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 ever
When 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 learned
- 90% of investors don’t know the actual outlook of a company, even if they’re experienced in reading a balance sheet.
- Though difficult, invest in a couple of companies based on their fundamentals.
- Diversify your portfolio.
Andrew’s takeaways
- Just like investors, most companies also don’t know their actual outlook.
Actionable advice
Diversify your portfolio and limit your risk by buying more companies or investing less.
Jeroen’s recommendations
Jeroen 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 months
Jeroen 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
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