PHIL TOWN

War of the Worlds, Part Two: Good Biz, Bad Biz

To recap: I got in a battle with a guy from Kiplinger on Maria Bartiromo’s show, Closing Bell. He said that individual investors can only succeed if they diversify (easily done with mutual funds) and hold through the drops in the market because the little guy can’t pick wonderful businesses that are on sale, nor know when to get out.  Maria was also skeptical that the little guy could successfully use technical tools to get in and out when the Big Guys get in and out.  Let’s see if we can convince our doubters, shall we?

The first step of knowing when to buy and when to sell is to know the business that you are buying well enough to be able to put a value on it.  It is absolutely basic to Rule #1 investing that the business is wonderful. 

Wonderful businesses are easily found, but you do have to know what "wonderful" looks like.  I could write a book about it.  Oh, wait.  I did write a book about it.  So read it.  But I’ll cover the main points here for you anyway.  I call the main points "The Four M’s”, the first 3 of which are all about "wonderfulness".

War of the Worlds, Part One

Last Friday I fought a brief skirmish in the war of independence of investor thinking.  I was on Maria Bartiromo’s show, Closing Bell.  Maria asked me to come on the show to talk about how the week’s massive volatility would affect the small investor.  It was the end of a really bouncy week.  The Dow peaked at 14,000 and dropped to 12,800 or so and Maria was interviewing a lot of different kinds of investors to get their opinions about what it meant and what to do. 

I climbed up the steps of the Federal Building across from the New York Stock Exchange and was taken to a room to get some makeup on, and then back outside to wait while Maria finished up the previous segment.  They put on a lapel microphone and led me to my director’s chair next to Maria.  She was going through notes and just said a quick "Hi" and went back to it while one of the crew hooked my mike up to the sound system and stuck an earbud in my left ear.  I was on live with ------- , a guy from Kiplinger.  As soon as I heard that I knew I was in for a battle.

New Desktop Rule #1 Calculators Are Now Available!

I'm pleased to announce that new, FREE desktop Rule #1 calculators are now available from my Members Area (click Resources above to Register). 

Once downloaded, these calculators allow you to:

• Do Big 5, Sticker Price/Margin of Safety, and ROIC calculations without connecting to the internet
• Access all the calculators from the same page
• Work in a separate window and application from other open programs

I encourage you to Log In and try them out.  Site Membership is required.

And don't forget -- today the RULE #1 PAPERBACK goes on sale.

Members Area Update

A note to anyone who registered for the Rule #1 members area yesterday prior to around 9:00 p.m. EST -- your login and password may be temporarily unavailable due to site updates.  You should be able to log back in later today. We will post service updates here on the blog to keep you informed.

Site Changes

We're making some changes here at the Rule #1 blog and in the Members Area where the calculators and Resources are located.  Some of these are changes to navigation and design, which you'll be able to see, and others are behind the scenes.

If you see any glitches in service over the next few days, please email my web team via the contact form on www.ruleoneinvestor.com or email us at phil @ rule one investor dot com with "Website" in the subject field.

Thanks for your patience!  We are working on new posts for you here on the blog.  Please also remember that the Rule #1 paperback is available in stores on Tuesday. Let me know what you think of the new chapter.

Rule #1 in Softcover: August 28

This is a reminder that Rule #1 comes out in paperback on August 28.

The new edition will include an additional chapter of material on using Rule #1 to manage mutual funds.

Click here to pre-order and to read more. 

Thanks!