Financial Frameworks Podcast 37: Value Investing - A Practical Approach to Figuring Out Moats

Financial Frameworks: Better Decisions by Building on What You Know, Fundamentals & Value Investing

Financial Frameworks addresses the question "What is a wide moat stock?" in the first of a two-podcast discussion by providing an overview of how professionals define moat stocks - with a particular nod to Warren Buffett. And by taking a concrete and practical approach to the matter by looking at one stock in particular - Occidental Petroleum - using criteria outlined in the podcast and by present some professional investment opinions as to whether it qualifies or not. Guess what? There is considerable disagreement. The significant stake that Berkshire Hathaway has in Occidental (34% at this writing) is evidence that Berkshire is looking at Occidental in that light.

The discussion around Occidental makes it an excellent learning example because it is not a cut and dried proposition like a Coca Cola or Google. As Financial Frameworks always does, there are questions for listeners to answer. And all sources cited will be posted on Financial Frameworks website, https://finframeworks.com.

The next podcast will look at selecting moat stocks from the other end of the telescope by investigating how we - you and I - employ our investing skills in searching for moat stocks and counteract our biases to best analyze the information presented in this podcast. The next podcast will draw heavily from Daniel Kahneman and the late Charlie Munger. Who is currently being greatly missed at today's Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting. The reason for combining an examination of how you and I use our intuition to find and sort data with the objective information itself is my belief that both engines of our brains need to work together in order to succeed. Just having the data without examining how we make the "moat stock sausage" is only half of the process. Avoiding biases, counteracting impulses and selecting moat stocks in a disciplined process requires discipline as well as valuable information. I think you will enjoy both podcasts together.

Thank you for selecting Financial Frameworks as part of your financial education journey.

Mike Lehan