So you want to be the next Warren Buffett?
The man himself famously started out by reading all the books in the Omaha Public Library with "finance" in the title. Over the years, Buffett took that knowledge and turned it into investing tips that have helped countless investors. The Motley Fool has even taken the best of Warren Buffett's wisdom and packaged it in a new special report that you can get free just by clicking here now.
Today, we also have blogs that can make the learning process quicker. But with so many blogs out there on the subject of value investing, the quality of content varies widely. So here, in my opinion, are the 10 best value investing blogs for you to follow and what you can learn from them.
1. Contrarian Edge
Why you should follow it: Two reasons. One is that its author, Vitaliy Katsenelson, is a well-known value investor who's been dubbed "the new Benjamin Graham" by Forbes. The other is the wonderfully eclectic nature of its content, ranging from insightful analysis of popular stocks like Apple and Amazon.com to musings on Tchaikovsky.
Philosophy: "I invest, I educate, I write, and I could not dream of doing anything else."
Sample post title: "Why Investors Hate Apple -- and Are Dead Wrong"
2. ValueWalk
Why you should follow it: This site started in 2010 as a simple value-investing blog but has mushroomed into a popular site delivering breaking news, analysis, and syndicated content from other blogs. Expect multiple posts a day, as well as useful resources like a list of books recommended by Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger, and other gurus.
Philosophy: "Many academics claim investing is a random walk. We believe this to be partially true, but believe that value investing can outperform the market."
Sample post title: "Follow Up On Technical Analysis And Why To Avoid It"
3. Brooklyn Investor
Why you should follow it: Well, not for the design, which is old-school BlogSpot. The draw here is the supremely detailed posts analyzing individual securities, taking extracts from annual reports and investor presentations and explaining what they mean for investors. Even if you don't plan to invest in the companies in question, the posts offer great insight into some good ways of researching a stock.
Philosophy: "Random Thoughts on Investing and Investment Ideas."
Sample post title: "Alleghany Corp Investor Day"
4. The Aleph Blog
Why you should follow it: Asset manager David Merkel has been blogging since 2007, covering a range of different topics but accumulating almost 700 posts on value investing. He looks at both individual stocks and more general investing principles, and his posts are full of detail but easy to follow.
Philosophy: "To fight for what is right in money management, and encourage readers to pursue strategies that reduce risk and enhance returns."
Sample post title: "If Investing Were Free, How Would It Change What You Do?"
5. Wexboy
Why you should follow it: This blog spends a lot of time analyzing Irish stocks, which may not immediately seem useful to people from other parts of the world. But even if the companies are unfamiliar, the methods are classic value investing, picking through the numbers and trying to uncover value other investors have overlooked. And the breezy writing style makes it fun to read!
Philosophy: "I think the most valuable 'skill' any investor can wish for is a little dose of humility."
Sample post title: "The Great Irish Share Valuation Project"
6. Greenbackd
Why you should follow it: Author Tobias Carlisle runs a value investment firm and has some smart insights on value investing. His posts often introduce interesting research on subjects like negative-enterprise-value stocks and present them in a way that the rest of us can understand.
Philosophy: "Deep value, contrarian, and Grahamite investing."
Sample post title: "A Market of Stocks? Distribution of S&P 500 P/E Multiples Tightest In 25 Years"
7. Value Investing World
Why you should follow it: This blog takes a cerebral approach, bringing in a broad range of articles on investing and economics that are relevant to value investing, along with quotes from people like Seneca and Einstein.
Philosophy: "Promoting the multidisciplinary approach to investing."
Sample post title: "Marcus Aurelius quote"
8. The Graham Investor
Why you should follow it: Posts here aren't released very often -- just once or twice a month -- but they're usually well thought-out. And the worth of this site lies not only in the blog posts, but also in the stock screens to help you find investments that meet the criteria proposed by famed value investor Benjamin Graham.
Philosophy: "I am generally a long-term value investor and try to use as many of Ben Graham's principles as possible."
Sample post title: "Has Your Portfolio Suffered an ACL Tear?"
9. Old School Value
Why you should follow it: This is a long-running blog with five years of value investing posts, some of them collected into series of tutorials that are a great way to learn the basics. Owner Jae Jun also writes very detailed posts analyzing particular stocks using a variety of valuation methods to show you how value investing works.
Philosophy: "Provide practical and actionable value investing tools, tutorials and educational material to help empower the individual investor."
Sample post title: "Stock Analysis Lesson with CommVault Systems"
10. Long Term Value Blog
Why you should follow it: Some bloggers tend to trumpet their successes and gloss over their failures. This one is refreshingly honest, charting its owner's real-life investing experiences and analyzing both what worked and what didn't.
Philosophy: "Value Investing for the Long Term."
Sample post title: "What went wrong in 2013"
