Graham Witcomb, CFA is an investment analyst at The Intelligent Investor, responsible for covering healthcare, gambling and transport infrastructure. In this Australian Investors Podcast episode, Graham Witcomb dialled in from Vancouver, Canada to talk with Founder Owen Rask about the intersection of psychology, money and probabilities.
This conversation is fascinating in more ways than one. Probably the most interesting story was how Graham took steps to make his first ever investment in the deepest, darkest moments of the GFC. Graham bought $2,000 of shares in an investment bank (Macquarie, of all things), then took on a loan to participate in a capital raising ($15,000), and then took his capital and used more leverage to grow his total investment to around $50,000.
As Graham attests, his first investment was mostly luck, not skill. However, it serves to set the scene for the direction of the conversation with Graham Witcomb and Owen Raszkiewicz: where psychology and mindset collide with value investing.
Topics covered include:
- Where’s the best place to ski in the world? (Graham doubles as a ski instructor)
- If you could pick 3 investing factors or ratios to study a company’s financials, which you choose and why?
- What’s the difference between investing and gambling?
- Why on earth did Graham invest in Macquarie during the GFC?
- How did Graham improve his investment writing, and why was it so important?
- Which biases do you think you’re most impacted by, how do you know and what do you do to combat them?
- What are Graham’s favourite books for learning about value investing?
- Graham’s lessons learned from following CSL Limited (ASX: CSL), Sydney Airport (ASX: SYD) and Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK) for many years?
You can listen to the episode using the links below, or watch the podcast via YouTube. Note: this podcast was recorded in audio only.
Date recorded: 13th of July 2022
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