72. Portfolio diversification is like type diversification in Pokémon.

If you just powerlevel Charmander, you risk getting BTFO by Misty’s Starmie in Cerulean City.

Going all in will kill you eventually.
73. One of the cool things about getting taken out of school in 4th grade is that I got to spend my time playing a lot of games.

Gaming teaches you how to creatively analyze and exploit systems, which is useful in the market and life in general.

Never stop playing! H/t @NonGaap
74. Attention to detail often doesn’t matter all that much if you’re looking at compounders, but in some situations it’s crucial.

Like how I accidentally created a new thread chain for the @vgr 100 Tweet challenge at number 72.

Please don’t disqualify me! 🤣
75. Ben Graham was an innovator of investing in his day, and brought creative new ways of thinking to the field.

It’s a disservice to Graham that many of his devotees refuse to do anything but emulate his investing style, when they should be emulating his creativity instead.
76. Culture is important. If a lot of people are really into something, you owe it to yourself to check it out and see what all the fuss is about.

Culture creates cash and if you want some of it, it’s important to keep an eye on what people who aren’t like you think.
77. When I was a kid, I lived in a skating rink and later a trailer park.

Rent seeking behavior towards those in poverty is disgusting, and companies that treat low income people with dignity and make their lives even a little easier can build a lot of loyalty.
78. Sometimes, one of the worst investments you can make is in yourself.

Humans depreciate quickly and if you don’t make it to the immortality cutoff, you’re screwed.

But ownership is a leech on other people’s time and can keep growing stronger well after you’re six feet under.
79. A great heuristic to gauge someone’s financial sensibility is to ask about their opinion on Rich Dad, Poor Dad.

I have yet to find another question that cuts through so much BS so quickly.
80. Investments exist outside of financial markets, and there’s no reason you can’t apply your financial knowledge to investing outside the usual domains.

Direct response marketing, with its focus on immediate sales, is tailor made for it. Used to be my job, actually.
81. The tech bubble at the turn of the century wasn’t wrong, just early.

Same with the railroads. Just took until the industry consolidated to work.

There’s often a big kernel of truth in mass delusions that makes them believable.

Survivors of wash outs are worth looking at.
82. Walker’s Manual of Unlisted Stocks is a treasure map of OTC stocks, but more of the treasure gets dug up with each year that passes.

It still has value as a starting point but one day its primary value will be as an antique.

Would recommend getting one if you can find one.
83. A lot of people claim the dollar isn’t backed by anything since the end of the gold standard.

That’s wrong.

The dollar is backed by 3,800 nukes and the only demonstrated willingness to use them in warfare throughout history.
84. Okay, that last one’s a joke. Kind of.

But Madman Theory shifts the Overton Window of what’s possible not only in politics, but markets and business as well.

It can be a competitive advantage to make people think you’re a nutcase.
86. Some of the most interesting stocks in the market are high priced shares, especially on the pink sheets.

They’re often family held or tightly controlled companies that have done well over time, and the stock has never split.

Can find some unique and interesting assets there
87. Not caring what others think can be a strong competitive advantage.

One of the most profitable businesses I’ve ever seen writes spam letters that open Boomer wallets like they’re running out of baked beans.

Owner is a billionaire and few people know or want to emulate it.
Starting to run on fumes here... each one gets harder to pull out of the hat.

Gotta get to 💯 in the next twelve hours...
88. When investors start being cryptic about their analysis and only hint at their meaning, it’s time to be skeptical.

If I had a dime for every time I heard about the “non-guarantor subsidiaries” that were going to salvage $SHLD equity value, I could buy 100% of $SHLDQ.
89. Master Limited Partnerships have “Master” in the name because that’s what you’re going to have to address them as when you get on your knees and beg for your money back.
90. In investing, “DCF” has dual meanings.

One is distributable cash flow. The other is discounted cash flow.

Both are made up.
91. It’s said a company can’t grow at a rate > the economy forever or it will become the economy.

Amazon has been since the ‘90s. There’s a chance big tech is going to upend things and create a cyberpunk dystopia.

A lady from the DOD told me $GOOG is a national security threat.
92. I’d rather own one mediocre business than a mediocre conglomerate. $L is in a never ending game of whac-a-mole.

As soon as it solves problems at one sub, problems at another sub pop up to take its place.

At least I can get leverage to cyclical upside with the single biz.
93. Retailers and platform mom-n-pops are different businesses.

With purchasing power, a retailer can get better terms from suppliers than a mom-n-pop $AMZN shop can.

But the $AMZN shop may have COGS that round to zero if they’re getting inventory from dumpster fetch quests.
94. You should be totally open to embarrassing yourself as an investor, and if you can, come to enjoy the process.

If you can laugh off being wrong, you can try out more investing styles as a form of R&D to keep improving.

You never innovate without a little egg on your face.
95. Sometimes new ideas work, sometimes they don’t, but you can’t be afraid of the ones that don’t work if you want to keep growing.

Otherwise, you plateau and the world slowly passes you by.

When you successfully adapt your skillset, all the failures become worthwhile.
96. This is another benefit of diversification.

You have less leverage to your top ideas, BUT you get to iterate your style more quickly by having more at-bats, which results in a faster feedback loop.

You also feel better being experimental, because you’re making little bets.
97. Most of the people who complain about indexing seem to be active fund managers who can’t sleep at night because they’re worried about the existential threat cheap alternatives pose them.

The financial industry needs a good shakeout. This has been a long time coming.
98. They’re losing business to... no one.

No one is doing a better job than most asset managers. As in having no one as a manager is better than having most managers as managers.

I’m glad the economic meat grinder is moving up the economic ladder to higher value targets.
99. Just as asset managers and workers have been replaced by robots, CEOs soon will be as well.

Twilight Zone predicted it back in 1964, and it’s cool to see how close it has become to reality.

AlphaGo beat the top minds of Go. Can it beat Buffett? $BRK

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Brain_Center_at_Whipple%27s
100. Don’t be afraid to invent your own investing concepts. The field’s philosophy reminds me of heatlamped hamburgers left out to rot for decades.

Investing is artistic so be artistic and try new things. It’s fun. Like I tried this hundred tweet thread andnowImdonethanks @vgr!
This was a lot of fun and I got to meet a lot of new friends, who are now 1/3 of my followers!

Excited to have finished my AphorismsTwitter debut successfully. Thanks for putting up with the last 30 tweets!

Link to the start of thread, since I broke it.

https://twitter.com/laforeverhall/status/1205979160625049600?s=21 https://twitter.com/LAForeverHall/status/1205979160625049600
You can follow @LAForeverHall.
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