I was just wondering where everyone finds ideas for investing and choosing investment targets. What information sources do you use and where do you find investment ideas? Let’s make this a broader discussion than just the investment literature thread. My own idea generation can be divided into two parts – general investment philosophy and strategy ideation, and then concrete investment target selection:
General investment philosophy and strategy ideas
Warren Buffett’s annual letters and interviews
Seligson’s Phoebus blog and interim reports
Investment and professional press
Investment literature
More concrete stock (and fund) searching and selection
Directly following investors who are better than me (an attempt to cherry-pick from others’ portfolios)
Applying the thought patterns of investors who are better than me to my own stock picking (ideas come from all over)
Testing my own ideas by mirroring them against the portfolios of investors who are better than me
Taking advice from investors who are better than me
Ideas from newspaper articles
Previously also ideas picked from Seeking Alpha
Previously also targets picked from discussion forums
My own active search and screening (mainly for funds)
Top-down searching, industry → companies → company selection
As you can see from above, I have a certain common thread in investing at a more general level, and it clarifies little by little over time. However, the search and selection of investment targets is less systematic and quite opportunistic; different investments have come from very different sources.
Listening to and even directly following investors who are better than me (in my case, there are a couple, Anders Oldenburg and Warren Buffett) have proven to be quite good investments, as has mirroring my own ideas (e.g., in the case of Harvia, my confidence was increased by the presence of certain parties on the list of largest owners). Purely my own screening and top-down approaches have worked with highly varying success, as have ideas from Seeking Alpha and forums.
Going forward, it would be good to clarify stock and fund selection so that there is also some kind of common thread there. And of course, to keep learning and developing more generally.
I started by following trends and looking for well-known but struggling companies. Gaming was and is a big thing, so about 6 years ago, I just googled a list of companies involved in the hardware side of the gaming industry and stumbled upon AMD. I bought it when it was cheap. I also sold it way too cheap ages ago.
My dad has always talked about hydrogen and its potential. When it felt like news started to emerge on the interwebs, I googled hydrogen companies and found NEL. I bought it about a year and a half ago.
Networking is always a good thing too, and at a Nordea sauna evening, I was introduced to something called Bitcoin… The price was about 2 USD then.
These are the “good” picks; there are dozens of bad ones.
I’ll say this: I wish I had stumbled upon this forum long before 2020..
I list “upcoming” trends that I encounter in everyday life / at work / on forums, then I read about them at work to pass the time.
The process is usually:
Trend/topic future outlook »
Company mapping »
Review of top company analyses (basically what analysts have thought in the past, my own skill isn’t enough)
Good topic for a thread. Sparring supports and develops one’s actions, and in the best case, gives an extra boost to one’s own investing.
My own philosophy started with poring over investment literature and actively following Inderes and other investment forums/podcasts. Researching different investment styles has given me the tools to figure out what suits me best and what kind of strategy to follow. Of the literature, I would mention Seppo Saario - Miten sijoitan pörssiosakkeisiin (How to invest in stocks) and Heikki Keskiväli - Tähtäimessä osakkeet (Aiming for stocks).
Funds and stocks are chosen through my own strategy, where I try to utilize mega-trends that interest me and global diversification. Stock picking mainly consists of interesting growth companies. Sometimes I might take a slice of a company making a turnaround, if positive performance has been observed and the future direction is starting to take shape.
Sources I use for tracking include companies’ own websites/social media channels, Kauppalehti, Inderes, and sijoittaja.fi pages. Direct stock picking happens from the Helsinki Stock Exchange. I also engage in Lynch-style on-site spotting.
I’m thinking about megatrends and their sub-trends. Population aging - pharmaceutical companies, medical device companies - hearing aids, tonometers. Renewable energy - solar, wind, nuclear, geothermal, hydrogen. Urbanization - elevators, waste recycling, construction companies, electric cars and batteries. I research megatrends by googling, e.g., “how to invest in lithium / renewable energy / vertical farming.” Other search terms for information gathering are “3D printing,” “blockchain technology,” “AI.” The result is a large number of mostly American stock market companies, which can then be researched in more detail. Buy/hold/sell recommendations are available for free. I myself type “factset consensus medtronics” into Google, for example.
Good websites include CNN Business, WSJ, Barrons, MarketWatch, Marketscreener, Oilprice, and Fuelcellsworks. You would get more out of it if you paid for one of these sites.
I’m personally enthusiastic about the hydrogen economy and have been buying these companies for a long-term portfolio. To balance this, I try to keep familiar, reliable companies like Sampo, Fortum, etc., so that the portfolio’s risk level doesn’t skyrocket. Hey, you should google “cloud technology”
I’ve only just started my “career” as an investor this autumn. It feels like there’s so much to learn, and I’ve often found myself wishing I had started earlier. I read this forum, as you can see (this is my first post, by the way – I guess that’s a milestone too). In addition, I read financial news from Kauppalehti (they’re free with Nordea’s service), and of course, I read interesting articles and news from the internet in general. I’ve come up with many more ideas than I have purchasing power for. So far, I’ve mainly bought domestic stocks and Apple, because I believe it will continue to perform well in the future (especially with the advent of Apple Silicon). The most important sources of tips for me (at least at this stage) are therefore the following:
Inderes - analyses, InderesTV and this forum
Kauppalehti’s financial news
Other news related to economics, technology, and life in general
In the future, I will probably find more sources of ideas as my knowledge grows. However, thank you already to everyone on this forum for your good posts and ideas, and to the entire Inderes team for a great website and service!
I, for one, bought into the idea of the inevitable progress of digitalization some years ago, and I have used it as a guiding principle in my own investments, that companies digitalizing and disrupting their industries are good targets, as are software companies and IT services themselves.
Towards the end of 2019, it started to feel like renewables and hydrogen were breaking through, and I wanted to get in on that. I ended up with a very broad diversification, starting with specialists and expanding to wind and solar, and then also to bigger players.
In addition, mispriced stocks are acceptable. For example, I’m currently in tankers a bit, as I think they are too cheap.
For me, Kamux, for example, was a good exploiter of digitalization in its sector.
Other examples include Talenom, Qt, Efecte, Basware, etc. Of course, the purchase price and other industry dynamics have also interested me.
Good opening! I’d divide my own information gathering into two different sections: strategy and stocks. I focus on strategy continuously, and less on stocks. The reason for this is that my portfolio mostly contains the stocks I want to own. I change holdings rarely on average (I buy once or twice a month and only sell if there’s a reason). For this reason, I spend most of my stock picking time educating myself. This way, I aim to be aware of the risks and theoretically know how I’ll act in different scenarios. Practical experience can only be gained through doing. Sometimes it crosses my mind whether it makes sense to spend so much time studying if I’m not actively buying and selling, but on the other hand, I live in the hope that this also supports my career. At least for now, my employer appreciates my eagerness to learn, and I’ve been able to utilize some of what I’ve read in my work.
Information sources for strategy:
Books: Books certainly play the biggest role in my hobby. When I started stock investing, I read a lot of basic investment books. This way, I believed I’d get a good foundation. Nowadays, I read more books on psychology, decision-making, individuals, companies, and strategy, so I can learn to analyze companies and my own actions better. All interesting business books go. I’ve now read 60-70 investment/business books.
Podcasts: I listen to quite a few podcasts. I feel they keep me pretty well up-to-date on what’s happening. I like to listen to foreign podcasts like “Invest Like the Best,” “The Knowledge Project,” and “The Investors Podcast.” Of course, I listen to others too, if the topic or the interviewee interests me. Domestically, of course, “Rahapodi” and “Inderespodi.”
Articles/Memos: I try to read all of Morgan Housel’s articles and Howard Marks’ memos. They are very valuable to me. The best articles are those that stand the test of time, and I look for exactly those that offer information that doesn’t quickly become outdated. Additionally, I read with interest the writings of the Nomad Invest guys and the links they share.
Newsletters: Among others, Farnam Street, Abnormal Returns, Warren Buffett Watch, The Investors Field Guide. Sometimes, these contain really interesting reads.
Twitter: Last but not least, Twitter is an excellent place to find interesting articles or book recommendations. However, I favor a style where one can be interested in anything and start reading, but if the content doesn’t genuinely interest me after a couple of minutes, I stop reading it quite quickly. Otherwise, one would choke on the amount of content.
Information sources for stocks:
Inderes: Analysis and forum. I mostly pick ideas from here, either from analyses, other people’s writings, or I systematically try to familiarize myself with Finnish companies alphabetically, so I learn at least what the company does, how it’s special, whether it has a competitive advantage, and what kind of results it produces.
Company’s own websites: As soon as I get interested in a company and have read a report and glanced at the forum on the topic, I move to the company’s own website. From there, of course, the IR section and the latest reports, but I also find it interesting to explore other content on the site.
Kauppalehti: I flip through the physical newspaper almost every day. Companies and analysis interest me; other Kauppalehti content doesn’t really excite me. I find it too much noise, but that’s how most news is, and that’s generally the purpose of news.
These were the main channels for my activities. Since I currently only invest in Finnish stocks, it somewhat limits where I pick information from. I invest abroad through funds, so I leave the analysis to others there.
What could be interesting is if Inderes had the option to keep some kind of investment diary/blog. I would gladly follow the content and thoughts of many users. It would allow for a slightly deeper reflection than what is usually shared in the “What’s in your portfolio” thread. It would also be nicer to read when the content of many “micro-bloggers” is collected in one place. Now I don’t really actively bother to read investment blogs when they are scattered all over the internet. This is, of course, just an idea that certainly has its downsides as well
Does anyone have experience with the content and usefulness of the sijoittaja.fi service? I would be interested to hear. Of course, you can get a trial month for a nominal price, but ‘real-life’ experiences would interest me - and perhaps others too.
Elisa’s shares, received as repayment for a loan, piqued my interest in November 2017. Inspired by Nordnet’s beginner benefits, I bought shares with a tight blindfold, even though mutual funds would have been a better choice for a beginner.
Now, with the main focus shifted to stocks with good ROE and new investments, I’m researching target prices.
After the US boom started, I finally found a way to get target prices from there too, but after a couple of days’ work, I only got three picks
BTW: Despite the screw-up, the portfolio is up 30% cumulatively
Consistent monitoring of industries and large groups of companies. Sometimes a company receives little attention, and its price falls without reason. It’s often quite easy to invest money in an industry you believe to be stable or growing, and a reasonable price is asked for a profitable company.
However, the best picks have been found during sessions when I’ve just started going through the stock market list company by company, first quickly checking if the company could ever be interesting (I can understand something about the company’s industry, and the company presents a sensible strategy) or if it goes straight to the trash, and then meticulously examining the companies whose strategies I like.
Some mention US target prices and recommendations in passing. Obtained from paid services?
I always have TipRanks’ and CNNMoney’s forecast pages open in their own tabs. I check tickers I come across on TR to ensure they are “strong buy” (in the top 5%) and on CNN, I look at the upside percentages (TR only shows dollars). So I just edit the correct ticker into those.
Check out Mission Ready Solutions Q1 from the Canadian listings. Revenue 66 MCAD, compared to 105 MCAD for the whole year in 2020. Other figures are also quite significant. This is not an investment recommendation.
I don’t personally read investment-related literature, but it’s a good way to follow temporary panic news pushed into the market. Then you just pick stocks for your portfolio from the bottom of temporary dips. Nowadays, the markets react instantly, as information is available quickly, and you can trade even from your sauna porch.
I second Nousu’s point. I don’t actually trade, but my biggest returns on a 0-1 month horizon have come from buying shares whose prices drop too sharply when some news is interpreted in the worst possible way, causing people’s stop-losses to confirm the downturn.
Narrowing down my portfolio holdings and ending broad monitoring has led to a situation where I no longer necessarily have the guts to pull the trigger when every position is already too large, and there’s likely a reason why I don’t own a particular stock. In the Q2 reports, Tattooed Chef took a serious hit. The company had real challenges, but those challenges weren’t such that they would challenge the investment case’s growth story → those hunting for short-term gains sold off. I thought I’d buy more at some point, but the departure of short-horizon speculators has never kept the price down for more than a week or two
There could almost be a separate tracking thread for short-horizon sellers. It’s a surprisingly easy situation, but it requires knowing that the drop isn’t due to a genuinely bad report, so it’s not free money.
Finding a new company is very timely now, as I’ll soon have a good amount of cash from forest income, and my portfolio is terribly concentrated. The difficulty is just that nothing comes to mind. This approach of researching the stock list could actually be a good one!
However, first I’ll wait a bit to see if Fazer (Fazer) goes public; if it does, I’ll have to study the company more closely. It could be the next really interesting case after Harvia (Harvia). But of course, I’ll only know for sure after a more detailed investigation, provided it even goes public.
Edit: apparently, I like things that bring pleasure; both are quite enjoyable companies
I pay about a hundred euros a year to the Nanalyze community and follow their advice when buying American tech stocks. Their prices have fallen recently, but that is probably temporary.
