Equity Mates Investing Podcast

We continue on our quest to try and think like the worlds greatest investor, Warren Buffett. If you missed the previous episode, it is a must listen before you continue with this one, as we begin answering 9 questions the master investor himself tries to answer when he's looking to buy a company. Mary Buffett, his daughter-in-law, has written a book called Buffettology, where she uncovers some of the practical techniques Warren uses to invest.  We have both chosen a company each and we're seeing how it stacks up against the 9 key questions. Last week we looked at the power of the brand name of each of the companies, and how strong consistent the earnings were. This week we delve into what the companies do with their earnings. In this episode you will learn: do the businesses get to retain their earnings, and what that actually means how much the businesses spend on maintaining their current operations and why that is very important to know what 'goodwill' means and how to watch out for it Stocks and resources discussed: Buffettology - Mary Buffett Resmed (ASX: RMD) Boral (ASX: BLD) To keep up to date with the latest in the world of investing, and get tailored articles for the Basics 101 of investing, sign-up to our weekly Thought Starters email. Knowledge is power!

Warren Buffett is one of the worlds most successful investors, amassing a fortune of over $84 billion dollars! Wouldn't it be nice to be able to think like Warren Buffett? Well now you can! Warren's daughter-in-law, Mary Buffett wrote a book called 'Buffettology', which delves into the thinking of Buffett. It's a fantastic book - a must read. Towards the start of the book Mary talks through 9 key questions that Buffett will always ask when he's determining if a stock is worth buying. These are questions that anyone can answer. You don't need a degree or much knowledge in investing to have a crack at answering these yourself. This episode we each choose a company and answer the first 4 questions ourselves, to see if we've chosen a company that Buffett himself would invest in. In this episode you will learn: If our businesses have an identifiable consumer monopoly If the earnings of our companies are strong, and showing upward trend If our companies are conservatively financed If the companies of choice consistently earn high rate of return on shareholders' equity Stocks and resources discussed: Buffettology - Mary Buffett Resmed (ASX: RMD) Boral (ASX: BLD) To keep up to date with the latest in the world of investing, and get tailored articles for the Basics 101 of investing, sign-up to our weekly Thought Starters email. Knowledge is power!

An investor walked onto the trading floor and asked "What's the difference between $300k and $4.3 million?"... "Fees!" yelled a savvy investor. "Haha what a joke, the answer is my boat!" yelled a fund manager. Both are right, but warning this is NOT a joke. Last week Bryce found a tweet that sparked conversation with Alec. We both know that avoiding fees is one of the golden rules to successful investing but when we saw the HUGE difference it can make. Here is the tweet:   Fees stop your money from growing, and as a beginner, the better understanding you have of the impact of fees, the better. Over a lifetime, fees can be the difference between early retirement and a struggling portfolio. This episode we discuss investing fees - what they are and how to avoid them. In this episode you will learn: What to look for in investment fees Transaction fees Expense ratio Investment management fees Ways to avoid paying fees Stocks and resources discussed: ASX Exchange Traded Fund tracking the US Top 500 Companies: IVV ASX Exchange Traded Fund tracking the US Top 500 Companies: SPY Cheapest ETF tracking the ASX Top 200 companies: A200 Free brokerage platform to trade stocks in the US: Stake Check out our Thought Starters email for all the news articles Ren spoke about. Until next week!

Graham Cooke is the Insights Manager at comparison website Finder.com.au. We spoke to him to gain the benefit of his work at Finder and to better understand how we can maximise our savings and capitalise on the new wave of investing apps and platforms that are coming to Australia. In this episode you will learn: Why understanding the RBA cash rate is critical to achieving your savings goals Where you can find the best interest rate for your savings About Peer-to-Peer (P2P) lending and why it offers a higher interest rate than traditional banks The generational divide in market participation Why only 25% of Australians have invested outside of superannuation The different services offering brokerage free transactions in Australia Services available to people who don't think they have the money to invest A platform designed to open up the property market to Australians Stocks & Resources Discussed: Finder.com.au homepage Finder.com.au's bitcoin mining article ME Bank Rate Setter Robin Hood Whaley Stake - Equity Mates landing page Raiz Invest (formerly Acorns Australia) Brick X Business Insider's article on Brick X

[This episode is brought to you by Stake - The Australian investing platform offering access and free brokerage to US markets. For more information & to sign up check out: equitymates.com/stake]   With so much going on in the financial world, we couldn't fit all of our catch-up into one episode. So for this episode we bring you part two of our catch up. In this episode you will learn: Some of the major findings coming out of the Banking Royal Commission Why Tesla has halted production of their mass-market car, the Model 3 About China's recent tariff on Sorghum (and how we predicted this in our Trade War episode) Why the major tech companies are looking to build their own microchips The books the boys have read recently Stocks and Resources Discussed: Banking Royal Commission $200 million paid by customers for services they didn't receive AMP mislead the regulator CBA continued giving credit to a known gambling addict HSBC money laundering story Tesla Halted production of Model 3 Sorghum & The Trade War China impose 179% tariff on US sorghum $216m fleet of sorghum heading towards China diverted Wondering why this little known crop was the target of Chinese tariffs? Microchips Amazon is following Google & Apple into making their own chips Facebook looking to build team to design own chips Books we're reading Buffettology - Mary Buffett One up on Wall Street - Peter Lynch Secrets for profiting in bull and bear markets - Stan Weinstein Trade like a stock market wizard - Mark Minervini Lords of Finance: The bankers who broke the world - Liaquat Ahamed  

With a lot going on and things moving very quickly we took the opportunity to sit down and catch-up on a few things that have piqued our interest over the last couple of weeks. In this episode you will learn: About the battle for Flipkart in India, between Walmart and Amazon Why Alec would buy Walmart, but Bryce would buy Amazon How the markets have performed since December - are we up, down or flat?   We've teamed up with Stake, who offer the easiest way to trade stocks in the US. They offer free brokerage, and now if you sign-up and fund an account they'll top up your account with $25! Free brokerage and $25 to get your trading journey in the US started. Sign up here

There's a new player in town and they're offering free brokerage if you want to buy stocks in the United States! And I mean, who doesn't? With some of the world's biggest companies, largest markets and exciting new technologies, the States offers a fantastic opportunity for Australian investors. But how do you get into the markets in the US, I hear you ask? Gone are the days of paying hefty brokerage fees through your local broker for international shares, because now you can buy through STAKE - a fantastic new Australian company offering all Australians the ability to buy stocks on the markets in America, with no brokerage! And there's no catch! Stake was the brain child of CEO Matt Leibowitz, an energetic, and incredibly experienced, trader. Matt is one with the markets.  He lives and breathes them. Having spent time trading with Optiver over in the States, Matt realised that Australians were missing out, so on returning home, he set about creating Stake. In our interview with Matt discuss everything from his early days as a lawyer, and the transition to trader, through to his current views on volatility, and his hot buy/hold/sells. In this episode you will learn: What Stake is, and why it's shaking up the industry in Australia The best time to use a stop loss Strategies for protecting your portfolio in a downturn How Matt has gone from trader to businessman Matt's biggest learning after trading through the GFC Matt's 'must reads' to become a better investor The best part? Stake is offering to help start your journey. If you create and fund a trading account (it takes 2 minutes), they'll put $25 bucks in. Considering you can buy partial shares with them, that's 1.6% of an Amazon share, for free! Click here to redeem How it works: Set up a funded Stake account and they'll top up your account in USD. You'll get an email when the $25 top-up has arrived! If you don't receive the the top-up within a week of sign-up, then shoot them an email. It's that easy!

'Shorting' is an investing technique to make money if the price of a stock/asset/commodity goes down. For those familiar with the movie The Big Short - that is how investors made money betting on the collapse of the US Housing Market.  We thought it was a good time to do an episode on short selling because we've just seen a not-so-big short grab headlines in Australia. Blue Sky Alternative Investments has been targeted by American short sellers, and we're taking the opportunity to discuss this case. In this episode you will learn: What short selling is, and the two main ways it is done The rise of activist short sellers and some of their tactics Why American investors are targeting the Australian company Blue Sky What the response from Blue Sky was and how the market reacted Stocks and Resources Discussed: Blue Sky Alternative Investments (ASX: BLA)

Ever wanted to invest in a company but later found out they're not public? They're privately held, by family members or early stage investors and venture capital funds. Companies like Mars, Aldi and Lego are still privately held, so members of the public, like you and me, are rarely able to invest! However sometimes these companies do become public, and this is called an Initial Public Offering, or IPO. An IPO is the process of a company opening up to the markets for both retail (you and me) and institutional (the big investment banks) investors to get a piece of the pie. There are various reasons for an IPO, such as the the company needing to raise money or the early investors wanting a return on their initial investment. Whatever the reason, IPOs present a great opportunity to get into a company when they first hit the market. In this episode you will learn:> What an Initial Public Offering is> How you can become incolved in an IPO> The risks of IPOs for investors and companies> Some of the biggest IPOs in the last 20 years Stocks and respurces discussed: > Spotify> Dropbox

Tesla, the electric car company started by Elon Musk, has had a tough few weeks. A number of issues have come to a head and the share price has fallen from a recent high of $357 to $252 at the time of recording. In this episode we have a look at the four major reasons for this fall and unpack our main take-aways. In this episode you will learn: About the recent crash of a Tesla driving on auto-pilot The size of Tesla's debt problem Why 123,000 Tesla Model S cars have been recalled How ongoing production delays are raising questions The boys main take-aways from Tesla's troubles Also what happened with interest rates this week Resources Discussed: Bloomberg's Tesla Production Tracker

There's a lot happening in the news at the moment so we're using this episode to break down two of the biggest stories. Firstly, we look at Wesfarmers' recently announced Coles demerger, and break down what it means for Australia's second biggest supermarket. We then discuss the brewing 'trade war' and question whether its something we need to worry about. In this episode you will learn: Why Wesfarmers is demerging from Coles What the boys think about Amazon or Wal-mart purchasing Coles The history that has led up to this potential trade war How Trump's tariffs came at an opportune time for US-Canada trade negotiations Why the EU are targeting Bourbon, Blue Jeans and Harley Davidsons for their tariffs What Sorghum is, and why it is relevant to the trade war

Bulls and bears, they're everywhere! No, we are not talking about a circus, we're talking about the markets! You may often hear the terms 'bull market' or bear market', or 'investors are feeling quite bullish at the moment'. In this episode we explore the terms 'bull' and 'bear'. Bull markets and bear markets are terms used to describe the overall sentiment of the market. A bull market being one that is in an upward trend, with investors feeling very confident about the future, and a bear market one in which the overall trend is down, and investors feeling rather pessimistic about the future. More importantly, we discuss what you can do in each market to ensure you maximising the returns on your money. In this episode you will learn: The definition and charactersitics of a bull and bear market Where the terms originated - it's not what you think! The two most important tactics you can impliment in each market What the Equity Mates boys are currently doing in this bull market

Don't panic, it's just a correction!.. is what the wise man once said to his son who almost sold everything he owned because he panicked when the market dropped a little. In February 2018 we the Dow Jones in the USA, experienced a number of days of heavy losses, that subsequently lead to an official correction being called, and this resulted in most other markets in the world going into a correction as well. But what is a correction? In this episode you will learn: The definition of a correction and the market conditions required for it to official How mnay corrections we have had over the past 40 years What we did in the most recent correction with our money - did we panic and sell? How to navigate your way through a correction and prepare yourself for the next one Stocks and resources discussed A brief explanation of what occurred

The rules were simple: pick one stock each and the winner is the one whose stock gained the most, in percentage tersm, buy the end of the year. Alec chose insurance comparison website iSelect, and Bryce chose pharmaceutical company Mayne Pharma. This episode we review where our picks are at and who is winning! In this episode you will learn: How NOT to pick a stock How these two companies performed over the last half The highlights and lowlights from the reporting season for each company Who is winning! Stocks and resources discussed: Mayne Pharma ASX:MYX iSelect ASX:ISU  

Each year there's one letter everyone waits up all night for the release, and if you haven't yet, then you need to put it in your diary for next year. That's right - Warrenn Buffett's 2017 annual letter to shareholders was released recently, and it's always FULL of great advice, updates and insights into the mind of one of the world's best investors. This episode we take you through his letter, unpacking some of the more important parts. In this episode you will learn: - How Warren took home $29 billion for doing nothing- How patience and discipline pay off- Which company Warren bought in 2017 that made him ~$1 billion profit Stocks and resources discussed: - http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/2017ltr.pdf