Welcome to my investing blog

Welcome to my blog catered towards contrarian investing. Being contrarian, for those that are not familiar, means going against the crowd--not for the sake of doing it but to make a profit primarily based on human psychological weaknesses (also known as greed & fear :) ).

A Bit About Myself

I'm 30 and my life sucks right now. No other way to say it. Nothing physically bad is happening but my personal love life is going nowhere (if you are a man and shy, might as well kill yourself ;) ), my job is low-paying (entry-level salary) and boring as hell, and quite frankly, I am bored with life (never happened to me in my life) . Things can of course be worse.

Investing Style

I have a small portfolio and been investing for a few years. After going through several investing styles, I am starting to concentrate on contrarian investing. I have invested in out of favour sectors and stocks in the past but am finally trying to master that technique as my main investment style. I have had mixed results with my contrarian attempts in the past.

I think contrarian investing suits my personality since I'm kind of a loner who is not generally swayed easily by public opinion. I just need to master stock valuation. My big problem now is that I don't know how to value a company properly. This is a problem faced by all investors, particularly value investors, and can mean the difference between success and failure. As a contrarian, I am not so concerned with pinning a value on a firm, as much as trying to avoid a big loss. I just need to get the trend correct.

Meaning of the Name of the Blog

There is a critically acclaimed Iranian film called Turtles Can Fly but this blog is not based on that title (although it may have influenced me in the back of my mind, since I recall looking at that title when I was picking films at one of the past Toronto International Film Festival). I look forward to seeing that film but this blog has nothing to do with that (I'll probably just go and buy that film now that I mention it... supposed to be a great film (sad and moving though)).

I think the animal that best represents me is the turtle. My life is always slow-moving while the faster bunnies hop around madly in love, or zoom past me with their jobs, or whatever. I'm passive and kind, just like a turtle. What I, as a turtle, would like to do is to learn to fly. By that I am referring to achieving financial independence. That is the question: can I learn to fly? Remains to be seen...

Closing Remarks

I have a habit of starting or dreaming up things but not executing on them (love life comes to mind, not to mention my career). Hopefully I will post regularly on this blog so that you may find it useful if not interesting.

If you are bored, also feel free to check out my personal blog, My Quintessence: Thoughts & Feelings, with random thoughts going through my brain...

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Thoughts on the stock market - March 2020

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