March 14, 2010

Let’s Talk Risks…


Investing is pure risk. Companies can and do go bankrupt. Go to the library and look at a list of large companies from 1950—very few of them still exist. Go back another twenty years. Almost none of the companies from 1930 still exist. Your goal is to make sure that you only invest in things that will exist for at least the next few Read More
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March 12, 2010

An Ode To The PIPE


Public Investments in Private Equities, also known as PIPEs are one of the most misunderstood and underappreciated tools that most small company investors have. The majority of small businesses don’t make it. They fail because they are undercapitalized. That is why companies go public in the first place—to access capital. Let’s say a small company is growing quickly. They need money to expand, hire Read More
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March 12, 2010

A Short Story


Look in the Forbes 400 list. Who’s there? Entrepreneurs who built something impressive, and the kids of those visionaries. Successful investors. The occasional Royal. Not surprisingly, there are no short sellers on the list. Short selling is dangerous to your portfolio and I no longer partake. A quick history will suffice. For a decade, on average I doubled my money each year investing in Read More
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March 12, 2010

A Trip To The Science Fair…


Green energy is a trend for the future. I always like investments when you can make money and feel good about helping the world as well. However, after years of searching, I still cannot find a way to really invest in the technology. What will be the trend for the future? Even if you knew which method would be dominant, could you profit from Read More
Categories: General
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March 12, 2010

The CEO Who Said Too Much


By now, you know that I like get to know management. When investing in smaller companies, you are really just investing in people. When you are risking your own money, you can never know enough. There’s nothing like alcohol to ferret out the truth. I was at an industry conference to learn more about a company that I owned a small position in. The Read More
Categories: Investments
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