An Unknown Oracle

My life has changed significantly in the last five years as my career has evolved from that of a professional money manager to that of a writer.

When managing money full-time, I didn't spend much time thinking about my investment philosophy. It was well-defined and refined over many decades, and my time was spent executing that strategy.

There also was very little time to gather new wisdom from new sources.

That isn't to say that I thought I knew it all; rather, the learning process was driven more by the day-to-day operations of money management. We looked at the results and data and evolved our investment process accordingly.

One of the real pleasures (and surprises) of turning to writing is a return to active learning.

Part of that process is being introduced to great thinkers I was unfamiliar with.

One of these was recently introduced to me in a great note by my friend and colleague Herb Greenberg.

(By the way – have you checked out Herb's "On the Street" newsletter? Check it out here)

That author is a gentleman named Ed Borgato.

As Herb tells it, Ed began his career as a 19-year-old at Lehman Brothers and went on to become a broker and investment advisor before launching his hedge funds.

During that entire time, he also wrote a daily investment journal in which he chronicled his observations. I wish I had done the same!

He began posting these thoughts as an early Twitter adopter and a FinTwit community stalwart.

As we said – we don’t know much about Ed, but we DO KNOW that he has some great insights.

He still posts on X/Twitter but mostly posts his (awesome) insights from the past.

Here are some of our favorites…

This is one of our absolute favorites. The debate about "value" versus "growth" is one of the most useless in the financial media, which is saying something!

Don't worry about value or growth. Focus on finding GREAT companies at good prices, buy them, and then hold on for the long run.

This one made me chuckle!

Seriously, though, your goal as an analyst should be to find businesses that are so good that the government will eventually come after them for their success.

If you bought every one of those companies historically, you would be crushing the S&P 500.

This is an integral part of our “Plan the Trade, Trade the Plan” ethos.

You MUST have a plan, and you must be able to adapt that plan as the environment changes.

It all starts with being prepared before you go into the trade. Preparation is the key to winning.

One of our favorite sayings in technical analysis is “Price is Truth.”

You can never truly know why a stock is doing what it is doing, but you DO know what it is doing via the price.

Figure out a strategy that deals with the truth of price instead of trying to manufacture reasons for a stock movement.

This is an excellent insight for trading, investing, and life.

One key to success is to take whatever you LEAST want to deal with and deal with that first. 

It is also great advice in relationships. Take the topic you do not want to talk about and start by talking about that first.

This one could be the MISSION STATEMENT for us here at HX Research.

We believe that most of what you hear from Old Wall Street is not helpful and exists only to justify their fees.

Anyone can become a good (or even great) investor. Do the work, find mentors, Plan the Trade, and Trade the Plan.

Finally – this last one…

Ed seems like a humble guy!

Please do yourself a favor and follow him on X/Twitter…