Is Your Investment Story Profitable?

Successful investors have a story that drives their investment decisions. A prime example is Warren Buffett who notes that the U.S. stock market prospers on the back of a growing U.S. economy. He looks for companies that reliably generate profits year after year and is a disciple of the intrinsic stock value approach to investing as he was, in fact, a student of Benjamin Graham who discovered that approach. So, the man who is perhaps the most successful investor of all time has a simple story that drives his investing. Is your investment story profitable?

Simple Investment Stories

The concept of investment stories came to mind after reading an article posted a couple of years ago by Motif. They noted that simple stories drive markets. The article is a good read as they look at investment themes that dominated investing during various periods and how those themes worked out over the longer haul.

You know that adage, “stocks are sold, not bought”? What often drives stocks are simple, plausible stories. In fact, Nobel-winning economist Robert Shiller has made the case for how both financial markets and economies are heavily influenced by stories.

Investors often call these stories their “investment thesis.”  We at Motif like to call them themes, ideas, trends, or motifs. We believe it is far more intuitive for investors to think this way rather than the traditional investment “style boxes” used by mutual funds or risk premium “factors” favored by academics. For example, “small cap value,” which combines academia’s two favorite factors into a mutual fund style box, doesn’t resonate with most investors.

We ask, is your investment story profitable? We might also ask if the current investment story will continue to be profitable or will collapse like a house of cards bringing on another stock market crash, financial crisis, and financial ruin for many. While the Buffett investment story is for long term, buy and hold investors, there are perfectly profitable investment stories for the short term. But, they require that you are able to get in at the right time and get out while the getting is still good.

An example they bring up in the Motif article is the stimulus to the market by ultra-low interest rates in the years following the financial crisis.

For example, the market’s belief in the power of the Fed’s experiments with ultra-low interest rates and quantitative easing (QE) helped drive the S&P 500 much higher from 2010 to 2014, though those policies may ultimately prove disastrous in the long run, as market bears believe.

Right now, no one, including the Fed, knows the long-term impact of these actions.  But much to the chagrin of market bears, until a bear market disaster finally hits, financial markets can and do move significantly higher than one may expect based on pure fundamentals, such as earnings growth, cash flows, price-earnings ratios, credit spreads, and yield curves.

The same to a lesser degree can be said for the Trump tax stimulus which put a lot of money in the hands or corporate America, allowed for repeated stock buybacks, and may well have keep the market up in the last year. A problem with stories is believing in them after they are no longer true or believing in a story when something else is what is driving the market. This is when investors overstay their welcome and not only see their dreams of profits go up in smoke but watch their investment capital go the same way as well!

Is Your Investment Story True?

There is a lot of hype in the markets, especially when a company wants to float an IPO. There are also stories offered by companies that have fallen on hard times and are hoping that they can attract new investors and keep their stock price from falling too drastically. We have written that dividend stocks can be perilous when an investor just looks at the size of the dividend and does not do any fundamental analysis of the company involved. If a company’s stock falls precipitously and they do not change their dividend, investors may be attracted by a 12% or 15% dividend which will disappear in a flash the next quarter as the company “regroups.”

 

When you see Kraft Heinz as a rebound opportunity, is your investment story profitable or are you falling into a value trap?
Kraft Heinz Products

 

An investment story that turns out not to have been as true as we might have liked is Kraft Heinz. This was considered a “widow and orphan” stock, solid with a good dividend. But, these folks have not keep up with changing food tastes and preferences of the American consumer. As such, any attempt at creating a story about this stock in preparation for a recovery are met with skepticism and the suspicious that this stock is now a value trap. Nevertheless, there may be smart enough investors out there who will be able to anticipate when Kraft Heinz has fallen enough to be a good buy again. Then the story needs to be the recovery of a grand old company. Time will tell on this one.

What Will the Boeing Story Be?

We just asked in a recent article, Why Invest in Boeing? We were pretty positive about this company as a long term investment based on their technological expertise and dominance across several areas of aerospace endeavors. But, now there have been two crashes of the new 737 Max 8 jet and both China and Indonesia have ordered these jets to be grounded until the problem can be figured out. It is especially worrisome that some experts are saying that new automated technology designed to make these jets safer may have malfunctioned and caused both planes to crash shortly after takeoff.
Boeing fell 11% on the news and could fall more if these events lead to a general discomfort with Boeing technology. Investors in Boeing will need to decide what they investment story is with the aviation giant and be ready to change that story as events unfold!

 

When you look at Boeing as the perfect investment is your investment story profitable to leading you into long term losses?
Boeing 787 Dreamliner

 

Constantly Re-evaluating Your Investment Story

If your investment story is the same as Warren Buffett’s, you have two tasks to perform. One is to simply keep track of the growth of the American economy and the other is to find and analyze prospective investments. But, if your investment story is the story of the day such as the growth of emerging markets, the migration industrial production out of China and into other Asian economies, or a miraculous resolution of the Brexit mess, this will require constant attention and a good hand at market timing.

A good investment story that lets you sleep at night may be less profitable but a red hot investment story that makes great short term profits may be the stuff of headaches and ulcers.

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