My Worst Investment Ever Podcast
Business:Investing
BIO: Jeroen Blokland is a long-term multi-asset investor with a long-term track record in financial markets. Jeroen worked at Robeco, the largest independent asset manager in The Netherlands, for almost 20 years before launching his independent investment research company, True Insights.
STORY: Jeroen’s first investment was in a Dutch company selling PCs. He barely did any research or due diligence. The company reported a loss of $27 million in the same year Jeroen invested. It later went bankrupt, leaving Jeroen with a massive loss.
LEARNING: Know the actual outlook of a company before investing. Diversify your portfolio.
“90% of the investing population doesn’t know the actual outlook of a company.”Jeroen Blokland
Guest profile
Jeroen Blokland is a long-term multi-asset investor with a long-term track record in financial markets. Jeroen worked at Robeco, the largest independent asset manager in The Netherlands, for almost 20 years before launching his independent investment research company, True Insights.
True Insights offers institutional and retail clients high-quality investment research to make better-informed investment decisions based on a proven investment framework covering Macro, Sentiment, and Valuation.
True Insights is currently offering a discount on its Subscriptions. Get a 20% discount on your Monthly Premium Subscription (add ‘MONTH’ in the ‘Have a coupon?’ section.) You can also get a 25% discount on top of the regular discount on our Annual Subscription (add ‘YEAR’ in the ‘Have a coupon?’ section.’)
Worst investment everWhen Jeroen decided to dive into the investment world, he knew nothing about investing and had no framework. He came across a Dutch company, Tulip Computers, the second biggest PC seller, next to IBM in the Netherlands.
Jeroen didn’t know anything about the company besides what they did. He looked in the newspaper and ranked the company’s 12-month performance from high to low. He figured it was a good investment. His genuine belief was this is how you make the most money.
The company reported a loss of $27 million in the same year Jeroen invested. In 1979 that was a very massive loss. Then the company went bankrupt, and Jeroen lost his entire investment.
Lessons learnedDiversify your portfolio and limit your risk by buying more companies or investing less.
Jeroen’s recommendationsJeroen recommends using information and research that’s already been done by others. Then determine if you need to gather additional information by yourself. He recommends Twitter as a massive source of helpful information—as long as you follow the right people.
No.1 goal for the next 12 monthsJeroen started a new business, and his number one goal for the next 12 months is to grow the knowledge part of the business so that more people have access to it.
Parting words“Continue investing because, in the end, it will work. Thank you for having me; it was nice.”Jeroen Blokland
[spp-transcript]
Connect with Jeroen Blokland
August Biniaz - Be a Specialist Not a Jack of All Trades
William Browder - Don’t Go to Russia
ISMS 41: Larry Swedroe – Focus on Managing Risk Not Returns
Chris Ball - If They’re Not 100% Right, Don’t Hire Them
Vivek Raina - Nobody Can Beat You at What You’re Good At
William Cohan - Power Failure: The Rise and Fall of An American Icon
Tony Fish - Be Brave to Ask the Unsaid Questions
ISMS 40: Larry Swedroe – Market vs. Hedge Fund Managers’ Efficiency
Chris Kendall - Don’t Underestimate the Funding Needed to Go Big Time
Riggs Eckelberry - Don’t Go into Any Industry Unprepared
ISMS 39: Larry Swedroe – Don’t Choose a Fund by Its Descriptive Name
Lark Davis - Take Your Profits and Run Away
Sam Primm - Be Intentional About What You Invest In
Marc Faber - The Value of True Diversification
Coach JV - Diversify Inside and Outside the Asset Class
ISMS 38: Larry Swedroe – The Self-healing Mechanism of Risk Assets
Solomon Thimothy - Give Yourself Permission to Fail
Anthony Greer - Be Patient and Willing to Get Rich Slow
Kevin Sutantyo - You Have to Back the Right Founders
Dan McClure - Understand Who You Are and What You’re About
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The Commercial Edge: Unleash the Power of People
The emPOWERed Half Hour
Aligned Money Show
Dubai Property Podcast
IBKR Podcasts
The Ramsey Show
The Clark Howard Podcast