We look at the Private Market Value of a business — what a rational, informed buyer would pay for the entire enterprise — and we buy when the stock market offers it to us at a significant discount.
A catalyst is what separates a cheap stock from a good investment. Without something to close the gap between price and value, you're just waiting indefinitely.
I learned from my days as a caddy that the fundamentals matter. You need to know the course, know the conditions, know the other players. Stock picking is no different.
Cable television was the tollbooth on the information highway before anyone was calling it that. You had one wire going into each home. That wire was worth a fortune.
I don't care what the Fed is doing. I care what the company is doing. If the business is worth fifty dollars and you can buy it for thirty, that is the analysis. Everything else is noise.
Patience is not passive. You do the work, you establish the value, you identify the catalyst, and then you wait. But you are always watching, always updating.