I checked your site and your story is quite compelling. I agree with you that micro-caps are *usually* the right place to be, since there is far less study done on the companies and often wide disparities between price and intrinsic value (in both directions).

What role do you see mentality playing in the difference between successful and unsuccessful trading?

Recently, trading has been great, because there has been enormous volatility, but even shark traders have been known to go bust.

The thing about value investing is that it success is generally driven by a few positions - Buffett’s single greatest investment was his $11 million purchase of 15% of the Washington Post in 1974. At the time, the paper was trading at a market cap of $85 million, when the lowest estimate he could put on it was $400 million. Such investment opportunities are rare, but today that investment is worth $1.5-$1.7bn and produces more dividend income every year than Buffett’s original investment.

That’s the kind of boring I want. True, I don’t make many transactions and I often do not often get the thrill of saying “I made X dollars today (unless there is a tender for my shares), but I generate solid returns in pursuit of my own objectives and I am not slavishly devoted to following the markets.

Just know that I’m gonna spice things up because I’ve become all too aware that the vast majority know little about the stock market–they just don’t care. That is sad. Value investors are directly responsible for this, you think its only about gains and losses, you miss the thousands of beautiful subtleties. You’ve read my book you know what I mean. Ego aside, it’s time I show you sissies how to get people interested in this wonderful game

To say value investing is just valuing the worth of a company is actually not correct. That is one of the pieces, but you also need know when to time your purchases. Even value investors want returns.

Where I disgree completely is the booring and character bits. I personally don’t think the market is about building character. Its about plotting your moments to win. Nothing to do with character, but cold calculating actions.

Want to really know something interesting about value investing? If you do it right you get to play the cards when everybody else is panicing. You get to scoop up when everybody is crying chicken little.

Take the instance where Buffett wanted to bail out the bond re-insurers. That was classic Buffet. Buy on the mega cheap and piss off people because they had to admit that Buffett is right and holding all of the cards.

More importantly, value investors are booooooooooooring. Trading builds character. You don’t just value a company’s worth, you have to value a company’s worth during infinite slices of time.