The focus of this blog will be to discuss investing in Australia with a particular emphasis on my preferred approach – value investing.  I’ll also likely touch on other more general investing topics, resources that I have found useful in educating myself, the US market (which I find interesting to observe in light of the wealth of historical market data), and international macro-economic issues (a guilty pleasure of mine).  One key item that I’ll definitely be including is a discussion of individual stocks in the Australian market in the context of value investing, which is something that I have struggled to find for myself.

In addition to these topics, I will actively be tracking the trading in my personal investment portfolio for all to see.  I’ve only seen this done on one or two other investment blogs, but I’ve found it incredibly interesting to follow a real-time study in different applications of value investing principles.  This portfolio constitutes the vast majority of my personal wealth that isn’t tied up in my house, so rest assured that I am taking the task very seriously.

There are a few key reasons that I’m willing to record and track my performance in a public forum:

1. Firstly, I want to make sure that I’m clear on my investment decisions and there’s no better way to do this than to write down my thoughts on a stock to see whether an investment is justified;

2. I want to make sure that I ‘stay the course’ on my investments – many of the stocks that I will be investing in are unloved or unwanted by the market for a variety of reasons – and my hope is that by documenting my investment thesis it will help me stand by my convictions and remain patient even though public perception of a stock may be incredibly negative; and

3. Hopefully, viewers of the blog will comment on my posts or contact me with their ideas, thoughts and analysis which will help inform my investing and ultimately make me a better investor.

I hope you enjoy the blog and I look forward to taking the journey with you.