6 Comments

Great article Gary, management is critical. I got through a few forensic accounting books, looking at financial shenanigans (one was by Howard Shilit) and throughout the book one thing is clear, management can take many liberties, making it very difficult to really find fraud..... Making the quality of management top priority to avoid all of the shenanigans.

More pronounced than ever this year, I learned "don't force investing". In other words, do the work, do the process and just wait. I think we (maybe just me) get in trouble when my behavior is: I need to invest in something / do something.

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I'm about half done reading it and loving the book!

For this reason I have found it valuable to look at management's guidance before prior cyclical troughs and whether they take responsibility after missing expectations in the past. The character of the management team is extremely important!

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Great article! I particularly like the part about management, because I find myself here. I like to look at the figures and data and often neglect the management, although I think that if the figures are good, the management can't have done much wrong.

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Great article, thank you. I 'm reminded of a quote from Walter Schloss: " we try to get in with people we feel are honest. That doesn’t mean they’re necessarily smart – they may be dumb. But in a choice between a smart guy with a bad reputation or a dumb guy, I think I’d go with the dumb guy who’s honest. Of course, you can’t always protect yourself there, either."

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Excelent article.investing is not easy.

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Great article Gary, thanks for sharing your insights. One thing I learned this year is that a dirt cheap valuation alone is not enough margin of safety.

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