I listened to an excellent YouTube by Christian Ryther from Curreen Capital on investment journaling. Here are my notes.
Q3 2021 hedge fund letters, conferences and more
- Journaling is underutilized and can make you a better investor.
- Journaling can help reduce mistakes and helps you make decisions under uncertainty.
- When you are considering buying a stock, you should write an entry that states all the reasons for buying the stock, i.e. the valuation is cheap, it has a favorable upside/downside ratio, etc.
- Also write a pre-mortem that imagines being years into the future and recording all potential downsides.
- This may uncover questions that can be answered by doing additional research.
- This is useful because it can redirect your attention to valuable uses of your research time.
- In summary: journaling 1) clarifies thinking, 2) identifies risks, and 3) informs research priorities.
- Sometimes this process leads to NOT buying a stock. Or if you do buy it you have a report on why you purchased it.
- All the above are immediate benefits but the journal also pays dividends over time by allowing you to go back and review your decisions and thought process. Without journaling these potential insights and learnings may be lost.
Article by Greg Speicher
