Introducing DYOR – Do Your Own Research

It may seem odd that a company that is writing reports on listed companies would start a blog called Do Your Own Research. But we think it is entirely consistent with what we and our clients are trying to achieve. Investment research is not supposed to be the end point of a journey towards making an investment decision.

Our goal is to explain the companies, their markets, their competition, risks, opportunities et cetera and to provide the fundamental building blocks of knowledge and understanding to make an informed decision having undertaken some further research.  What exact form that research takes will vary from company to company and from investor to investor.

With DYOR we are going to try to help investors with those further steps, considering some of the ways that professional small and mid-cap investors make their investment decisions and how to use some of the resources available to everyone.

This is not, however, going to be a guide to how to construct a small and mid-cap portfolio in the way professionals do. Fund managers have far more time to spend on their portfolios than private investors, but they typically have far less time available per stock.  They also have the relative performance monkey on their back.

Having more time available to consider the company means that private investors can possibly avoid the potholes that institutional investors are often lured into, as well as gain greater insight into the drivers that are going to push the company forward beyond the analysts’ three-year forecast period.

We have started the process with ‘Discounted Cashflow (DCF)’ and hope to build out the resource over coming months.

Ian Robertson

irobertson@progressive-research.com