Panic selling once can destroy years of good investment decisions in an instant

but keeping your head on straight when your portfolio is tanking is hard

Here are 13 investing tips/tricks/principles that I use to keep calm when my portfolio is in free fall:

1/ Know what you own and why you own it

You can borrow stock ideas from other investors, but you can’t borrow conviction

You must understand the bull AND bear case upfront, otherwise you won’t have the conviction to hold when the price is going down

Research builds conviction

Conviction enables patience

Patience builds wealth

If a 20% drop shakes your confidence in a business, you didn’t do enough research

2/ Know what drives long-term stock returns

In the short-term, emotions & computer algorithms determine stock prices

In the long-term, profit growth determine stock prices

This is a core investing principle that you must fully embrace

Look at these long-term charts of $MSFT, $HD, and $AAPL

Net income growth & stock price growth are closely linked in the long-term

That’s not a coincidence — profit growth IS WHAT DRIVES long-term value creation

My inflation strategy:

Own businesses with recession-proof demand and pricing power

How to analyze a:

▪️Balance Sheet
▪️Income Statement
▪️Cash Flow Statement

In less than 5 minutes:

Every company has 3 financial statements.

Each answers a unique question:

1. Balance Sheet: What’s your net worth?

2. Income Statement: Are you profitable?

3. Cash Flow Statement: Are you generating cash?

The financial statements are interrelated.

Each views a company’s financials from a different angle.

When combined, they provide a more complete view of a company’s true financial position.

1A: Balance Sheet

This tells you a company’s net worth at a specific point in time.

Layout:

1B: What I focus on first:

1⃣ Cash & Equivalents: How much?
2⃣ Debt: How much vs. cash?
3⃣ Goodwill: How much?
4⃣ Retained Earnings (+ T.S.): Positive?
5⃣ Receivables & Inventory: How much?

If you buy individual stocks, you MUST watch their earnings

Here are 9 FREE investing tools that are massive time savers:📈

1. What companies are reporting this week?

@FINVIZ_com makes it easy to find out

Screener → Earnings Date --> This Week

I like to sort by market cap

2. What numbers is Wall Street expecting?

@SeekingAlpha's earnings section has TONS of great information

Ticker → Earnings → Upcoming Quarter Earnings

3. How do I find the earnings?

Search the company’s name + “investor relations”

Companies like $TSLA provide presentations, webcasts, earnings releases, and more

4. Prefer to listen to earnings calls on the go?

@Quartr_App makes it easy

Their free app allows you to pause, rewind, & speed up the call -- a HUGE time saver

1/ An ode to @JeffBezos

Jeff is stepping down from CEO and moving on to Executive Chairman

He's one of the greatest owner/operators of all time

$10,000 invested in $AMZN at IPO is currently worth

$17.3 million!

Here's a list of my favorite Bezos facts and quotes 👇

2/ "We don’t celebrate a 10% increase in the stock price like

we celebrate excellent customer experience.

We aren’t 10% smarter when that happens

and conversely

aren’t 10% dumber when the stock goes the other way."

3/ Bezos invested $250,000 in Google in 1998

That's worth several BILLION dollars today

4/ "Your margin is my opportunity"

5/ "There are two kinds of companies,

those that work to try to charge more

and those that work to try to charge less.

We will be the second."

I own 7 stocks that are 15+ baggers (and counting)

Here are 10 traits they all have in common:

The data:

Stock / # of bags / purchase year:

$AMZN / 15+ / 2010
$FB / 15+ / 2012
$GOOG / 15+ / 2009
$MELI / 15+ / 2011
$CMG / 20+ / 2012
$NFLX / 60+ / 2010
$TSLA / 60+ / 2012

1: Founder-led

$AMZN - Bezos
$CMG - Ells
$FB- Zuck
$GOOG - Page
$MELI- Galperin
$NFLX - Hastings
$TSLA - Musk

Founders tend to be:
+Detail oriented
+Innovative
+Mission driven
+Think long-term
+Have skin/soul in the game

Look for founders!

2: Consumer-facing

All of these companies attract millions/billions of consumers

This eliminates customer concentration risk and enables long-term brand building

3: High sales growth

All of these companies were growing revenue 20%+ BEFORE I bought them

Sales growth is the engine that drives profit growth

Profit growth is the engine that drives stock appreciation

Find companies that can grow sales 20%+ for decades

5 YouTube videos that will make you a better investor:

1/ How to read an income

2/ How to read a balance

3/ How to read a cash flow

4/ How to judge a management

Over 51,000,000 YouTube channels exist.

99.8% of them are a waste of time.

Here are 10 channels that are GUARANTEED to entertain you AND make you smarter🧠:

1/ @theatlaspro

I had no idea that geography, geology, biology, and ecology could be so

2/ @TheCrashCourse

10 minutes lessons on any almost subject that you can think

3/ @MarkRober

Former NASA engineer teaches science lessons through videos that will entertain the whole

4/ @thephysicsgirl

Short videos that explain physics in a fun and easy-to-understand

I asked, “What's the biggest valuation mistake you've ever made?”

I recieved 135 replies

Here are the 6 biggest valuation blunders to avoid:

1: Overemphasizing growth

No surprise to see this one at the top of the list

Many investors (including me) focus too heavily on top-line growth

Growth is important, but ONLY when combined with other factors like business model, financials, management, & moat

2: Not understanding the “hype cycle”

AI. Metaverse. 3D Printing. Cannabis. Fintech. IoT. Plant-based meat.

There are dozens of promising markets on the horizon

If you choose to invest in them, you should study this picture intensely

3: Buying bad companies because they are “cheap”

Just because a company has:
▪️A low P/E ratio
▪️A high dividend yield
▪️Fallen sharply from its 52-week high

Doesn’t mean it's "cheap"!

A "cheap" valuation won't save you if the business is crumbling

4: Not buying because of a “high” P/E ratio

I’ve made this mistake many times

Companies in phases 3 & 4 are not optimized for earnings, so the P/E can look “expensive”

You must consider where a company is in the business growth cycle before you judge the valuation