John Neff on Investing

Conventional wisdom suggests that, for investors, more information these days is a blessing and more competition is a curse. I'd say the opposite is true. Coping with so much information runs the risk of distracting attention from the few variables that really matter. Because sound evaluations call for assembling information in a logical and carefu

Many investors can't bear to part company with a stock on the way up, lest they miss the best gain by not holding on. They persuade themselves that a day after they sell, they will have short-changed themselves by not capturing the penultimate dollar. My attitude is: I'm not that smart.

Measured Participation established four broad investment categories:1. Highly recognized growth.2. Less recognized growth.3. Moderate growth.4. Cyclical growth.Windsor participated in each of these categories, irrespective of industry concentrations. When the best values were available in, say, the moderate growth area, we concentrated our investme

In classic fashion, frantic efforts to correct the underperformance only compounded Windsor's plight. Windsor had succumbed to infatuation with small supposed growth companies without sufficient attention to the durability of growth.

No solitary measure or pair of measures should govern a decision to buy a stock. You need to probe a whole raft of numbers and facts, searching for confirmation or contradiction.

With patience, luck, and sound judgment, meanwhile, you keep moving forward. That's the nature of the investment game: now and then a windfall, but mostly a four-yard gain and a cloud of dust. tilt investment style can give investors a lucrative edge over the long haul. But if you can't roll with the hits, or you're in too big a hurry, you might as

It's easy to start debates about appropriate time horizons for calculating earnings growth. Five years worked for us. We were always poised to react to events that occurred in a shorter time frame, but, ultimately, long-term financial results drove Windsor's long-term investment performance.

Contrarian that I am, the format for this book is intentionally unorthodox as books on investing go these days. It is not about I lail Mary passes; it's about grinding out gains quarter after quarter, year after year. My kind of investing rests on three elements: character, goals, and experience.

The Navy paid us every two weeks, and the first night after payday six or seven poker games sprang up. By the following night, there were only one or two poker games. Much like money in the stock market, poker money migrated to the most proficient and well financed players, a group that usually included me. Observing occasionally, I noted how sailo