Lessons from John Dorfman

John Dorfman has been writing a value-oriented stock market column for Bloomberg for nine years. Dorfman is an independent thinker and his columns have been a gold mine of original investment ideas. John is retiring as a Bloomberg columnist to devote full attention to his Boston investment firm, Thunderstorm Capital. I will miss reading his articles but I am sure he will prosper.

In his last column, Dorfman sums up what he has learned from nine years of intensive research of many investment strategies. I have extracted the first four points to preserve for posterity. They are deceptively simple, but I think they are extremely important:

One: Out-of-favor stocks are the best road to capital gains.

Two: Don’t be swayed by what Wall Street analysts say.

Three: High portfolio turnover is not necessary for good results.

Four: The investment value of a stock is independent of whether it has been moving up or down.