Are you a trader or an investor?

Trick question – the ‘correct’ answer is both (or neither). But underneath this flippancy lies an important distinction – ‘investing’ and ‘trading’ are not mutually exclusive but are different ways of thinking about buying and selling shares.

I’ve always thought of myself as an investor, but recently I’ve started to wonder whether if I want to make real money it would help to think a bit more ruthlessly about winning the game, like a trader. Continue reading →

Many of the investors I follow advocate concentration and run extremely concentrated portfolios. For example, Warren Buffett says that he operated mostly with five positions. From the other end of the spectrum, momentum trader Mark Minervini, who I have become interested in recently due to his quite stunning results and apparently quite straightforward and intuitive strategy, advocates a similarly concentrated portfolio.

I am happy with the performance of my strategy so far but I have begun to question whether perhaps I can do better through concentrating my portfolio on fewer investments. Continue reading →

Over-trading is one of the most commonly reviled sins in investing and is often cited as a reason that investors should avoid active fund management. It’s a crime of which I’ve often worried I might be guilty, so I’ve decided to have a direct look at it. Continue reading →

Most investors use some sort of benchmark to track their performance against. I’ve been thinking a little about benchmarking and have come up with some improvements for how I benchmark my performance. Continue reading →