You should never try to just follow what I’m doing without making up your own mind about a stock. In these monthly summaries I’m giving you a static picture of where I am currently, but I may change my mind about a position during the month. In fact, I [frequently] do, and I make changes in the position. I usually don’t announce these changes until the end of the month, and if I’m busy or have some personal emergency I might not announce them even then. And besides, I sometimes make mistakes, even big ones! Don’t just follow me blindly! I’m an old guy and won’t be around forever. The key is to learn how to do this for yourself. (emphasis original)
I think there’s a middle ground here, though–maybe it’s been discussed before. [Sidebar: I’m only up to date since June because I didn’t want to back-read from the dawn of Saul-time; the Rules/Knowledge Base info took care of most of what that would accomplish and the content back in the 2019-and-before posts I did check out was mostly no longer relevant. The premise summary was good enough for me.]
Clearly yes, the general idea of Fooldom is to own your own investing future and to capitalize on the inherent advantages of being an individual stock investor. This board is quintessentially Foolish in that regard, and it’s why it’s so popular, and its denizens so successful. I joined because I want to be a part of that success.
The other end of the spectrum, and possibly what the ‘full mimickers’ want, would probably be a “Saul’s Mutual Fund” (in a nod to Buffett, how about “SaulSure HasaWay”? :-]), which seems to be the type of thing TMF itself has made available to people who want it. Advice services are an important step to investing independence, and the Gardners take a few ounces of flesh for themselves, but what subscribers pay for is still at its root a one-way thing (advice). This board is a community, where the collective wisdom is the thing making it go. While ‘I won’t be around forever’ is an important reminder, I have a feeling this board will live on through the mini-Sauls (long-time yet younger trusted/valued contributors). I hope it does, because what I think this board is to some users, especially new people like your e-mail inquirer, is “Saul’s Investing Club”, where the updates, especially via the informative meta-update shared recently, form a sort of ranked-choice ballot for anyone to use as a substitute for their own duly-diligent process. I’d be lying if I said that kind of thinking had no role in the new-but-growing “let’s get SaaS-y” part of my portfolio taking root. But I think you might underplay a very important facet of Fooldom that’s pretty common on the Premium Boards:
Yes the learning is key. And what also counts is the ownership of one’s own individual investing decisions, whether they each is fully grounded in full-on competitive analysis of fundamentals and trends, or on wishful ‘bets’ based on the wisdom others (I like to think I’m a little closer to the first one). When I read the Saul’s KB and this OP, cynical me thinks you could have even extended “The key is to learn how to do this for yourself” with: “…because if you lose money you’d better not come crying to this board about it.” Of course that’s not really the reason it’s best to take full responsibility, but I know I tired early of wading through such plaints from TMF premium service subscribers who thought they were getting Guaranteed Rock Solid Rocket Growth Winners when recommendations are supposed to be for individuals research rather than to just buy without knowing them. Then again, TMF’s external marketing* is not really helping in this regard… looks like mission creep compared to the olden days. : )
-n8 (hope this helps any relative n00bers like me)
- come on, clickbait tags like ‘5X BIGGER THAN AMAZON!!!’, really?