I’ve been thinking about this after reading all the amazing 2020 write ups posted to this board. Saul’s has rules. We sometimes see frustration about all the things we can’t talk about, but I think it’s important to recognize this is a major reason why so many of us continue to see such outsized returns.
The hyper-focused nature here lends itself to many excellent conversations. And more importantly, many profitable ones as well. It doesn’t matter your investing style (off topic). It doesn’t matter what non-growth stock you like (off topic). It doesn’t matter if your portfolio has one holding or 100 (off topic). It doesn’t matter whether you own shares only or 100% options (off topic). The one piece of info every strategy needs is identifying the right companies for your money. And that’s what this forum provides. Once you have that, you can do whatever the heck you like. And no one cares. But none of us can do any of those other things if we don’t start with the one thing all of us need. That’s the secret sauce, and it is important we look after the main ingredient that lets the rest of it happen.
Anyone using other sources knows how quickly discussions can devolve into a useless string of quips, platitudes, speculation and snark. That rarely happens here. Much of it is due to Saul and the Assistant Board Managers doing the often thankless work of keeping things on track. Well, I am thanking them now and you should too.
Given the incredible success of many here, it is incumbent upon all of us to make sure this environment remains strong. Even if we don’t always get it right, the main purpose of Saul’s is to find the best-of-the-best companies in which to invest. Nothing more and nothing less. As long as that holds true, we are likely to keep seeing market-beating returns. It we somehow lose that advantage, we will have no one to blame but ourselves.
There was no specific incident that led to this post. It is more a general observation after watching Saul’s continue to evolve these last few months, especially with the influx of new members being introduced via Twitter. The increased traffic has added some tremendous new voices. Unfortunately, it also brings periodic upticks in noise to work through. So far, we seem to be handling it well. Yet like many of our companies, it is important we keep executing as we scale. The start of a new year seems the perfect time to make this observation to the group as a whole. This is a unique place, although I’m guessing you already know that. It is up to each and every one of us to make sure it stays that way. In that way we are all Assistant Board Managers.
Good luck to all of us in 2021, and here’s to another year of hopefully market-beating returns.
As you were (and back on topic)…