Almost everyone has a unique stock selection and investment method to invest in stocks. Some people are better than others at investing in companies and managing money. My question is what methods by multiple people have been repeated in contemporary history to be the most successful. Being a fundamental long-term investor I realize many people have made extraordinary gains in short time with options,chart analysis during bull markets and speculative "hey why not give it a shot" investments. It seems logical that companies are easier to predict than markets in my opinion. Yes, I realize the greatest hedge funds with huge turnover have returned 300%, like one where a commodity was speculated on. Can that be taught or repeated though like value investing taught by Ben Graham and implemented by Warren Buffett and others? What is best for the individual investor who has the skills to invest?

My thesis is this record of individuals who were all taught to invest in undervalued companies by Ben Graham is the best. The ideology and methods can be duplicated by many people and will continue to. Is it the best way to invest?

"The Superinvestors of Graham and Doddsville">

Current professionals would tell an individual to diversify in different asset classes and just accept market returns in stocks. They may also tell you the market is efficient so suck it up and trust in beta. Obviously to someone who knows how to appraise companies and stocks this is not the best alternative. I have a feeling, though not based on a lot of hard evidence that professional financial adviser's, in general mind you are biased toward U.S. investments because they themselves are connected and benefit from more money going into U.S. institutions. The cliche I always hear is foreign markets are to risky. The U.S. may well have one of the best economies in the world but surely there are other suitable areas outside of the U.S. Just buy the S&P 500 or the Wilshire and a small,mid and large cap index and your good they believe. I think there is something up with this.

Back to the posts main thesis. Although, it may be subjective to say THIS is the best way to invest because everyone is different with different goals and objectives I'd like to do a study or find academic scholarship on fundamental, buying companies vs. chart reading or strictly quantitative data like low pe,pb etc. in real life situations by real people not just a record of the data and drawing conclusions like some academia has done. So if anyone has or knows of any records of returns by more than one individual with say strictly chart reading,computer based etc in bull and bear market I'd like to see them. I don't mean that sarcastically. I really would like to get perspective and see if my ideology and bottom up stock selection is the best. My own little saying is "Opinions are only as qualified as the knowledge that form them." I have a feeling I won't be proved wrong. Enlighten me.
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blogs next update will be after Caribou Coffee's conference call on May 10, 2007 if not earlier. There may come a time when Caribou becomes a worthy opportunity and the blog will attempt to identify the time to buy if it comes(It probably won't be this quarter though) then amoung other things.
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