Michael Batnick - The Not So Irrelevant Investor

Michael Batnick, author of The Irrelevant Investor blog (https://theirrelevantinvestor.com/) and Big Mistakes: The Best Investors and Their Worst Investments (https://www.amazon.com/Big-Mistakes-Investors-Investments-Bloomberg/dp/1119366550) and Co Host of The Compound and Friends (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-compound-and-friends/id1456467014 for Apple and https://open.spotify.com/show/5VKsKPZUtwVylxslLie36k on Spotify) stops by The Business Brew for a quick chat. In this episode Bill and Michael discuss Michael's book, his early days breaking into finance, his early investing style, and how he looks at the world now. They also touch on some personal chit chat at the end. Please note this episode was recorded before Bill's episode with Tom Gayner. Bill talks about Tom searching for ideas on the 52 Week High list. That part of the conversation is somewhat inaccurate and you should listen to Tom's episode for clarification. This episode is sponsored by Stratosphere.io.  Stratosphere.io is a web based terminal that has financial data, KPIs, links to filings, hedge fund letters, etc.  A key differentiator is Stratosphere.io’s segment data and KPIs, which are triple checked for accuracy.  Stratosphere saves users time, enables easy comparisons between companies, and offers company specific metrics such as subscriber counts, numbers of locations, etc.Head over to Stratosphere.io for a free trial.  Should you want to sign up for a paid offering please use the promo code BREW for 15% off. Detailed Show Notes 4:50 - Mark Twain as an investor 7:00 Mike's background and building an online presence 13:00 - How Mike got through a bad first job 18:00 - Dealing with emotions while investing 19:00 - How Future Proof started 21:00 - How Mike approaches The Compound and Friends 24:30 - Helping Clients 28:00 - Why people should consider buying stocks that have gone up 35:00 - Stock chit chat 37:00 - Writing Big Mistakes