How to Write an investment Thesis?
(A written analysis that lays out The Case For Why a stock , Sector, Situation or Index Might Generate A compelling Return)
It’s a tool
that’s not used by many but if you ask an experience and successful investor
then they will tell you that an investment thesis is one of the most effective
components of the investing practice that not only keeps them focused but also
keep them intellectually honest and so in this video we should understand how
anyone can create an investment thesis and use it smartly to become a better
investor let’s begin investment thesis focuses on the wire that is why you
believe that a particular investment will deliver an attractive return and
asking so it acts as a guide to determine your next step now an investment
thesis does not need to be long for it to be effective in fact the thesis just
needs to contain the most important factors driving your decision to invest in
a particular opportunity in effect there are only 5 steps or guiding principles
to writing a thesis the first step is to determine an outline catalyst driving
your investment thesis something like is there a trend turns showing up like
what we are now seeing with electric vehicles or the commodity super cycle or
are there societal changes like more companies using gig workers or hybrid
working models to operate etcetera these trends and shifts can be regulatory
social cultural environmental economic disruptive technological short term long
term etcetera but remember at this stage you
If you are only
looking at the big moving parts once we have a big play build out with then a
sense how the investment or company is position within the catalyst this
typically includes things like market sizing that is a particular industry
worth pursuing the company standing with in the industry competitive advantages
growth runways business segments up 5 potentials valuation does it align with
your portfolio construction investment strategy etc. the output one looks for
here are some key drivers and metrics which are a part of your wider analysis
and projections in other words why does your investment look promising when
allocating any form of capital towards this opportunity the 3rd step is to
consider the biggest risks that the business faces these risks can be external
ones like regulatory supply of raw materials logistical challenges competitors
lawsuits recessions etc or it can be more internal such as too much leverage
attrition of talent week execution skills poo allocation of capital compliance
violations etcetera and while it’s good to jot down everything that could
negatively impact disinvestment keep your focus on the top 3 risks when
developing the thesis and the final step in the investment thesis creation
process is to write down once expected return and the level of conviction you
have in that investment to achieve that return assuming you are looking at
multiple proposals the steps will help you select the investment that is likely
to give you the highest risk adjusted return on a probabilistic basis so to put
it all together creating an investment thesis is not very difficult if one
follows these 4 steps in a sent it yes it does take time it requires a lot of
reading but as the Spartan set centuries ago he who sweats more in training
leads less in water but having said this here are a couple of useful tips which
can make this task a lot easier and a lot more effective the first step is to
not be very metric driven when developing the investment thesis what I mean by
this is that there has to be a balance in terms of the strategic financial and
operational parameters when developing the thesis or as the successful value
investor Martin Whitman rightly concluded based on my own experience rarely do
more than 3 or 4 variables really count everything else is noise
so keep the
invest In pieces to 3 or 4 simple bullet points to extract the maximum benefit
out of it a second trip to understand and imbibe is that the thesis creation process
in itself isn’t iterative one which often gets incrementally improved overtime
in that context I would suggest that once you are done with writing a thesis
using the 4 steps we have discussed don’t be in a hurry to release it instead I
recommend you keep it in your draw for a minimum of one week and use that time
to talk to ex employees suppliers customers vendors etc. for different
perspectives about the business which more often than not would enhance the
quality of your original thesis
Let’s walk through the investment pieces of a
company we all know apple now this is just one people that I’m putting forward
and as one can expect each of us can have a different point of view a different
length of using the company and the factors surrounding first part of the
research one would need to understand apples competitive landscape in strength
weaknesses opportunities and threats one would need to analyse the financial
statements talk to some ex employees vendors and customers identify the
competitive advantages etc. now once we are armed with this information or
whatever we can find it’s time to write down the main points on why one should
buy the apple stock so simple by case investment thesis for apple me look
something like this and while 7 points is a bit too much it does give us a
clear idea on what makes apple the formidable brand it is why does it resonate
with its users the growth that offers internal factors like its culture
execution skills the product pipeline and of course the financial justification
of it for the first time one looks at it these might seem like just words but
within every point are some key actionable that you as an analyst will need to
continue track for instance when tracking the strength of the brand but might
want to examine things like the global ranking of the brand the growth and its
market share the price elasticity demand and the impact that deals and
discounts have on product sales so yes developing a good well rounded thesis
does require some work and the more one Biggs in the higher are the chances of
uncovering the major risks that the company faces which is also a key element
of any investment thesis in fact one of the bigger advantages of researching
reviewing tracking writing and referring back to the thesis is that it keeps an
investor honest and his or her emotions at Bay than investing for example lets
say some news comes in that Samsung is launching a new fancy smartphone next
month what happens next is expected and there is absolute pandemonium in
Cupertino California and on Wall Street where the apple stock drops by 20%
there’s noise hear noise there people are even predicting the demise of apple
but for a smart investor like you the real question will be is the investment
thesis still intact if I expand that a bit the question is what impact is
Samsung new smartphone likely to have on Apple’s brand power its ecosystem its
growth its culture product cost etcetera to put it differently how likely is it
that Samsung new phone will take a big bite of the apple and if your answer to
that question from an investment thesis perspective is a resounding no then
everything that’s going on around you is just noise and the more we develop the
habit of constantly checking new information against our pieces the more will be
learn how to effectively filter out the noise which can do wonders to an
investment process on success
Let’s take another example at this time let’s
build an investment thesis around the cement sector and how one can use some
parts of thesis to identify the right companies to invest in now on a macro
basis we know a lot about the cement industry India is the world’s second
largest producer and consumer of cement industry is positively correlated to
our countries GDP it is expected to grow by 9 to 10% over the next 4 years its
cyclical have seasonal demand etc. a lot of this will be somewhere in the
thesis but the single point I want to focus on is this undifferentiated
commodity product with low stickiness this phrase is another way of saying that
the consumer or end user of cement is primarily concerned about one and only
one thing and that is the price of cement now as expected the price of cement
depends on its cost which effectively means that the lowest cost producer of
cement is the one who decides the market price of cement so essentially cost
competitiveness becomes a big part of the equation and will perhaps be the most
important bullet point of your investment thesis in fact let’s go a little
deeper into this now there are 3 main cost elements for the cement industry
which individually comprise 20 to 30% of the total cost these 3 variables are
the cost of raw materials the cost of power and fuel and the cost of
transportation the first one the raw materials part is centred around line
stone which means your ideal cement company should have a guaranteed access to
limestone mines and which is probably why cement companies are clustered around
limestone reserves the second cost element is power and cement companies depend
on a lot of power for producing it which is needed in the manufacturing process
now power generated from coal is cheaper than thermal wind or solar power which
is why it is used most and why the price of cement is aligned to the cost of
coal additionally cement plants that have a captive power generation unit have
lower costs as capital power is a lot cheaper than grid electricity and the 3rd
and final cost element revolves around transportation you see cement is a heavy
commodity and to sell it at a place that far from the manufacturing sector Is
never going to be a viable proposition which is probably why there is almost
zero competition in this vector when it comes to imports and while the cement
industry continues to innovate with clinkering grinding packaging etc the ideal
maximum distance from plant to the consumption centre should be within 300
kilometres for the operation to be cost effective so there you have it the 3
essential aspects that demand a large share of the cement industry investment
and if you were to transform this thesis into a stock selection criteria then
what you are really looking for is a company that has the lowest cost of raw
materials the lowest cost of power and the lowest transportation cost and with
this we come to the end of this Article
I hope you 2 can see what I am seeing the construct of a well research
investment thesis can hugely improve your investing decisions and make you a
most successful investor unfortunately most people don’t do this because it’s
hard work but if you’re keen on improving your skills.
if you have any
questions feel free to type them out in the comments box below and we will try
our best to answer them
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