Friday, December 19, 2008

Christmas reflections

It's appraching year end, about the right time to examine and do reflections. As Socrates puts it:

"An unexamined life is not worth living"

What have I learned in 2008?

(i) I learned to give. Give my time and God given talents to analyze "stuffs" to those I have not met. Freely I've received, freely give so to speak.

(ii) I have no $ 30 billion to give away like what Buffett did in 2006. One thing I have learned from him, if you think you can compound the money, it will be more beneficial to give it away later. The question is will you keep the promise? W Buffett is such a man of his words. That's why no matter what happens to W. Buffett or Berkshire Hathaway, he will always be my hero. He will always be a working class hero. A confession to make, I do own Berkshire Hathaway and I will keep it forever even the value go down to zero for generations to come. This is the only exception I made I will not sell regardless of fundamentals. Don't get me wrong, he did a superb job managing every dollar I put in his company.

(iii) I'm now know how it is feels like managing money when everyone is watching you. Do you remember the day I bought iCapital again when it hit $ 1.20 for Turtle Portfolio? On the same day, I bought Parkson at $ 2.76 on my personal account. Parkson appreciated almost more than 40% but iCapital rose approximately 13%. I was trying to avoid further public humiliation so I avoided pain by taking a safer route. Now I know why fund managers performance more likely than not - AVERAGE.

All along I've been playing on a lone hand. Never tell anyone, not even close friends about my investment operations. I can think and act independently without giving in to peer pressures. This is what Buffet said, a successful investor needs to resist Institutional Imperatives. Sorry folks, I will not expound Instituitional Imperatives here, go read Warren Buffet essays.

I agree with Soros, be quiet and speculate. I will be back publishing my thoughts on 31 December 2008.

Wishing all a Merry Christmas and happy holidays!

3 comments:

Remnant 888 said...

Implications:
1. They believe the economy is really a lot weaker and longer than most think.

2. If things don't turnaround - hyperinflation or a lost decade for American. They are running out of arrows.

3. US $ has been inversely correlated with S & P 500 and commodities since September. US $ tanking will trigger short-term rally in oversold equities and commodities.

I have a question wrt. point 3.
USD inversely correlated with SP500 and commodities. This correlation since last Sept. or historically..?
Thanks...

Turtleinvestor said...

Only since September 2008 and not historically. This is due to aversion to risk. The USD is providing liquidity haven but not safe haven.

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