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Free Capital: How 12 Private Investors Made Millions in the Stock Market


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"Free Capital: How 12 Private Investors Made Millions in the Stock Market"

Inside the world of full-time private investors ... Guy Thomas's Blog: Twitter :

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(original post - see below / two threads were merged)

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                                                 Main Lesson is : "Investor, Know youself!"

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Free Capital :

How 12 Private Investors Made Millions in the Stock Market

"This book profiles 12 private investors. Each of them has accumulated £1m or more – in most cases considerably more – mainly from stock market investment. Six are ‘ISA millionaires’ who have £1m or more in a tax-free Investment Savings Account (ISA), a result which is arithmetically impossible without exceptional investment returns."

First chapter FREE here: http://www.guythomas.org.uk/investment/freecap.php

Amazon sales link here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Free-Capital-Investing-Strategies-Independent/dp/1906659745/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1289694534&sr=1-1=

(Amazon publication date currently shown (18 April) looks wrong - I know buyers who have already received copies.)=

Enjoy!

 

(original post here was):

FULL-TIME INVESTORS – interviews for “Free Capital”

Inside the world of full-time private investors

===================================

I am writing a book, provisional title "Free Capital: the world of full-time private investors". The book is based largely on interviews with successful full-time private investors, who are represented in the book with false names and some personal details changed.

This is not a 'how-to' book or a 'get-rich-quick' book, but more of a journalistic profile of the working lives of a few full-time investors. How did these people originally get interested in investment? How did it progress to the point where they gave up the day-job? How do they spend their days now?

The interviewees need to be people who spend most of their time (and make most of their money) on investment, and have done so for at least say 5 years.

I don't necessarily need to publish specific information about portfolio size, investment returns or other personal financial details, and won't insist on these sort of details in the interview. The criterion for inclusion is simply that interviewees claim (in a way which I find reasonably credible) to make a living from their strategies. It doesn't matter what the strategy is - smallcap stockpicking, chartism, futures trading, spread betting - it's all good.

I am not a journalist, I am a former academic. I retired 10 years ago at the age of 34 and I have been a full-time investor since then.

I am based in SE England. Convenience is one factor in selecting interviewees, but I will travel for the right interviewee…or maybe Skype.

The next post gives further details of the project, and links to a sample chapter.

As an interviewee, what is in it for you? Well, the half dozen interviewees so far have said that they enjoyed the interview, or found the reflection it prompted helpful. And in case it tips the balance for anyone, I'm also willing to make a modest donation to a charity of your choice in appreciation for the interview.

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I had a quick look at the two sample chapters,

and I will definitely go back and read them in detail when I have more time.

 

Have you got a publisher lined up?

What's the expected publication date?

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Have you got a publisher lined up?

 

I haven't pitched it to my preferred publishers yet - Wiley, FT Pearson, Harriman House. About to do so, but have been polishing the sample chapters and suggested marketing blurb.

 

Free Association Books http://www.fabooks.com/ have said they will act as 'publishers of last resort' if nobody else will. But as you can see it doesn't really fit in with their list at all, so I hope to go somewhere else. (The owner of Free Association Books is a very successful investor of many years standing, now resident in Switzerland. He likes the project.)

 

When you've read the chapters DrB, please think about being interviewed.

 

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You have called the book Free Capital: the world of full-time private investors....but after reading the chapter on 'Hugh' (which sounds a lot like yourself...retired at 34, former academic etc).....but it sounds like 'Hugh' is more of a trader than investor.

 

Traders to me are people who go long and short and watch the market every day monitoring price movements....investors like Buffett just buy and hold for the long term collecting dividends along the way and selling out only once they figure out when the long term bull market is coming to an end.

 

I hope to be a full time investor within the next ten years...but not a trader, I think the difference is important.

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BHP Tinto said:
it sounds like 'Hugh' is more of a trader than investor.

investors like Buffett just buy and hold for the long term collecting dividends along the way and selling out only once they figure out when the long term bull market is coming to an end.

 

Very interesting comments. Yes, I am 'Hugh'.

I don't think of myself as a trader - my largest holding throughout the period since 2001 has been the same quoted company. And the holding in it has been >10% of my net worth throughout this period (but I have sold, bought back, sold again and so on at the margin). It is true that I watch markets all day. But relative to my assets, I don't do very much. My portfolio turnover is much less than 100%pa. That is, my average holding period for a stock is much longer than a year.

One person I have interviewed for the book makes more than 100 CFD share trades per day. Now that's a trader.

But it is interesting what different perspectives people have on this - and that is part of the point of the book.

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You have called the book Free Capital: the world of full-time private investors....but after reading the chapter on 'Hugh' (which sounds a lot like yourself...retired at 34, former academic etc).....but it sounds like 'Hugh' is more of a trader than investor.

 

Traders to me are people who go long and short and watch the market every day monitoring price movements....investors like Buffett just buy and hold for the long term collecting dividends along the way and selling out only once they figure out when the long term bull market is coming to an end.

 

I hope to be a full time investor within the next ten years...but not a trader, I think the difference is important.

Not entirely sure that Buffett does just buy and hold.

 

Bloomberg recently conducted an interview with Mohnish Pabrai and Jean-Marie Eveillard, two well respected value-oriented investment managers. Bloomberg's Betty Lui questioned whether the "buy and hold" investment strategy was still worth pursuing. Specifically, Lui asks, "Have there been times when Warren Buffett should have sold out or done shorter-term strategies in order to maximize returns?"

 

Pabrai responds by saying that it is a common misnomer that Buffett is a "buy and hold" investor. If one were to study Buffett's investment history over the past 50-55 years, there are very few stocks he has held for many years. Pabrai states that the reason why Buffett appears to "buy and hold" investments is due to Berkshire's large capital base. He states that investors with smaller amounts of capital might be better served by following Buffett's early strategy of buying "forty to fifty-cent dollars" and selling those assets once they reach fair value. He also warns that comparing value investing to "buy and hold" is like comparing apples to oranges.

 

http://seekingalpha.com/article/134524-is-...d-hold-investor

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You have called the book Free Capital: the world of full-time private investors....but after reading the chapter on 'Hugh' (which sounds a lot like yourself...retired at 34, former academic etc).....but it sounds like 'Hugh' is more of a trader than investor.

 

Traders to me are people who go long and short and watch the market every day monitoring price movements....investors like Buffett just buy and hold for the long term collecting dividends along the way and selling out only once they figure out when the long term bull market is coming to an end.

 

I hope to be a full time investor within the next ten years...but not a trader, I think the difference is important.

 

 

I remember reading somewhere that a good investor is often a good trader and vice versa

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I thought Buffet was famous for not having a computer, he would just read annual reports, and work out if they where undervalued or not compared his projected earnings calcualtions.

 

I guess my view of an investor is probably different to other people's......my goal as an investor is to

 

a) identify a long term bull market (in this case commodities)

 

B) invest in companies in that sector

 

c) reinvest all dividends so that you can use compounding interest to grow portfolio

 

d) once portfolio is big enough, retire from work and live off passive income from investments

 

Yet still be knowledgable enough to know when the bull market is coming to an end and be able to switch into a new sector starting it's bull market.

 

These bull markets tend to run for 17-18 years each.

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Trader or Investor?

Another important lesson is recognizing the difference between trading and investing, and not getting caught in the no man’s land between the two.

A good working concept here is “the Mountain and the Valley.” Here’s what I mean:

Imagine a great, vast mountain off in the distance. You don’t know exactly how far away it is, but you know it’s there, waiting to be scaled. Meanwhile, in between you and the mountain is a fog-covered valley. You don’t know what kind of ups and downs will be in that valley, but you know the trip across won’t exactly be smooth.

The difference between trading and investing is, investors tend to focus on the mountain and more or less ignore the valley. They keep their financial and emotional risk low enough to handle the ups and downs without losing their cool. Deliberate staying power and long-term conviction are the operative phrases here. With those two things, many hard asset and emerging market investors will be able to look past the volatility of recent days and ultimately do just fine.

In contrast, the trader is very aware of the ups and downs of the valley. Rather than ignoring that volatility, the trader focuses on it. The trader’s advantage is thus speed and flexibility – an ability to buy and sell a position repeatedly as need be, get a sense of how the terrain is going, and move quickly and fluidly when the timing calls for it.

So which one are you? Steadfast and true, or flexible and fluid? The two temperaments are rather different. Some versatile folks are traders and investors at the same time, but even then, not often with the same positions (or even the same brokerage accounts).

In closing, do emerging market equities and hard assets still offer excellent long-term investing opportunity? Absolutely, without question.

In the eyes of the investor, this week is just another dip in the valley. But in the eyes of the trader, China’s stumble – and the demise of the bear market rally – have created a shift in the near-term landscape worth exploiting.

Copyright © 2009 Justice Litle

 

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I thought Buffet was famous for not having a computer, he would just read annual reports, and work out if they where undervalued or not compared his projected earnings calcualtions.

 

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/20090604/b...-investment.htm

 

Buffet himself emphasised the non-productive aspects of gold in a speech in 1998: "It gets dug out of the ground in Africa or someplace. Then we melt it down, dig another hole, bury it again and pay people to stand around guarding it."

 

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/...,138593,00.html

 

So it was last week in the silver market, where prices spiked to a nine-year high after Warren Buffett, the Oracle of Omaha, disclosed that he had taken a major shine to the metal and bought up 129.7 million oz. of the stuff. That amounts to 37% of the world's aboveground stock of raw silver, according to the CPM group, a commodities and precious-metals consulting firm.

 

Buffett made his gleaming presence felt. The price for an ounce of silver to be delivered in March hit $7.28, up 16% in the two days after Buffett's disclosure and up nearly 70% since he started buying the precious metal six months ago. Despite the surge, veteran--and thus oft-pummeled--silver traders will note that a price just north of $7 is nothing next to silver's peak in 1980, when it hit $50 amid an infamous attempt by the brothers Herbert and Nelson Hunt to corner the market.

---------------------

 

Despite the above I still like Buffett - his advice to investors is (IMO probably) honest and is mainly favourable/advantagous, unlike the twaddle peddled on CNBC. But he does like to project a certain cuddly fuddly image but given his success there must be much more to him than his public persona

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hope you get some interviewees from outside the UK, maybe America, Canada or Australia?

 

Yes I've had a response from Australia, and one from Lebanon (just north of Israel, I had to look it up). I think whether I go through with them depends on the publisher. If it's an international publisher like Wiley, they might prefer a book with some international content, so they can market it internationally. But if it's a more UK-centric publisher, they will probably be against for their market. Just drafting the pitch to publishers at the moment, will send it to several and see what happens.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 year later...

"Free Capital: How 12 Private Investors Made Millions in the Stock Market"

New book, based partly on interviews with GEI posters

=========================================

About 18 months ago I posted here as follows...

"I am writing a book...based largely on interviews with successful full-time private investors, who are represented in the book with false names and some personal details changed..."

I found some interesting people to interview, including some regular posters here. So, 18 months later, the book is now out...

41Jnw2kPCQL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

==============================-

Free Capital

How 12 Private Investors Made Millions in the Stock Market

"This book profiles 12 private investors. Each of them has accumulated £1m or more – in most cases considerably more – mainly from stock market investment. Six are ‘ISA millionaires’ who have £1m or more in a tax-free Investment Savings Account (ISA), a result which is arithmetically impossible without exceptional investment returns."

First chapter FREE here: http://www.guythomas.org.uk/investment/freecap.php

Amazon sales link here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Free-Capital-Investing-Strategies-Independent/dp/1906659745/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1289694534&sr=1-1

(Amazon publication date currently shown (18 April) looks wrong - I know buyers who have already received copies.)

Enjoy!

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LINK to this thread :: http://tinyurl.com/FreeCapQA

 

41Jnw2kPCQL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

 

. . . . . I shall read it with interest !

Here's the Summary:

Are you interested in investment?

Would life be better if you had no job, no boss, and succeeded or failed purely on the merits of your own investment insights?

Free Capital gives an insight into this life. Based on a series of interviews, it outlines the investing strategies, insights, and lifestyles of people who have left the world of employment to become independent investors. How did these people originally get interested in investment? How did the interest progress to the point where they gave up their day-job? How do they spend their time now? Free Capital profiles a range of people who have made high returns over a long period investing for their own account, in most cases starting from small initial capital. A number of these investors have accumulated substantial seven-figure sums in ISAs.

/longer summary : http://www.eason.ie/books/9781906659745

 

I am contemplating an interview with the author.

It should be interesting to GEI members... The Book and the Interview

 

Here's what one of our members said on the original thread, all those months ago:

 

Charlie, just to say I enjoyed those 2 chapters and would definitely purchase this type of book, I find them very helpful for new ideas and also when they mirror thoughts of mine, it lets me know I'm in the right ball park with things!

 

Keep us posted, cheers.

 

I noticed from the website & elsewhere there is a...

 

BLOG ABOUT THE BOOK : http://guythomas.org.uk/blog/

 

Forum with some Q&A : http://www.sharecrazy.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=478684&Main=478684

 

Amazon Customer Reviews : http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/1906659745/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

 

Original Invitation : http://www.advfn.com/cmn/fbb/thread.php3?id=20450958

 

== == ==

(added later):

BTW, I now have a copy of the book, and have begun to read through it, and discovered this surprising error

Bulletin Boards - Comments from Free Capital (pg. 23)

===============

 

Advfn : A "Tower of Babel, but encyclopedic."

 

Motley Fool : "More restrained." / PaulyPilot's Pub, Oil&Gas Board

 

Interactive Investor : "A board on almost every UK quoted company.+

 

Green Energy Investors* : "Relatively cerebral, macro discussion."

 

Stockopedia : "Relatively new site, with web 2.0 features."

 

= = = = =

*Wrongly gives the address as: http://GEI.com / not the actual: http://GreenEnergyInvestors.com

 

GEI.com will take the surfer to SearchFusion.com, not our GEI site

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