stock picking

It’s a Market of Socks!
photo shows a rainbow of socks clothes-pinned to a line with a sunny sky behind it

Imagine buying a value pack of socks. Unlike your everyday value pack, this one contains 500 pairs of socks, and every single pair is different. Some are ankle-height, some crew. Some black, some brown. Some striped, some filled with pictures of cheese. Some will become your favorite socks ever, and some of them you’ll become embarrassed to own.

All in all, the pack could still turn out to be a good deal, right? But one more thing: you can’t break up the set. If you really wanted to return one pair of the value pack, you’d have to toss all 500 pairs back. Even those favorites!

Things could get hairy. If you ever needed to pull back, and no longer had room for 500 pairs of socks, you’d have to clear house and start from scratch. Discover that one sock had a hole? Live with it, unless you’re ready to pitch the other 999 socks too.

Doesn’t it sound like more fun to only buy the socks that you like best? Socks that you can actually imagine owning? Or socks that may have untapped potential (think of those warm, fuzzy ones you’re glad you got for the depths of winter). And—when you need to get rid of a sock—you’re not losing your whole collection.

Some people do buy stocks that way in effect: indirectly, 500 at a time. But what a tremendous privilege and exciting challenge to pick only those stocks, I mean, socks that you find most worthwhile.

Clients, if you have any sock tips, email or call.

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Play the audio version of this post below:

It's a Market of Socks! – 228Main.com Presents: The Best of Leibman Financial Services

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Making Money the Old-Fashioned Way

© Can Stock Photo / stokkete

Years ago, the Wall Street firm of E.F. Hutton advertised “We make money the old-fashioned way. We earn it.” This tag line evoked a world of indepth research into securities and markets, and investment analysis by experienced professionals.

E.F. Hutton disappeared into a series of mergers, and making money the old-fashioned way is increasingly scarce. One popular theory now is that security selection does not matter, only the allocation of money across the different sectors of the market.

Combined with the idea that past patterns of volatility and past returns by sector should dictate what one should own for the future, many modern ‘investment advisors’ pay no attention to individual company stocks or bonds.

It seems to us that owning stock in a failing chain of department stores is a lot different than owning the world’s largest online retailer. A few automakers survived, hundreds did not. Buying a corporate bond for 50 cents on the dollar is a totally different proposition than selling it for 50 cents on the dollar. Owning some of everything is different than being selective.

Our experience says security selection DOES matter.

One of our strategies is to try to find ownership in great companies at decent prices, to buy and hold. Looking for cyclical companies at low points in the cycle is another strategy. And simply seeking bargains anywhere in the investment universe is a third.

This is not easy. Conditions are always uncertain. There are no guarantees. It takes a lot of effort and energy. There is no assurance that the old-fashioned way will make money, as E.F. Hutton claimed.

But we are trying.

Clients, if you would like to talk about this or anything else, please email us or call.

Content in this material is for general information only and not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual.

All investing involves risk including loss of principal. No strategy assures success or protects against loss.