Data, Valuation and Fundamentals-Driven
I've been a value investor since 2008 after my first 50% loss. Now my investment mantra is VALUATION, VALUATION, VALUATION.
I've adopted the value investing style because it's what resonates with me. It just makes sense. We can all see that the market is not totally efficient, otherwise, how could AAPL be up something like 44% in the first 9 months of 2019?
So, if the market has pricing opportunities, then it must be the case that there are companies out there available at attractive prices relative to their quality. Developing and honing a repeatable approach to identifying such opportunities became a driving passion, so here we are.
Sign up below and I'll send you a set of investment checklists to help you start with that. I also spill my guts on everything I learn throughout my valuation and investing journey.
-Mike, CEO of Old School Value
WHAT DEFINES OUR CULTURE, BRAND AND STRATEGY
Our Core Values and Commitment to You
Customers = house guests
Each interaction is a relationship. Every customer, reader or visitor is our house guest. We will treat you with the respect and honor we give to our own house guests.
People > money
We believe that revenue is a result of how we connect with you. We do not seek short term sales or "quick" marketing tactics. Our goal is to build and serve a community of like minded investors.
Be honest + transparent
We openly admit and share our values, learnings, mistakes and the way we run our business. We do not sell anything that we do not use ourselves.
Pursue growth & learning
We try everyday to learn and improve our life, lives around us, our thinking, relationships, investing skills, products, customer service and internal culture.
Our Story
Humble Beginnings
Our founder, Jae Jun, made his first "investment" in variable life insurance. He wised up later and forfeited the $5,000 he put in.
He realized nobody cares about his finances as much as he did. That day, he decided to take control of his finances. Never having studied finance, investing, economics, business or programming, it was an uphill battle.
Lessons from Ben Graham, Warrren Buffett, Bruce Greenwald, Joel Greenblatt, Seth Klarman, Howard Marks and countless other investors helped. And from those beginnings, Old School Value was created.
An Investing Journey
In 2018, our current CEO, Mike, took over. He got his start as a dividend growth investor in the early 2000s.
He worked at McKinsey, where he was on an M&A project with Tim Koller, the author of Valuation. He saw people automate sophisticated Excel spreadsheets that pulled the latest financial data and ran DCF valuation analyses, and set out to find a way to get this for himself.
Our goal at Old School Value is to always spill our guts with you about our mistakes and our learning.
He got his MBA from Dartmouth, studying investments under Ken French, of Fama-French fame.
Then, he worked at Microsoft, and was surrounded by people who talked a big game about their personal portfolios. When the market crashed in 2008-9, Mike pulled all his money out, expecting things to keep dropping. They didn't, and he didn't get back into the market until he'd missed a 30% gain.
From then, Mike resolved to avoid market timing and focus on core valuation fundamentals.
Our goal at Old School Value is to always spill our guts with you about our mistakes and our learning.
To read our hard learned lessons, sign up with your email at the top of the page .
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