My clients do / will get more specific advice on the eleven companies, but I put this out to my blog readers to give them a general idea of what to
do as small investors when faced with multiple share classes.
«The biggest thing you can
do as a small investor is know yourself,» Moyer said.
Not exact matches
As a startup, we made a commitment to a
small group of
investors to
do certain things and run the business in certain ways.
While recent changes to securities law permit companies to raise money from
small investors through Kickstarter - style projects, the SEC noted the «DAO» project
did not comply with formalities for
doing so, such
as registering
as a broker - dealer or registering the website with regulators.
Ironically, the trend of companies raising less capital actually enhances the importance of the initial round buy - in (both because that initial buy - in becomes less diluted meaning the first round price was that much more important and because even if an angel wants to buy up more in later rounds they'll have less of a chance to
do so; I also believe that along with the trend of companies raising less capital we're also seeing earlier and somewhat
smaller average exits — also enhancing the value of initial round buy - ins
as fewer
investors are truly swinging for the proverbial fence).
The predictable result will be the disenfranchisement of
smaller investors,
as most advisors and their firms conclude that the modest fees garnered from servicing these clients
do not justify the heightened potential liability.
The lack of interest in the stock market on the part of
small - scale individual
investors could be construed
as bullish, but we don't see it that way.
As noted by the authors, while
small,
investor non-equity holdings
do not fit the alpha estimation model.
The shareholders perpetuate the myth of Buffett
as a
small - town
investor who
does things the «right way.»
Perhaps the internet is
doing all of the above and more: encouraging and unifying
small religious and other movements; further facilitating scientific unification across geographic proximity, if not also creating new scientific theories and concepts; fostering the rise of new forms of spiritual irrationalism such
as those discussed in Wendy Kaminer's wild book, Sleeping with Extra-Terrestrials; focusing the public even more on particular public personas in news, sports and everything else; creating new classes of
investors who are willing to publish online just about anything, regardless of whether or not they agree with it; germinating new technological ideas that are luring capitalists who hold unreasonable expectations of financial bonanzas.
It appears we are experiencing a
small gold rush
as savvy technology
investors bet that the digital transition in education will yield significant returns to those
doing the disrupting.
As I write in my new weekly commentary, «The Curious Case of Dollar Strength,» while
small caps
do have less exposure to international sales, they have proved more vulnerable to rising real interest rates (the interest rate after inflation) and
investor anticipation of monetary tightening.
Also, they believe
small retail
investors won't go without advice,
as they will continue to get service from bank branches, where many of them
do their investing already.
Balanced funds are great because they don't require
investors to figure out a host of complicated considerations, such
as how much of your portfolio should be weighted in
small cap versus international equity funds.
But with great
small caps like SoupMan, Labor Smart, Quadrant 4 System increasing revenues and others that are undervalued such
as High Performance Beverage, Mondial Ventures, Octagon 88, and Americas Petrogas,
investors willing to
do the research should
do well over the long term when the market eventually fairly prices the stocks.
Q:
As more and more
investors know the
small cap value premium,
do you think they will evaporate in the future?
John Bogle and other lumpers warn us that it's unlikely that a typical
investor will stick with a strategy that doesn't work
as expected for 10 years or longer, and that abandoning the bets on
small - cap or value stocks after an extended period of underperformance will reduce the
investor's long - term returns relative to simply investing in the total stock market.
One of the key takeaways for us
as small investors was when Munger said: «I
do think that a very smart man who's patient and aggressive -LSB-...]
I was then introduced to Michael, who
as a money manager, was continually turning away interested
smaller investors as he didn't have the time or resources to manage a high
investor volume.
What they don't realize is that they lack the specialized knowledge about the operations of these promotional companies and it's extremely challenging for a
small investor to predict how these companies will behave
as publicly owned corporations.
As I have said before,
investors don't
do well when they don't have a place to park excess money for a
small real return.
The MOI interview with MITIMCO team consists of many nuggets of wisdom like» The most common mistake we see is when an
investor makes
small compromises in the early days of the partnership in ways that limit future success» and «We've observed that almost all the very successful and established firms we work with turn away large amounts of capital — they even
did so when they were
small, by the way — because they understand the need to apply the same high bar to their choice of partners
as they
do their choice of investments».
Of course, I could justify including the AIM & MSCI Emerging Markets indices in my benchmark, but let's try resist that brand new temptation... After all, for most readers /
investors, a normal frame of reference is obviously one or more large - cap developed market indices — for them, departing from that universe into what most would perceive
as riskier
small / micro-caps & emerging markets implies / demands a strong expectation of superior returns... which clearly didn't happen last year!
He should be asking the big questions, and
smaller ones that Bogle didn't ask, such
as: should
investors have real estate in their portfolios, high yield bonds, REITs, Mortgage backed securities, etc..
Smaller investors can
do well with
as few
as five stocks, but you should never have all your eggs in one basket.
A lot of
investors such
as William Bernstein (author of the Four Pillars of Investing) himself believe that
small caps will outperform larger companies mainly because they have a higher risk profile and have
done so in the past.
So, it's smart to have fair liquid and
small - cap stocks,
as well
as smart to have some of those same stocks if you are a long - term
investor that doesn't require marketability in the portfolio.
[This applies just
as much for growth
investors,
as it
does for value
investors — we're all guilty at times of accumulating
small - cap junk, for example, in our portfolios].
Small investors sometimes don't diversify
as completely because of minimum investment thresholds or attention issues, but that doesn't mean they don't want to hold high investment income assets.
Their values don't «jump around»
as much
as shares of
smaller, riskier companies, generally speaking, and so conservative
investors who like dividend payments and not much risk tend to like blue - chip stocks.
The Street has an article Companies That Serve
as Buyout Targets advocating a Darwin's Darlings / Endangered Species - type strategy for buying stock: When evaluating
small - cap stocks, individual
investors would
do well to emulate private - equity professionals.
As noted by the authors, while
small,
investor non-equity holdings
do not fit the alpha estimation model.
One is that many
investors in 401 (k) and other company retirement plans don't have access to a true total - market index - fund option, but they
do have access to an S&P 500 index fund (which tracks large - company stock performance)
as well
as some version of a
small - company index fund.
To make things even more challenging, allowing non-accredited
investors to invest in your business requires a lot of paperwork too, which obviously doesn't work if you're looking to get hundreds, or maybe thousands of
smaller investments to come up with the same amount of funding
as you could raise from just a few accredited
investors.
As a Thought Leader, how
do you have to adapt the way you approach cases when dealing with multi-million dollar
investors, in comparison to individuals or
small businesses?
As SIP allows
investors to invest
small amounts of money systematically instead of a lump sum, the investment can be
done on a weekly, monthly and quarterly basis.
Do you see cryptocurrency
as something that will continuously rise and fall by huge amounts over
small periods of time that
investors will simply dump money into when it reaches lows and take money out of when it reaches a certain figure?
Blockchain startups
doing ICOs have raised about $ 270 million last year according to Blockchain researcher Smith & Crown and they are popular
as even
small investors typically afford to invest, you don't need to be accredited and buyers can trade them on secondary markets, instead of sticking around long term.
I am a
small part time real estate
investor and have owned condo rentals for 7 years and treat them
as income producers... don't really expect appreciation.
Here's the way I would
do it: • Take classes on real estate investing • Start
small,
as a real estate
investor and gain real - life experience • Learn to identify great properties • Use debt
as leverage in financing the property Learn to manage the property, improve the property, and increase rents • Then I'd refinance the property, pulling out tax - free capital that • Use to acquire more properties.
Unlike fire insurance, fire isn't used to motivate one to obtain insurance, scaring (
as some
do) some
small investor into thinking they have a real risk exposure might be questionable.
The money didn't come from a bank but from 44
small investors, some of whom put in
as little
as $ 5,000.