Conscious Investing: Watch List & Model Portfolio

Getting the Most from Conscious Investor:
Four Interactive Phone Calls Every Month
for Subscribers

"I was part of the phone hook up with John last night. Could you please pass on to him how much I appreciated the opportunity, and look forward to being part of many future tutorials.

I have spent a long time looking at various investing software and see the Conscious Investor package as exactly what I need."

— Ian Bracher, Company Director

Conscious Investor conducts four interactive phone calls for subscribers every month. Two of these calls focus on how to use the software and two focus on how to choose and analyze companies using Conscious Investor. In each case, one call is aimed at the North American time zones and one is aimed at the Australasian time zones. Of course, subscribers are welcome to participate in any of the calls.

Using the Software Conference Calls

Professor Price spends about 15 to 20 minutes a week managing his portfolio and we want you to get to that point as quickly as possible. On these interactive live conference calls John will, along with you, open the software, do a screening, narrow down the companies and do a complete company analysis, answering questions as he goes through it on this call. There are no questions that are too small.

Even though we start right at the beginning, we recommend that you view the Conscious Investor Quick Start Videos before the call.

Stock Analysis Calls

If you would like to see how Professor Price does an in-depth analysis of a particular company, or if you would like to get some tips and techniques to help you learn the how, when and why of picking a great company and finally, if you would like to determine when and at what price to buy – then we are sure that you will benefit from joining this tutorial.

If you plan to join us, Professor Price welcomes you to email us with any specific companies you might be interested in; he may use them as an example in the tutorial.

In this tutorial we assume that you are familiar with the basic functionality of Conscious Investor. If you need to refresh your knowledge before the call, we recommend the Conscious Investor Quick Start Videos.

General Remarks

The calls will go for about 60 minutes but John will stay on the line until all your questions are answered. You are free to participate as much as you like.

For both calls we recommend the article Conscious Investor Watch List and Model Portfolio. Although it is aimed at understanding the Watch List and Model Portfolio, it is also a self-contained description of the general Conscious Investor analysis and selection process.

The dates, times and phone numbers are available through the members area.

Key Ideas from Warren Buffett

Invest in businesses "The basic ideas of investing are to look at stocks as businesses, use market fluctuations to your advantage and seek a margin of safety. That's what Ben Graham taught us… A hundred years from now they will still be the cornerstones of investing."
Circle of Competence "Draw a circle around the businesses you understand and then eliminate those that fail to qualify on the basis of value, good management, and limited exposure to hard times."
Return on equity "The primary test of managerial economic performance is the achievement of high earnings rate on equity capital employed."
Quality of management "We do not wish to join with managers who lack admirable qualities, no matter how attractive the prospects of their business. We've never succeeded in making a good deal with a bad person."
Return "We love owning common stocks - if they can be purchased at attractive prices. Unless, however, we see a very high probability of at least 10% pre-tax returns, we will sit on the sidelines.
Margin of safety "You have to have the knowledge to enable you to make a very general estimate about the value of the underlying business. But you do not cut it close. That is what Ben Graham meant by having a margin of safety. You don't try and buy businesses worth $83 million for $80 million. You leave your self an enormous margin."
Economic moat "Look for the durability of the franchise. The most important thing for me is figuring out how big a moat there is around a business. What I love, of course, is a big castle and a big moat with piranhas and crocodiles."