Reading - Sometimes the Path to New Investments is Non-Linear

I was prompted to pen this article while browsing The Investor's Field Guide  http://investorfieldguide.com/

Patrick O’Shaughnessy, author of Millenial Money: How Young Investors Can Build A Fortune, reports regularly on his reading.  It is eclectic.  He describes the site as follows:

If you are interested in beating the market—but understand that doing so will always be very difficult—then you have come to the right place. This site in an ongoing investigation into stocks, markets, investing strategies, and ways of thinking.

Almost all of my best ideas have emerged as a result of parallel thinking aided by another process that is described in the next paragraph.

While at university, I used to work part-time in the library.  My job was to return books to the stacks.  Often, my productivity would slow to a snail's pace as I would be sidetracked by scanning titles adjacent to newly returned books.  It was amazing what one could find on adjacent shelves – how seemingly unrelated books could open new insights.

I took this experience to heart and almost never used a library catalogue when conducting research for essays and the like – except for establishing some waypoints to start my voyage.  With a few references in hand, I would head to the stacks and then search outward from those references. Looking for nothing specific opened my mind to seeing new possibilities.

I use a similar approach while looking for investments.  One link leads to another and another and so on.

I often start my search by reading regional newspapers and trade journals.  Sometimes reading unearths the glint of an idea. Sometimes my pursuit of the idea leads to a dead end.  At other times, I strike gold.

The “discovery” of Questor Technologies is a case in point.  I started reading about oil companies and, somehow, came across Alberta Venture http://albertaventure.com/ .  I eventually found the Alberta Fast Growth 50 on the site and started exploring the list.  It yielded Questor and Rocky Mountain Equipment.  I checked it recently and have decided to explore some potential investments.

The list will function only as a starting point.  Where it might lead will be the function of my acuity and persistence and, above all, chance.  And if I don't find a mother load, I will have gained experience and insights which might, just might, build the capacity to recognize the potential of new forks in the road.  It's all great fun.

It literally pays to read.  I get very few ideas in the financial press: it's the stuff of investor relations flacks and columnists desperate to get stuff to meet their deadlines ... and dare I suggest it, editors' awareness of the need for revenues.  It's always best to chart one's own voyage.

Oh, and I bought a copy of Millenial Money as a Christmas present for my son.