Thursday, September 19, 2013

Got To Admire That!

I know, I know.  I already pounded my chest about GTAT yesterday. But today UBS upgraded them on sapphire potential and slapped a $10 price target on them. So good old GTAT is up another 10%+ today and is up over 200% since I bought on March 4th at 2.73.

That helped make it another VERY good day for me. I was up 66 basis points and am now up just shy of 30% on the year.

Waiting For Fat Pitch

I think one of the most difficult parts about investing is to be selective.  We are bombarded with ideas every day.  We have our own emotional swings. We have fears and euphoria.  But I go back to Klarman's Margin of Safety, where he stresses that we should buy stocks that we know are undervalued.  And when we see them, bet big.  Finally, always keep cash on hand for opportunities.

The chart on the left is from Ted Williams, one of the greatest baseball hitters ever.  He outlines the strike zone, but emphasizes that he will have a higher batting average  when the pitch is in the middle of that zone.  Buffett uses the fat pitch analogy stating that investors are like batters at the plate, but no strikes are ever called.  So you just wait until you see your fat pitch.

I get it.  And I am sitting on about 25% cash.  In addition, I will likely have more cash coming in late fall and even more in early spring.  Granted, it is a good problem to have but I have been considering how to put it to work.

Should I:

  • Keep is as discretionary and just buy stocks/bonds as I think they are cheap?
  • Plow the extra money into my dividend portfolio, even though it has under-performed of late?
  • Put more into MFI, either by adding a new tranche, increasing investments in each of my four tranches or just having a "quasi-MFI" investment?
  • Buy a stake in a mutual fund such as offered by MFI (Formula Investing Funds)?
  • Or perhaps some combination of these?
MFI is doing so well of late, it is tempting to increase the dollars in each of my tranches by say 25% over the next year

Anyway, I do not have to decide today.  But I do need to start thinking about it.



2 comments:

Unknown said...

Marshall, Thanks for the thoughts. Are you aware of any "MFI" etfs? Thanks, Karl

Marsh_Gerda said...

Not specific to MFI. There is a mutual fund.