Value Library

The following is an excerpt from the ABC Perspective - October 2004 - Pg. 12

The investment business is truly dynamic. As portfolio managers, we are confronted by a never-ending flow of information, some useful and some irrelevant. Given the limited time in a day to complete our work, our unremitting challenge is to constantly analyze securities and at the same time wisely separate the important decision making information from that which may be totally useless.

Investment analysis is a 24-7 job. There is little time to rest. Our responsibility is to handle the incessant flow of information so as to successfully select common shares and at the same time not be intrusive to our personal lives. A prime difference between champion athletes such as Mario Lemieux, Barry Bonds or Shaquille O’Neal and investment analysts is that these athletes, at least, can take a three or four month break between their playing seasons. We cannot. Our season is never over. If we stop analyzing to take a necessary sabbatical, we miss out on the valuable information flow; this flow is extremely vital to the buying and selling process of stock selection. For instance, suppose we decide to take a two week South Pacific island vacation with the intention of relaxing on a sun-soaked, sandy white beach. On our return, we are inevitably confronted with a good 10-15 days of catch-up on all the newspaper reading, emails, analytical reports and stock trading action which we missed during our absence. And this catch up does not include the further information flow which will arrive at our desk upon our return. In effect, there is little respite for the weary investment warrior.

Having experienced over 30 years of never-ending investment seasons I believe the key to personal and professional success is balance and disciplined time management. This is a trial and error process which must be flexible and is perfected over time. It involves one’s priorities, extreme discipline and life passions. True, the investment profession requires constant dedication and one’s inaction can dull a manager’s effectiveness and a portfolio’s performance. The success of juggling one’s personal and professional commitment, however, can offer many tremendously gratifying spiritual and monetary rewards. In a nutshell, some investment analysts consider our burden of “constantly analyzing” as a Herculean task. On the contrary, I believe it is a significant positive driver to those professionals who can, in fact, handle the pressures of our profession to attain boundless success.