Disclosure: The following represents my opinions only. I am long ASCU, BNE, BTCC, CAPT, CGNT, DPRO, CDR, CVV, EQX, HSLV, KNT, LBC, MER, MMA, NDM, NRN, NXE, PTK/POET, RAK, TAO, TLO, TNZ, TUK, YGR (image credit to Semyon Borisov on Unsplash)
No one likes to wait. In this world of instant online gratification, patience is becoming an increasingly rare commodity, and yet, it can be one of an investor’s greatest assets. I’ve sometimes thought that the characteristics that make good farmers are the same characteristics that make good investors. Arguably, the invention of farming was a precursor to investing. I say that because both require investing time and resources in the present with the hope/expectation of a positive future outcome (i.e., return), all grounded in learnings from prior experience.
“Waiting helps you as an investor and a lot of people just can’t stand to wait. If you didn’t get the deferred-gratification gene, you’ve got to work very hard to overcome that.” — Charlie Munger.
No reasonable farmer would ever expect a crop to grow overnight, just as no reasonable investor would expect a company to reach its full potential within a week of learning about it. When growing crops, you’ve got to watch, and wait, and watch some more, and wait some more, and then eventually, one day, you wake up and realize that you’ve got a field full of corn, or potatoes, or strawberries, or whatever. Stocks are no different. You find them, you read up on them, you decide whether or not you like them, and then you make a call as to whether or not you want to plant some in the field that is your portfolio… then you see how you do.