r/valueinvesting
Value Invest? Why not just Invest?!! From the Perspective of Failure
Reflecting on painful value investing, the author shifts to a long-term mindset and buys Micron (MU) on the ongoing capex cycle.
- Long-term investing and risk management are more crucial than obsessing over perfect valuation.
- The semiconductor capital expenditure cycle is still ongoing.
- Traditional value investing in sectors like SaaS and healthcare has resulted in severe underperformance.
- Undervalued companies may abruptly change business models, disregarding shareholder interests.
I started seriously investing with a personal brokerage account about 5 years ago and I have to say that my results have been absolutely pathetic. I have missed the bull run that will not return in 20 to 30 years. My only saving grace is that I have maxed out my 401k, roth IRA, and HSA which utilized index funding and have nice gains in each.
When I heard about value investing I thought I saw what my future was as an investor: buy undervalued stocks and you will be rewarded. That thesis is only the tip of the iceberg of pain and suffering. I didn't expect the undervalued stocks that I owned to be ridiculed everywhere by "experts" and people who I respected which made me quickly sell just to see the stocks rocket up in the next year or two. I did not foresee that I would be watching people making 20x and 40x on semiconductors and memory while I just looked at my portfolio bleed slowly with saas and healthcare stocks that were undervalued according to analysts. I did not foresee that the companies that I invested in would change their whole business with so much disregard for their customer and shareholders. Oh the betrayal....
After 4 years, I have learned that investing is about pain tolerance, noise cancellation, and risk management as much as it is researching great stocks. My most successful stock plays (though few) were stocks that I gutted it out for months to years. I've learned that just investing and staying invested is a lot more important that trying to find that perfect stock at the perfect price. I've learned to just be more of mindset to just "invest, try out new things, be okay with failure" rather than "value invest, don't lose money, don't buy stocks that are overvalued".
So on that notion, I thought to try something new today by buying micron shares. Do I care if I bought it at the top? Nope. I have sized it to be 10% of my personal portfolio (less than 1% of my total wealth). My thesis is simple: the capex cycle hasn't stopped, "experts" and value investors say to get out now, and I saw investors buying 2420 strike calls 3 years out at 440 dollars a pop. It's a momentum trade to say the least. I have a stop loss at 870 dollars.
Do I still believe in value investing? Hell yeah! The bulk of my portfolio is defensive and value oriented with a mish-mash of msft, br, efx, dvn, clx, por, cpb, pfe, tost, and adnt. The rest of my portfolio is a sprinkling of some biotechs and a cannabis stock that I think will go boom because of upcoming catalysts. Sometimes you gotta throw value out the window and just invest goddamit! Just wanted to get this off my chest, rant over...