About Me
Mendocino, CA - Me deep in thought absorbing the prose of the legendary investor, Phil Fisher.
My name is Raj and I first started buying stocks in high school. While I knew generally how the stock market worked then, I didn't learn what real investing was until much later. I started a career in finance and worked there for several years. I have also worked as a research analyst at a hedge fund. However, it wasn't until I started doing research, analysis and due diligence on investment opportunities on my own and also reading the great work of the investment masters that I became really passionate about investing, with a special interest in value investing.
After several years of spending hours on end pouring over financial statements and talking to people to better understand business models to invest in my personal portfolio, I have decided to share my passion with the rest of the world (or at least the two people that will read this site). I am no expert, but I will use this blog primarily to highlight investment ideas that I am researching or to highlight articles/books/other literature that would be of interest to other aspiring investors.
Why Scuttlebutt Investor?
Scuttlebutt is a term that generally refers to rumors or gossip. The origin of the term is related to sailing. Water for consumption on sailing ships was typically stored in a scuttled butt - a butt (cask) which had been scuttled by making a hole in it so the water could be withdrawn. Since sailors exchanged gossip when they gathered at the scuttlebutt for a drink of water, scuttlebutt became slang for gossip or rumors.
As it relates to investing, the Scuttlebutt Method was coined by Phil Fisher (a legend of the investing world) in his book "Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits" (See Recommended Reading). It refers to a method of learning about a company and its investment merits by talking to all the people in the company and industry (even competitors) that you can to educate yourself thoroughly before making an investment. This is, of course, above and beyond all the financial statement reading and standard due diligence that a prospective investor is expected to do. Fisher provides a comprehensive list of due diligence questions that an investor can employ in the Scuttlebutt Method in "Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits". Fisher believed that the amount of time you get from key management is often determined not by the size of the financial interest but rather by the competence of the investor.