🏋️ Investor Bootcamp | 10 weekends to b...

Welcome to the Investor Bootcamp mini-series on The Australian Investors Podcast.

Document: Analyst Bootcamp Training Manual - https://bit.ly/rask-analyst

Over the coming 10 weekends, I’m going to take you on a journey to become a better investor. Every Saturday, 7 am, starting next week, I’m going to be joined by one or more expert guests you will know from the series thus far.

I’ve carefully selected these guests and the topics we’ll be covering. Also as part of the episodes, I’ll share with you the best resources I’ve come across for accelerating your learning.

So why are we doing this 10-part series?

I think that now, more than at any time in the past 20 years, direct stock investors will need to understand valuation at a more technical level.

As Morgan Housel said:

“The most underrated investing skills are controlling your emotions and having your career coincide with a 30-year decline in interest rates.”

With interest rates finally on the way back up, the valuation of businesses, bonds and real assets will become more important.

But as Warren Buffett once said, “It's only when the tide goes out that you learn who has been swimming naked.”

For many investors, it finally feels like the tide is going out. Easy returns driven by falling rates on speculative assets like crypto, venture capital, technology stocks, highly geared companies, property and even bonds.

Some people might say that value investing can now finally have its time to shine. Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is back to catching up to famed investors like Cathie Wood’s ARK Innovation ETF as momentum and growth investors wonder about a recovery.

So where does this leave investors who are wearing big losses in innovative but richly valued businesses?

For many, we’re questioning our growth-first strategies. Are tech stocks really worth what I thought? Is it time to diversify my portfolio across industrial companies trading at lower valuations?

After all, you can construct an all-weather diversified long-term portfolio from richly valued, high-quality companies. Or you can build a portfolio from lower-quality companies at lesser valuations.

Lately, many investors seem to be opting for the deeper value style companies and portfolios.

However, there’s one big problem with this approach: you need to have a strong grip on valuation. You need to understand how securities or investments are valued and then adjust your models to the current macro environment.

According to Harvard Business Review:

“Imposter syndrome is loosely defined as doubting your abilities and feeling like a fraud. It disproportionately affects high-achieving people, who find it difficult to accept their accomplishments. Many question whether they’re deserving of accolades.”

I believe that over the past 10 years we have seen many talented investors enter the market and begin their investing journey. Indeed, around 70% of Rask members have been investing for less than 10 years.

However, during that time we’ve experienced a massive bull market. Now, with markets becoming more volatile, it leads me to believe that many of our fellow listeners could be doubting their conviction in their abilities to find, research and model companies.

So, over the next 10 weeks, I’m going to deliver a curriculum that will help you understand the rules of the game. To become a better investor by accelerating your journey.

Right now, you can look down at your podcast player to find a bit.ly link that’ll take you to a free download. This Google Document is known as our Investor Bootcamp training manual. In addition to being updated as we go through the 10-part series, this document gives you the short version of my analyst resources, including some of my favourite books, podcasts and interviews.

Please note that this document is currently just the starting point. I’ll be updating the document every week for the next 10 weeks with the resources from each episode and those of our guests. It’ll also include discount coupon codes to access my favourite investing software or services. I want to make this training manual as helpful as possible, so please take a look at it and let me know what you think I can, on Twitter.

Also, keep in mind I’ll add resources to the document as guests appear on the show. If they recommend something, I’ll add that in. Our guests might also offer discounts on their services. They’ll be added to the Doc.

Between now and next week I want you to do me a favour and access the document because in addition to the Investor Bootcamp material there is a load of my favourite podcasts from the series thus far, as well as interviews, videos and tutorials from around the internet. I call these “analyst induction resources”.

If you download the document you’ll be able to add notes as you listen to the episodes and videos, throw in your own resources, etc. 5-10 years ago I journaled during every episode of The Knowledge Project, Invest like The Best or Masters in Business podcast series, as well as doing notes on every book or speech I watched.

I truly hope we can go on a journey over the next 10 weekends. Some of the weeks will be easy listening and concise, others will be more dense. The point of every episode is to offer you a glimpse of what it takes. We’ll be scratching the surface of everything from our favourite analyst tools and software, portfolio management principles, how to do your own business valuations and much more. Ultimately, it’s up to you to fully immerse yourself in the material we recommend.

In addition to the weekend Investor Bootcamp sessions, we will release Australian Investors Podcast episodes during the week, around 3:30 on a Wednesday afternoon. Meaning, you’ll still have access to our regular episodes like interviews, other mini-series, deep-dives and masterclasses.

Just remember it’s the Saturday morning session which I’ll reserve for the Bootcamp.

Don’t put it off any longer. Access my Investor Bootcamp training manual in the show notes and let’s get cracking.

I’ll be back next week for Week One.

Rask, the publisher of the podcast series, is a privately owned company. It’s majority-owned and run by Owen. Unless explicitly stated otherwise, you can assume that Owen and Rask Group receive nothing for mentioning companies, products or services in our podcasts.

This information warning is actually important (that’s why we write it in the same size font… unlike our competitors). This podcast contains general financial advice only, issued by The Rask Group Pty Ltd. This information does not take into account your needs, goals, or objectives. So please consult a licensed and trusted financial adviser before acting on the information. Investing is risky and can result in capital loss. Nothing in this podcast should be considered as a forecast or guarantee of future returns.

Please read Rask Australia’s Financial Services Guide (FSG) available on our website to learn more about us, what we offer and our podcasts.

Date of recording: 18 March 2022.