Would you benefit by keeping up to date with what the world’s best professional investors are thinking and doing? Independent Investor is a subscription-only newsletter that can help you do just that. Founded by Jonathan Davis, a columnist on the Financial Times since 2006, our service draws regularly on the ideas and insights of many of the world’s leading professional investors to explain what is happening in the financial markets today and to outline prudent strategies for preserving and growing capital. We also produce monthly market reviews and model portfolios.
Warren Buffett’s first rule of investing is: “Don’t Lose Money”. (The second is: “Don’t Forget Rule One”). We couldn’t agree more. The idea behind Independent Investor is not to provide financial news, which is readily available from other sources, but to focus on the current ideas and insights of the leading professional investors that I have got to know well over 30 years of following the financial markets.
In my experience nearly all professional investors draw heavily on ideas generated by their peers. The newsletter offers subscribers the same privilege. It is intended for both professional and serious private investors – anyone, in fact, who appreciates that it is asset allocation, not stock selection, that holds the key to successful money management. A good strategy, carefully implemented, will save you from losing money and help to preserve and grow your capital over time.
What’s on offer
New material is added to the website on a regular basis and published fortnightly as a newsletter. All the professionals featured are known to me personally and in several cases manage funds in which I invest myself. All editorial material is delivered electronically. The fortnightly newsletter is subscription-only, although anyone who signs up for the regular editor’s letter can receive a free email summarising the most recent content. Subscribers can access all the content at any time by logging in.
What it costs
Registering for the editor’s email is free. The newsletter itself is available in electronic format only. The current cost of a first year subscription (minimum of 24 issues) is £120 ($200). Subscribers to the newsletter also obtain preferential rights to attend Independent Investor’s regular investment seminars and conferences, known as the Alpha Society. These are typically held in London.
The investor panel
Those who I speak to on a regular basis include many well known fund managers and investment strategists. Regular participants include Anthony Bolton of Fidelity, Derek Stuart of Artemis, Sandy Nairn of Edinburgh Partners, Mark Dampier of Hargreaves Lansdown, Richard Buxton of Schroders and John Chatfeild-Roberts and Philip Gibbs of Jupiter Asset Management. Overseas professionals whose views I monitor or canvass on a regular basis include Jeremy Grantham of GMO, Ken Fisher of Fisher Investments, Bill Miller of Legg Mason, Gus Sauter and Jack Bogle at Vanguard, and globetrotter Jim Rogers. In all I have assembled a panel of some 40 professional investors whose views I monitor and comment on on a regular basis.
Investment phliosophy
Experience demonstrates that there is no shorthand route to investment success. Different approaches, and different investment styles, work well at different times. Tolerance for risk is not uniform. My own philosophy is therefore pragmatic and eclectic. All the most successful investors I know, however disciplined, invariably look to adapt their behaviour to market conditions, so combine elements of both topdown and bottom up thinking.
Market Analysis and Model Portfolios
Once a month I regularly run a series of screens on stock, fund and market performance over the previous month. These screens are useful both in identifying potential investments and in tracking the overall state of market valuations. I also report regularly on changes that I have made to my own family’s portfolios. This is not to persuade you to invest the same way that I do, merely to let you know where I put my monye (as well as my mouth).
Other Publications and Services
From time to time Independent Investor also produces books and reports in association with Harriman House. As well as my own titles, past books include Fundology by John Chatfeild-Roberts, a guide to investing in funds, and The Coming Credit Crunch?, a far-sighted report by the financial historian Edward Chancellor that predicted the onset of the global financial crisis. Independent Investor also holds regular monthly seminars in London at which subscribers can meet and debate with leading professional investors.
Further information
Samples of the material that we produce are readily accesssible. The website also includes a list of relevant books and articles about the art of investing and details of my own books and publications. Please note however that Independent Investor does not, nor is it authorised to, offer specific investment advice. Subscribers should also note carefully the investment warnings included on this site and in all published material.
Jonathan Davis 