Long Term Investors & Stock Market - 8 Lessons

"If you are a long-term investor, you should own high- quality stocks and close your ears to the siren song of those who say a rate rise will cause you problems.*

If you are not a long-term investor, I wonder what you are doing in the stock market at all, and so will you one day."*

- Terry Smith.......The "Buffett of Great Britain"

Terry Smith, often known as the English Warren Buffett, has once again shared his annual letter encompassing ideas on investment strategies positioned to do well, views on specific stocks and thoughts on the current financial world. 

Well-known in the UK among retail investors, Smith’s Fundsmith Equity fund returned about 18.6% in 2021 and holds 28.9 billion pounds ($39.4 billion).

Here are 8 lessons that we must take from his vision :

*1) No investment strategy will outperform in every reporting period and every type of market condition. So, as much as we may not like it, we can expect some periods of underperformance.*

*2) In investment, as in life, you cannot have your cake and eat it, so it is difficult if not impossible to find companies which are resilient in a downturn but which also benefit fully from the subsequent recovery.*

*3) In our view, it would be a mistake to sell some of these good businesses in order to invest temporarily in companies which are much worse but which have greater recovery potential.*

*4) Someone once said that no one ever got poor by taking profits. This may be true but I doubt they got very rich by this approach.*

*5) We invest in companies, not indices or countries and in our view, the country where a company is listed is largely irrelevant.*

*6) We continue to apply a simple three step investment strategy: Buy good companies, don't overpay, do nothing (i.e., minimising portfolio turnover to minimise costs)*

*7) You may have heard a lot talked about the so-called 'rotation' from quality stocks of the sort we seek to own to so-called value stocks, which in many cases is simply taken as equating to lowly rated companies.*

 

*8) Inflation: It is a bit like trying to light a bonfire or a traditional BBQ on a damp day. If you put an accelerant like gasoline on it you can go from no fire to a loud ‘Whoosh!’ and find that you have also set fire to the garden fence.*

The good news is that we do not invest on the basis of our ability to forecast inflation or any other macroeconomic factor. We invest in companies not countries, indices or macroeconomic forecasts.*

Disclaimer : This is purely a knowledge sharing article, not offering or influencing any deal or transaction or investments.

CA Yogesh Birla

Director
Birla WP Management Co.
read my blogs : www.YogeshBirlaCA.Blogspot.com