I started my investing career in 2014 as a stockbroker in Colombo; the capital of lovely little Sri Lanka. Anyways, that is certainly not when I first looked into investing in equity markets. I grew up getting to know markets under the guidance of my dad who constantly lost money trying to beat the markets. However, when he did make money, he made it big – really big. He would come home and brag about how he bet on a stock that he knew was going nowhere but higher based on his insights into the possibility of an “earnings beat”.
I was curious to know how markets worked, and all I learned from him was that shares of companies listed on the Colombo Stock Exchange – or anywhere in the world for that matter – move up or down on a daily basis depending on whether it was good news or bad news.
While this answer was helpful in keeping me quiet until I grew up, I guess I was never satisfied with it. My interest in markets grew along with me, especially as my dad continued to complain about how rigged the system is. I always knew there had to be a better way to make money in stock markets, and it was just a matter of time until I figured it out.
Fast forward to today, I now am a CFA level 2 candidate and an Associate Member of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment in the United Kingdom. I went on from my slow start in Sri Lanka to join a prominent wealth management firm in Dubai that focused on US equities. Eventually, I decided to quit my 9-5 in February 2019 and focus on what I do best, and what I love the most – analyzing and writing about US market investments. If you want to know more about my career and background, I suggest you read this.
Throughout all these years, I figured out one important aspect regarding investments – there’s not just one way of finding winning stocks. However, it’s okay to fall in love with one strategy until you master that strategy to an extent where you know that it would continue to make you money for a very long time. For Warren Buffett, that approach was to invest in companies when there is “blood in the streets.” For Peter Lynch, it was using common sense to identify undercovered stocks with great growth potential before the rest of Wall Street does.
For me, it’s both. But, there’s one condition. Every day of the week, I would pick a small-cap stock over its large-cap peers if there’s nothing else that differentiates the investment characteristics of the company.
While I write for many renowned investment analysis websites in the world (go back to the ‘about’ section to know more), I always wanted to have my own platform where I discuss my best investment ideas with my readers. That’s how Beat Billions was born.
The idea behind the name of this website is quite simple. This website is dedicated to articles about small companies that would provide better investment returns than billion-dollar companies. However, I would, by no means, rule out investing in large-cap stocks. In fact, I have a couple of such stocks in my portfolio as of writing this article and there’s a simple reason for this. Whenever a large company is displaying the characteristics of a small company and is trading at attractive valuation metrics, I would not hesitate to jump on board. You may find me writing about such companies on a regular basis as well.
In my next article, I will discuss why I believe in small-caps stocks and the reasons behind my belief why small-cap stocks would outperform large-caps in the next decade. In the articles that would follow over the course of the next decade, I will write in-depth analyses on attractive small-cap stocks and macroeconomic developments that matter to all investors alike. If you want to be a part of this discussion, please scroll over to the top and subscribe with your e-mail address.
I’m super excited to be bringing on exclusive investment ideas to my followers and looking forward to connecting with my next article. Stay tuned!
