The Warren Buffet of UK- Terry Smith

Contributed By: The Big Fat Whale

Terry Smith is known as the Warren Buffet of the UK and his fund have posted stellar returns of close to 18% per annum since inception in 2011. Like Buffet, he is into investing in good quality companies at a reasonable price. However, unlike Buffet, he never invests in oil and gas companies and also the banks. We got to know about him when we read his book on his investment philosophy.

Would highly recommend everyone to read through this insightful book which is full of investment wisdom and more importantly, it gives you a good guideline on how to choose good quality companies.

These companies are currently under Fundsmith's top 10 holdings:

Their fund is positioned to have their interest align with their shareholders where there will be minimal turnover which will lead to a lower expense ratio- 0.01% in 2021. The management fee is at 1% with no performance fees embedded in the structure. The Fundsmith Fund could be a potential investment alternative once Buffet and Munger are no longer around- Terry Smith is just 68 years of age and hence there is still a long runway.

The stocks Terry choose are usually those that have a long track record - decades- and have experienced several downturns. This is necessary to validate the resilience of the business that he buys. His main focus would be on healthcare, consumer staples, consumer discretionary and technology.

Just like Berkshire, they also hold annual meetings where they discuss the fund's performance and their views of the market. For this year, it was a virtual event. They shared about the merits of investing in Amazon, Unilever and Meta. The effect of war and inflation was also covered. 

Here is the link for the full video to the annual meeting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ha2zG4sVTeo&t=8s

In a nutshell, this is a fund that we could consider for our retirement funds. It is only available to accredited investors for those based in Singapore.

 

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Disclaimer:

The content here is for informational purposes only and should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice. It does NOT constitute an offer or solicitation to purchase any investment or a recommendation to buy or sell a security. The content is not directed to any investor or potential investor and may not be used to evaluate or make any investment. Do note that this is not financial advice. If you are in doubt as to the action you should take, please consult your stockbroker or financial advisor.

 

 

 

Van Gogh The Life

Being one of the most famous impressionist artists of the 19th century, this book provide insights and depict in great details on the life of Van Gogh. He lived from 1853 to 1890 and die at a young age of 37. He is more of a loner from young and was never well liked.

This biography touches on the special relationship between his younger brother and himself which indirectly led to his mental condition in the later stages of his life. He started selling art prints at his uncle's art gallery and he only started seriously painting during his late twenties.

As his style differed from the conventional art style which is of the  renaissance era, so it was never widely accepted. Monet is part of this new revolution of the impressionist movement.

He led a tough life and depended on his younger brother for allowance as his paintings simply don't sell. He even married a prostitute as a wife who bore him a child. He was a total outcast and spend his later years in an asylum. This was where some of the greatest works were painted.

It is a very sad biography whereby he never reap any benefits from his masterpieces during his lifetime. He was eventually shot and die from the wound. It is still a mystery if he was trying to commit suicide or he was accidentally shot.

This book is around 900 pages and so it took me some time to finish it. After reading the book, it seems that the life of an artist is definitely not as glamorous during those days. Even in today's context, I guess it is still not a preferred route that parents would want their child to take.

Lee

Art of the Trade

 This is a reprint of "Dancing with Lions" where the author was using an anonymous identity then in 1999. Basically, this book is more on the storytelling rather than teaching you how to trade. I believe the author is coming out of his anonymous identity because he is currently giving seminars to teach people how to trade :).

This is an interesting read if you do not have much expectation as it depicts the life of a commodity broker which is something out of the movie "Boiler Room". It reminds me of the days of the "White House" in Tanjong Pager where all the bucket shops are located.  They will entice people to go for their career talks which promised high hourly pay. Their main motive was of course to persuade you to invest so that they can churn you till you are totally depleted. I have been through the career talk but have never invest as how much can a student looking for a holiday job have?

The book does touched on the emotional side of trading as in how to handle losses and the common risk management concept. Overall, it is not spectacular but could be a book you could bring to a holiday trip. You could finish the book in one to two seating.

Lee

Lords Of Finance

I picked up this book from a bookstore in mid valley, Kuala Lumpur during one of our short getaways. Being an avid follower of financial history, I hope this book will be give me a better understanding of the causes for the Great Depression. The Lords that the book are referring to are mainly the central bankers of that era and they are Montagu Norman (U.K.), Benjamin Strong ( U.S.), Hjalmar Schacht (Germany) and Emile Moreau (France).

During those days, they are still on a gold standard and so it restrict the flexibility they will have in implementing policies during extreme scenarios. Moreover, all the european major economies were in debt to the US due to the war expenses. Some countries did break away from the gold standard and they fare better than those who stick on to it.

There are also quantitative easing of their kind during those turbulent period which I guess Bernanke might have learn a trick or two from his predecessors. The book also touched on famous personalities such as Winston Churchill, Maynard Keynes and Andrew Mellon.

Towards the end, the book touched on the eventual formulation of the Bretton Woods Treaty which is a modified and more flexible gold standard which lasted from the 1940s to early 1970s.

For financial history fans, this is a book that will be good for your collection.

Lee

Alwaleed

Recently, I got to borrow this book from the National Library while i was glancing through the investment section. With lots of literature on Warren Buffet, a biography on Prince Alwaleed known as the "Warren Buffet of Middle East" and the largest individual shareholder of Citigroup seems to be an interesting read.

From just a US$30000 dollars start up capital given by his dad and a US$300000 dollars bank loan from Citibank, he was able to amass a fortune of around 24 billion as of 2004. He started off using his status as a prince to embark on the construction and infrastructure boom of Saudi Arabia by being the middleman and earning commissions. He then made strategic investments in the equity markets to grow his wealth. The book goes about explaining his investment strategy of buying good brand names at depressed level and sitting on them. His biggest bet was on Citibank which he put in about half of his wealth at that point of investment. It also goes through his gruelling schedule whereby he will usually just sleep for around 4 to 5 hours a day. On business trips, his lifestyle seems to come out of a James Bond movie with private jets, booking of the whole cinema and a big entourage moving along with him wherever he goes.

The book do get kind of repetitive and dull in the later chapters but it was quite a page turner for the earlier chapters. Worth a read especially if you can loan it from the library for free.

Lee