Thursday, 24 July 2014

A review of some mistakes I've made so far

It's been about 6 months since i started personally investing my funds in the Australian equities market. I went in with some of my savings and my aim was to get a more practical understanding of the stock market.  My first purchase, Aveo Group (ASX: AOG) was a mistake to say the least. I applied a Graham and Dodd approach and bought mainly because it was (and still is) trading at a discount to NTA. However, what i didn't account for was a possible depletion of the asset values to lower fair values if, at liquidation value, (or replacement cost using Bruce Greenwald's words) might have been much lower. On the other hand, the group has weak fundamentals and if looked at again, i wouldn't bother buying into it. Therefore, I've decided to sell at a small loss (about 5% after transaction costs.) As they transition into a pure-play retirement this may provide sharp inclinations in revenues and profits (helped by the aging population) but to me, that's not something I'd like to partake in.

As we enter reporting season, we might see some value pop up. Buffett has once said that value basically "needs to be screaming at you" in order to purchase it. It will be interesting to see if the market offers us anything this time round.

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