“May you read this at a time when bargains are rare.”
If you do, it will mean that, looking in the rear-view mirror, “pain” has been (hopefully) kept to a minimum. However, it is not only enjoyable and profitable to have participated in equity markets that have advanced during a prolonged bull market, but it may also result in some potentially thorny dilemmas:
When is the right time to sell securities that have appreciated?
How should a portfolio be positioned near a potential market top?
What should an investor do, literally, with his or her time?
We focused primarily on the last question in our exclusive conversation with Daniel Gladiš, long-time instructor at MOI Global’s European Investing Summit and chief executive officer of Vltava Fund. We spoke with Daniel in the summer of 2014. His insights remain highly relevant.
Watch Daniel talk about an investor dilemma:
A few highlights from the exclusive conversation:
“You still have to do the work every day, but at the end of the day, there’s no trade. It looks like we haven’t done anything, but we’re getting ready for a time when prices will be attractive again and we can start buying.”
“You have a choice: invest money and be satisfied that returns will be much smaller than they used to be, or you can sit, accumulate cash, and wait for better prices.”
“The longer your horizon, the more important the quality and the growth potential of the company and the less important the price.”
“When looking at an investment opportunity, one risk is you lose money forever, i.e., a permanent loss. The other risk is you do not make inflation over time.”
“The older I get, the greater my tendency to see things as simply as possible. When I started investing two decades ago, I didn’t know what I was doing, but even one decade ago I was doing things in too complicated a way.”
“In countries like Russia or China, the people are corrupted by communism. They do not see a shareholder as someone they should be working for. They see shareholders as sources of capital.”
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Watch our first interview with Daniel Gladiš, recorded in 2012. Daniel talks about his investment philosophy and how he goes about finding and investing in great businesses around the world. The conversation has maintained relevance over time.
About The Author: John Mihaljevic
John serves as chairman of MOI Global, the research-driven membership organization. He is a managing editor of The Manual of Ideas, the acclaimed member publication of MOI Global. Previously, John served as managing partner of private investment firm Mihaljevic Capital Management. He is a winner of the best investment idea prize awarded by Value Investors Club. John is a trained capital allocator, having studied under Yale University Chief Investment Officer David Swensen and served as Research Assistant to Nobel Laureate James Tobin. John holds a BA in Economics, summa cum laude, from Yale and is a CFA charterholder.
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