Bootstrap Investing
Learning, Sharing, Investing
Bootstrap Investing

Lessons from My Father

Over the Father's Day weekend I had a chance to think a little bit about what I learned from my father over the years. I quickly realized that much of my investing temperament and strategy has been adapted from things that I have learned from Papa Bootstrap.<< MORE >>
Posted by Bootstrap at 6/22/2009 4:48 PM | View Comments (2) | Add Comment

BUY and Hold


I don't really like the term Buy & Hold.  When asked to describe the Bootstrap investment style, I'd say we're long term investors.  That has a lot of implications: we set goals for the long term; we measure performance over the long term (years, not quarters) and the holding periods for our actual investments are often long (again, think years, not quarters).<< MORE >>
Posted by Bootstrap at 6/18/2009 6:34 PM | Add Comment

Spring Cleaning: Credit Report Review


Last weekend, Mrs. Bootstrap and I spent some time spring cleaning - Bootstrap style.  We reviewed our credit reports.<< MORE >>
Posted by Bootstrap at 6/14/2009 7:08 PM | Add Comment

Festival of Stocks #143

Welcome to issue #143 of the Festival of Stocks!  For many of you - judging by my traffic - this will be the first time that you have visited Bootstrap Investing.  In that case, I invite you to take some time to browse, read a few posts and drop a comment if you find anything interesting. << MORE >>
Posted by Bootstrap at 5/31/2009 11:47 PM | Add Comment

RIP: Buy and Hold



I’ve read several articles recently that claim that buy and hold as a strategy is dead.  In words that my father might use: Horsefeathers! << MORE >>
Posted by Bootstrap at 5/15/2009 5:44 PM | View Comments (2) | Add Comment

A Couple of Hacks


Bootstrap Investing has been featured in the last two Money Hacks Carnivals. ...<< MORE >>
Posted by Bootstrap at 5/15/2009 5:32 PM | Add Comment

Gambling, Speculation or Asymetrical Returns?



As an investor that is highly focused on fundamental research, I crunch through a lot of companies.  The majority of companies that I analyze are rejected relatively quickly.  The combination of a strong balance sheet, good financial returns, history of profitability and good long term growth prospects is difficult to find.  The interesting thing about all this sifting is that you end up being exposed to lots of different companies and many different types of potential investments.  When you look at the attributes previously listed (and more!), what you see is that I have a tendency to look for investments with limited downside.  And by downside I don't mean the likelihood that the stock price will drop, that happens to most companies eventually, but the likelihood that the company risks permanent impairment that will dramatically change its future earnings abilities.  I like to think of it in terms of probabilities. I'm looking for companies that have a high probability of a high return. Mathematically you might say I'm looking for investments that have an 80% probability of 50-100% return.  In this post, I'd like to explore something that I often find instead: low probability, high(er) return investments.  Let's call them LPHR's.<< MORE >>
Posted by Bootstrap at 4/27/2009 6:38 PM | Add Comment | Trackbacks

Why Dividends Suck


I’ve been reading a lot lately about dividend investing.  I understand the popularity, when the markets tank it ...<< MORE >>
Posted by Bootstrap at 4/20/2009 9:40 PM | Add Comment | Trackbacks

Bootstrap On Festival of Stocks


Our recent post on Thor Industries was selected for Festival of Stocks at the Stock Market Prognosticator.  You ...<< MORE >>
Posted by Bootstrap at 4/15/2009 7:51 PM | Add Comment

Company Update: Thor Industries


Ahhh, Thor: God of Thunder, RV maker and heart breaker…  I last wrote about Thor on September 15th.  ...<< MORE >>
Posted by Bootstrap at 4/11/2009 9:29 PM | Add Comment
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