Earlier this week, I invited Fool co-founder David Gardner into our brand-new Motley Fool studio space here in Alexandria, Va. We spent nearly an hour talking about the state of the retail investor here in 2013, his investing philosophy, and his current thinking on a half-dozen specific stocks in his Supernova universe.
What follows is the video in full (run time: 40:24); while we don't have a transcript, below the video player, you can view my questions for him along with the corresponding time stamps for his answers.
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Here are my questions, with timestamps:
0:17-1:52
There's evidence that despite a strong recovery since market lows in 2009, many Americans have sat on the sidelines, or moved out of stocks and into bonds or cash. What's your advice to those Americans who are moving into "safer" investments, or are scared or intimidated by the machinations of Wall Street and the stock market?
1:53-4:36
You once told me that despite having an extremely long-term investing horizon, you routinely check your stocks intraday for quotes and news. How can investors keep score of their companies while avoiding the day-to-day emotion of analyst upgrades/downgrades, earnings that beat/underperform expectations, fiscal cliffs, etc. – which may result in short-term, reactionary thinking?
4:37-7:34
How would you classify your brand of investing?
7:35-10:45
How has your investment approach/philosophy changed since early on in your investing career?
10:46-15:36
Two of your six signs of a Rule Breaker deal with valuation, but in a contrarian sense. In addition to "strong past price appreciation," you like seeing a stock deemed "overvalued" in the financial media. How did you develop those criteria?
15:37-19:12
Who would you put on your Mount Rushmore of Investment Thinkers?
19:13-22:27
What's the biggest misconception about your style of investing?
22:28-25:22
What's a reasonable portfolio size for a retail investor?
Specific stocks
25:23-30:40
Now let's turn to some specific stocks from the Supernova universe – recommendations of yours from Stock Advisor or Rule Breakers: First up is Facebook. You Tweeted in late November: "I am confident that #Facebook beats the market from here, next 5 years. #markthisdown." Facebook has an incredible platform/reach, but in its current form, it's just a display ad business. What makes you bullish on Facebook?
30:40-33:13
Even after its incredible 10-year run, Apple is both a "core" pick and "best buy now" of yours in Stock Advisor. How can the largest company in the world keep the magic going?
33:14-36:59
Two monster performers from last year are in the 3D printing industry, and you recommended both -- 3D Systems and Stratasys. Do you see this as a Coke-Pepsi kind of scenario -- that 3D printing/additive manufacturing will be big enough for both?
37:00-37:59
You first recommended Netflix almost 10 years ago now (in May 2003). It's been a bit of an enigma over the past two years or so, but you still rate the stock as a "best buy." As someone who has stuck with the company through good times and bad, what would cause you to consider selling Netflix at any point in the future?
38:00-40:24
What's one stock you don't like right now?
