- The prevailing practice is to search for potential investments on the basis of commonly-used metrics such as P/E, debt to equity etc. These metrics have been studied intensively by academics for a variety of reasons: the raw material is easily accessible, amenable to statistical manipulation (economics likes to pretend it is a "science"), and the results are easily published in a large number journals (meaning that the articles are the solution to the "publish or perish" working environment endured by academic researchers).
- Stock screeners "save" time on the part of analysts and investors.
- The results are "acceptable" or sanctioned because they fall within the orthodoxy of investment professionals. It is much harder and dangerous to depart from the herd by introducing original ideas which depart from orthodoxy.
I could go on. I have found that my best ideas have originated by reading widely and then thinking. Many times, the ideas have been generated by following leads discovered during my reading. For that reason, I read trade journals and regional news sources because they deal largely with the business of making a living - not investing.
Recently, I had another idea - the concept of reviewing slide presentations on a diverse range of subjects. Why?
- They are usually information dense and short - meaning that you can rattle through them very quickly and expose yourself to many ideas very quickly.
- Most present information using graphics - something which I process easily.
- The ideas are usually fairly refined and constitute an organization's attempt to put its best foot forward in the public eye.
- Some of them contain overviews of the general state of affairs in the subject area before focussing on the message of the moment. The overviews may be slanted in favour of the presenter's message but nevertheless, they are usually very cogent and comprehensive.
With this in mind, I started searching for compilations of slide decks. I hit a gold mine with SlideShare. The organization describes itself as follows:
Founded in 2006 with the goal of making knowledge sharing easy, Slideshare joined the LinkedIn family in 2012 and has since grown into a top destination for professional content. With over 18 million uploads in 40 content categories, it is today one of the top 100 most-visited websites in the world.
The material spans a variety of subjects including topics such as real estate, life style, technology, business, spirituality, science, social media etc.
Give it a test run with the viewpoint of looking for potential investment ideas. For example, here is an informative post on the future of agriculture:
The presentation was made by a representative of AgFunder, a company that I mentioned in an earlier post. You can subscribe to its informative newsletter free of charge.
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