Thread by @anandchokkavelu

81. (cont.) The digital equivalent today is turning off real-time news and Internet feeds and reading more thoughtful analysis.

82. Any of the most successful investors you can think of, no matter how different in style (Graham, Fisher, Buffett, Lynch, Davis, Simons, Soros, David Gardner, Klarman, Sequoia Capital, etc.), have a resilient framework that fits their mentality and stays stable for decades.

83. It's not the rewards you don't understand that'll burn you, but the risks you don't understand.

84. The guy who invented the P/E ratio (James Slater) on small caps: "Most leading brokers cannot spare the time and money to research smaller stocks. You are therefore more likely to find a bargain in this relatively under-exploited area of the stock market." (cont.)

84. (cont.) Of course, because there is less interest and less Wall Street coverage, doing your own due diligence is that much more important. The same holds for other underfollowed areas of the market, like special situations.

85. If you can learn quickly from your own mistakes, you're ahead of the game. If you can learn quickly from others' mistakes, you've won the game.

86. Costco's Jim Sinegal on why you can't pay too much attention to Wall Street:

87. If it seems too good to be true...

88. Buffett's concept of the "circle of competence" is important: "There are all kinds of businesses that I don't understand, but that doesn't cause me to stay up at night. It just means I go on to the next one, and that's what the individual investor should do." (cont.)

88. (cont.) Also consider Steve Jobs' quote: "Focus is about saying no." For a great book on saying no, read Seth Godin's tiny book, "The Dip."

89. The stock moves I've made based solely on the advice of others -- e.g., "He's a good energy analyst and he loves this oil stock," or "This famous stock picker is buying X!" -- have generally been disasters.

90. If you can read a dissenting opinion without resorting to an ad hominem attack, you're at an advantage.

91. Downer alert: We like control, but we can't control everything. Life and luck can (and will) trump investment plans. You can do everything right and still die penniless. All we can do is give ourselves a better chance to succeed.

92. The free lunch exception: Your company’s 401(k) match. A 100% return is really hard to beat.

93. When you get FOMO on the latest IPO ... The year 1986 marked Coca-Cola's 100-year anniversary. If you had bought shares to commemorate the occasion, you'd be sitting on something like 20 times your initial investment + dividends. Time waits for no one -- but stocks will.

94. How can we get rich? Per economics professor Jay Zagorsky: "Staying married, not getting divorced, [and] thinking about savings." To those, I would add having the proper insurance coverage.

95. There are more than 5,000 stocks on major U.S. exchanges. A great stock picker finds one great stock idea a year. Don't let the ones that got away frazzle you into buying the ones you should have ignored.

96. The Pink Sheets and over-the-counter markets are where sketchy penny stocks live. Do yourself a favor and stick to stocks on major U.S. exchanges -- preferably ones with market caps of more than $200 million. And never, ever heed penny stock spam emails.

97. When I learned to drive, I nervously focused on each upcoming parked car. My father told me to focus down the road and the parked cars would take care of themselves. Perhaps my first lesson in investing.

98. It’s not so much about buying low and selling high … it’s about buying quality and not selling often.

99. For the penultimate lesson, let's turn once more to Warren Buffett, who briefly said in his 2004 shareholder letter what took me 98 bullet points to say:

100. Despite my best efforts to improve each day, I will repeatedly and thoroughly fail to heed these lessons. Let's hope you're better at No. 85 than I am.

Fin.