow at the level it is now.

Obviously in hindsight, everything is clearer, but I can only wish I bought more of everything. My target was to bag stocks I already owned that fell 30% to the price I had bought at previously. However, this may have been too optimistic. Perhaps I should set this target lower in future. I’m also glad that I stuck to my guns and held onto all of my positions, it was difficult watching them free fall, but my portfolio is currently pretty healthy, and is a better position than pre-vote.

I own shares in BARC, DEB and DFS. Please note that I am not qualified to give financial or investment advice. This post is my opinion and should not be taken as a de facto recommendation (as with any stock advice from any source!).

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Investment Ideas: DEB.L & MAB.L

As a Brit, I get an annual tax-free savings allowance, this year I put my allowance into a stock ISA, but have largely unfilled this, so I’ve been doing some research into finding some UK listed value stocks to snap up.

There are two stocks that I like and have now bought into my ISA, both look like very attractive stocks in that they both currently trade under their book value and have had positive free cash flows (FCF) for the last ten years. That is to say that they are both stable businesses, trading at a price that is lower than what you would get back if the companies were to hypothetically go under right now.

Debenhams (DEB.L)

Debenhams is familiar name on British high streets with 178 stores across UK, Ireland and Denmark. I bought into DEB at a price of 74.5p (the day before its ex-dividend date, so the price has fallen a bit since then), which is lower than its book value per share of 77p. With its consistently positive FCF averaging GBP85.7 Mil, I conservatively make DEB a buy at any price below 97p with the aim of selling at 116p.

Mitchell and Butlers (MAB.L)

MAB is a UK operator that runs around 1600 pubs, bars (including All Bar One, a favourite of mine!) and restaurants. As of last quarter, the book value per share stands at 310p, I bought in at a price of 289p. As with DEB, MAB has seen positive FCF every year for the last 10 years, though unlike DEB, their trailing twelve month FCF is slightly lower than last year (GBP70 Mil v GBP83 Mil), I’ve accounted for this in my estimates and I think MAB is worth buying anywhere below 339p, with a target of 407p. The company has also started paying dividends this year which seems like a healthy sign.

In other news (ie things I meant to write about before but never got round to it):

CTC Media (CTCM), a stock that I bought and wrote about here completed its delisting process with $2.05 returned to shareholders per share. It was a couple of cents lower than I had hoped, but still took home just under 15% return.

I bought Barclays (BARC.L) at 160p, and sold at 183.5p a couple of months later. I’m not particularly confident in valuing financial companies, but with a book value per share of a ludicrous 369p, it seemed worth taking a punt on. Didn’t feel confident holding onto it long term though, so took 10% and let it go.

I bought into Entertainment One (ETO.L), a Canadian run media company listed in UK back in April at 150.4p. I had particularly lucky timing as a week later, rumours were spread that ITV were in talks with ETO about acquiring the company. The stock hit close to 200p because of this, though has now fallen back down a bit since then. Their goal is to double in size within 5 years, which I think is very plausible. I didn’t factor that into my calculations, but I still conservatively made ETO a buy anywhere below 392p with the aim to sell at 471p. If you wanted to be really conservative and project zero growth for the next 20 years, then I would still make ETO a buy anywhere below 272p, and a sell at 327p.

I own shares in DEB, MAB and ETO. Please note that I am not qualified to give financial or investment advice. This post is my opinion and should not be taken as a de facto recommendation (as with any stock advice from any source!). 

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Investment Idea: Apple (AAPL)

Apple needs no introduction. It’s a company which has positive free cash flow for the last 10 years (mostly improving year on year), pays dividends and are constantly buying back shares. It’s basically the stock everyone wants to own if they can get hold of it at a cheap enough price.

I think that price is cheap enough now, projecting a low 5% growth year on year growth for the next 20 years, I value Apple to be worth closer to $170. Adding in a margin of safety, I think this stock is worth buying at any price below $130, and I would be looking to sell this stock at $155. I entered yesterday at around $106.

In other news, I sold my position in LF. It plummeted along with the rest of the market until another education company, VTech, entered to buy out the company at $1 per share. This deal has been confirmed, but the transaction hasn’t completed just yet. The stock hit $1 yesterday, and so I took advantage of my broker’s recent promotion (no commission for a month!) and sold all my shares.

I own shares in Apple. Please note that I am not qualified to give financial or investment advice. This post is my opinion and should not be taken as a de facto recommendation (as with any stock advice from any source!).

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Investment Idea: CTC Media

I've been following CTC Media (CTCM) somewhat these past couple of months. I first came across it when I was looking at companies that were close to their 52 week lows. Within the last year, CTCM stock had fallen from the lofty heights of $7 per stock down to under $2. Looking just at the financials which showed very consistent positive free cash flow for the last 10 years and a strong cash position (near zero debt!), I valued the company closer to $8!

In many circumstances, this would be an absolute steal, however with some research, I discovered that CTCM was becoming a victim of new legislation. CTCM is a Russian broadcaster (traded on NASDAQ) which owns four Russian channels. Russia recently introduced a law requiring all media companies in Russia to have less than 20% foreign ownership by 2016. This meant CTCM needed to find a Russian entity to buy a big enough chunk in the company, and fast. At the time, UTH Media, a Russian media company looked to acquire a 75% stake for $200 million. CTCM said at the time that this along with any cash under CTCM would be returned to current shareholders. 75% stake at $200 million meant that the total valuation of the company was $266 million, including the cash position (minus debt), the company was worth $320 million to the shareholders. With 156 million outstanding shares, I was looking at $2.05 per share. The price at the time was $1.80.

I didn’t buy immediately as I was concerned that if the negotiations with UTH media was to fall through, CTCM would be in a very sticky position. However, on Friday, CTCM announced that the deal has been agreed, and a plan finalised. The result being the expected amount returned to the shareholder would ‘represent a low double-digit premium to the closing price of the Company's common stock on the NASDAQ Stock Market on September 24, 2015, which was $1.89’. Conservatively, at 10%, this would mean that each stock will get back $2.08. Bloomberg suggests that there are now only 117 million shares in circulation, and the figure is actually $2.18.

I’ve just bought myself a small stack of shares at $1.77, the recent market correction making this a true bargain! The transaction is expected to be completed by end of Q1 2016, so we’re looking at about 20% return in six months. The only risk that one might consider is that this plan would have to go through a shareholders vote before the plan is allowed to go through. Considering they won’t get a better deal for their stock, especially with time running out, I can’t see this being an issue.

The real winner here is UTH media (owned mostly by some rich dude, Alisher Usmanov), who got to buy a majority stake in a strong business for a fraction of its value.

I own shares in CTCM. Please note that I am not qualified to give financial or investment advice. This post is my opinion and should not be taken as a de facto recommendation (as with any stock advice from any source!).

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A book I went and read: The Little Book that Beats the Market

Written by Joel Greenblatt, this little book (it’s fairly short) was inspired by his desire to teach his children how to make money on the stock market. The book contains a ‘magic formula’ which has over the years beaten the market. His arguments for the magic formula seems convincing and the data up to 2004 shows that the formula did indeed consistently outperform the market. A bit of further research on the internet shows that the formula continued to work up to 2009 when a revised edition of the book was released in 2010, and this article shows the formula somewhat continuing to work (albeit not as well, but hard to say whether this is just a bad run in a small sample size of five years; nevertheless the author suggests a few improvements).

The magic formula is simple, it just ranks the 3500 or so US listed companies of market cap over $50 million in order based on combined Earnings Yield and Return on Capital ranks. Buy into the top 30 stocks on the list and hold for a year. Repeat. The ranking is simple, but it makes sense, and is a quick way to get a list of value investments. The strategy then makes use of averaging to produce good returns in the long run. As the formula only looks at the previous year’s results, buying just one of the stocks without research is risky, you don’t know if the company has extraordinary circumstances, such as an exceptionally good year that may not be repeatable. However, by buying 30 stocks, on average, the stocks will have performed a ‘normal’ year last year and the stocks that do well will counterbalance the stocks that don’t. By following this formula, you then require no experience or expertise in the stocks themselves, you’re just banking that on the list of value investments created by sensible criteria, enough of them are truly value so that the averages can work their magic.

The drawback of this strength is that you need to buy 20-30 stocks at a time. If you don’t have enough capital, the brokerage charges will eat you alive. I’m in this situation, and even if I had enough today, I think I would need to do a bit more research to convince myself to invest it all in this one strategy. For now, the website Joel created to screen the stocks based on the formula (www.magicformulainvesting.com) is a great way to find future investments to research. I’m sure some of my upcoming purchases will be from this list.

All in all, I fully recommend this book, it’s easy to read and charmingly written. Link to the book on amazon here.

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Trade Idea: Leapfrog; an asset play and turnaround

Leapfrog (LF) has had a pretty tough year, the price currently stands at under a $1, falling from the lofty heights of $6 two years ago. This last year saw negative free cash flow, resulting largely from disappointing sales.

It’s a company losing money and normally I have no interest in companies such as these, but there is something very attractive on their balance sheet; they have a lot of cash and zero debt. The company reported in their most recent quarter that they held $88 million in cash and cash equivalents. With 70 million outstanding shares, each share has therefore got $1.25 assigned to it. The price at writing is $0.93. Do the maths!

With this cash, Leapfrog can attempt to turn their company around without having to resort to loans and other financing. The question becomes whether they can use this cash effectively to do so. I have no expertise in this industry, but for what it’s worth, the strategy seems credible. Further I noted that they have had off years in the past and have always managed to turn themselves back around, which gives me confidence. Looking at Amazon reviews of their products as well as the many awards they continue to win, it appears the LeapFrog remains to have a strong brand identity and one that is trusted by parents. It’s a brand that isn’t losing credibility, and so this is not a barrier to their future success.

The company believes that the results of the turnaround will not be seen until 2017, so if you’re buying this stock as I did, be patient and keep an eye on the quarterly reports to see if progress is being made.

I own shares in LF. Please note that I am not qualified to give financial or investment advice. This post is my opinion and should not be taken as a de facto recommendation (as with any stock advice from any source!).

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On not panicking when the markets crash

The stock market has been on a huge losing streak because of Chinese economic slowdown fears. It’s amazing how markets crash so hard, the herd mentality and fear of losing more money takes over from rationality, causing panic selling, which sends the markets into a nose dive. The school of value investing teaches to not worry about market fluctuations, as stocks will generally hit its fair value in the long run. However, it’s hard not to be disheartened though as I watch my stocks go deeper and deeper into the red, many of these stocks were in profit only a month ago.

Every cloud has a silver lining, and in this case, it’s not just my stocks that are falling, but pretty much every other stock is as well. Value investors delight in market crashes, as it’s an opportunity to buy lots of great stocks at bargain prices. I look forward to the chance to buy some of the big name stocks that I’ve not had the chance to own previously due to the price.

I have quite a long list of stocks that I’d like to own if the price falls low enough, at the top are: Apple (AAPL), Disney (DIS) and Nike (NKE). All large stable companies that have consistently yielded positive free cash flow over the last ten years, and are already priced low enough that there is a realistic chance that they may hit the prices I’m aiming to jump in at.

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Trade Idea: Iconix Brand Group (…again)

Just under two weeks ago, I did a very mistimed post on Iconix (ICON) being great value. A week later, the CEO left causing the stock to plummet a huge 25%, speculation was that the business was about to release unfavorable second quarter results. A few day later, said earnings were released (summary can be found here), and the stock tumbled a further 8% due to not hitting their earnings forecast.

At over 33% discount to what I bought at previously, this stock is now even more enticing. If we delve into the earnings report, we find that the quarter saw $13.8 million more in free cash flow versus the same quarter a year prior, or a 40% increase (this is after a tax refund and the withholding of a tax payment to be made next year which both work in their favour). They are a bit misleading when they say that over the last 6 months, there has been a 25% increase over the prior year period; once the tax refund and withholding of tax payment is taken into account, it’s actually about a 7% decrease (although I’m not sure what other extraordinary items might be in the previous results, so this 7% decrease may be a worst case scenario). However, this is attributable to a weaker first quarter, and the second quarter has shown that the group still has what it takes to create significant cash flow.

The stock has other things going for it. Iconix have a history of buying back their stock (75 million in 2012 to 56 million currently), making each stock that bit more valuable. They have also increased their total stockholders’ equity to $1126 million (total assets minus total liabilities), which is the value that shareholders ‘own’. Though, they have a bit more long term debt than I would have liked that isn’t covered by the Cash or Cash equivalents ($1,425 million versus $87 million). A lot of their assets fall under intangible assets, which is mostly the value of their brands, they can’t pay the debts off with that, unless they started selling off their brands.

How much is the business worth? Suppose we wanted to create a really unnecessarily conservative valuation, we’ll suppose that the intangible assets are worth much less than what they suggest, but enough to make the total stockholders’ equity equal to 0. Let’s then suppose that at the end of the fourth quarter, this fiscal year saw a drop of 7% in free cash flow to the prior year, and then made that amount each year for the 24 years after (i.e. zero growth). Discounting this at a rate of 10% (the annual rate of return I want to achieve). This stock would be worth $22.7, adding a margin of safety, I would buy this at any price below $17 and sell at about $20.5. This is overly conservative, but even then, the stock is still worth buying. If I instead set the free cash to have no change for the next 25 years, and I’ll round down the total stockholders’ equity from $1,126 million down to $1,000 million, we’ll still find the stock is worth closer to $40! I’ll probably aim for halfway-ish figure of $30

The problem is fighting my gut instinct. We’re probably wired to limit our losses, and sell when we’re down. I’ve already bought this stock, and lost over a third of its value. If this was a year ago, my last instinct would be to buy more of this losing stock. However, it’s this herd mentality of panic selling which is what causes stocks to plummet, when there may be no reason to do so. If value investing theory is to be believed (which I do), then the value of the stock will, over time, converge with the value of the business. So while everyone is doing the opposite, I have to dig my heels in, overcome my fear and buy more. I waited a couple of days to let the dust settle on the earnings report (China’s recent currency exploits also helped move the price even lower), and jumped in at $13.77.

I own shares in ICON. Please note that I am not qualified to give financial or investment advice. This post is my opinion and should not be taken as a de facto recommendation (as with any stock advice from any source!).

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A book I went and read: One up on Wall Street

Written by a legendary investor, Peter Lynch, he describes his experiences and practices in the search for “tenbaggers”; stocks that increase tenfold.

I learnt a lot from the book, which introduces lots of good advice in what to look for in a stock. Though I found the advice was often a bit hand wavy and vague. Further, there was no clear process laid out from start to finish on how to pick a good stock. Instead, the book was a collection of various hints and tips that one might look for, but little solid practical advice on what to do with them.

One up on Wall Street was an easy read, with Peter Lynch writing quite conversationally, though at times a bit waffly (perhaps there’s only so many times one can read the whole ‘You can do it too!’ encouragement that stock picking books like to start with). His advice was made up of stories from his own experiences and I liked that he was never afraid to point out his biggest mistakes as well as his biggest successes. There was also plenty of common sense advice, especially on not bringing superstitions to investing. We’ve all heard someone say (or said so ourselves) something from the chapter entitled ‘The Twelve Silliest (and Most Dangerous) Things People Say about Stock Prices’.

Something to note is that the book was written in 1990, so the examples are outdated (though not as old as in the Intelligent Investor!). Obviously he worked in a time before the internet, so there’s no advice on how to use that to your advantage.

Overall, I would recommend this book, especially after reading a more practical book like F Wall Street (notice the hating on Wall Street theme?), which I recommended here. It strengthens many of the concepts in valuing a stock, and some of the signs will make some stocks look more attractive, or be the tie breaker that puts you off otherwise borderline stocks.

Link to the book on amazon here.

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Lessons learnt as a complete beginner investing in Alibaba

I started investing about a year ago, when I was lured into the stock market by the prospects of making a lot of easy money with Alibaba’s IPO (BABA). The result was spectacularly bad. In hindsight, it was clear I had no clue what I was doing, and I got burned. Here are four important lessons that I learned from the experience:

Lesson 1: Always research your stocks, never invest on hype.

IPOs of companies like Alibaba are marketed as some once in lifetime opportunity. I understood how big Alibaba was, and very ashamedly got caught up in the hype. The price was driven up by herd mentality, and once the traders who knew what they were doing cashed out, the stock fell. Never invest just because everyone else seems to think it’s the next big thing, it doesn’t mean it will be. Always do research first, and never follow others blindly.

Lesson 2: Diversify your portfolio

I bought my first batch at $91 shortly after the stock hit the market. The stock increased pretty quickly, hitting just under $120, I was obviously pretty thrilled. The stock fell, and from my limited understanding of stocks, I thought this was just a ‘pull back’, and bought some more stock at $108. The stock continued to ‘pull back’ and thinking this was a great opportunity to buy more, I bought even more at $101. Despite Alibaba shares being close to the only thing in my portfolio, I kept buying more, which exposed me to a lot of risk if the share sunk. Which it did. The price today is below $80, over 20% lower than the average price I bought at. Despite now owning nine different stocks in my New York portfolio, Alibaba still makes up around 25% of this portfolio. I’m still paying the price of this mistake as I would be well into profit by now if I had not bought any Alibaba shares, despite buying a couple of other not so great stocks (choices before I was enlightened to the ways of value investing).

Lesson 3: Don’t invest in IPOs

IPOs are just not a good deal. Unless you’re an institution, you won’t get the advertised price. Alibaba’s IPO price was $68, but the best I could only get in at was $91. That’s 34% profit for the institutions before we can even got our hands on it. Going forward, I only buy stocks if there is value, for us there’s no value to be found in IPOs.

Lesson 4: Read and learn

I’ve lost a fair bit of cash with Alibaba, but that’s fine. They were expensive lessons but I learnt from my mistakes. Investing in the stock market isn’t rocket science, but you do need some idea of what you are doing. I’m often one to dive into things head first without thinking, which has reaped benefits, but in this case I readily admit I should have gathered some knowledge about what I was doing first. If you’re new to the stock market, do some reading first, check out this post for my recommendation for the best book to read.

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Trade Idea: Iconix Brand Group

Iconix (ICON) owns a diversified portfolio of mostly fashion brands, a lot of brands by the looks of it... I counted 32 listed on their website. They benefit from some strong brands, and strong diversification (which minimises risk in the event a few brands don’t do so well).

They have had a positive free cash flow for the last 10 years, and even if we conservatively project zero growth for the next 20 years, the intrinsic value of this company at 10% discount rate (the annual rate of return which I want to achieve) is around $36.

At the current price of $21.71, this represents some serious value. I jumped on yesterday and will be looking to sell at about $32.

I own shares in ICON. Please note that I am not qualified to give financial or investment advice. This post is my opinion and should not be taken as a de facto recommendation (as with any stock advice from any source!).

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Getting into value investing: What to read?

When I first got into investing, I went in blind, guns blazing. That was a mistake.

So I did the smart thing and picked up a book. I first read The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham, which the internet seems to agree is the bible of value investing.Unfortunately for me, I read slowly, and I have a short attention span, and the book is really dry. I mean really dry. There’s good information in there, but trying to pick it out of the 1949 prose is enough to put off any first time investor.

A much more straight forward book for getting to grips with value investing concepts is F Wall Street. With the exception of the first few chapters which spends a few too many pages criticising Wall Street, it is, as advertised, a no nonsense approach to investing, with very practical advice on picking and managing your stocks.

Buy it on amazon here, alternatively, it’s on Kindle unlimited. If you don’t have that, they do free one month trials (just remember to cancel before the end of the month if you don’t want to keep the subscription!).

This link summarises the book pretty well, though wouldn’t recommend substituting it for the book!