From the bridge – year-end message

If you are interested in the inner workings of Undervalued-Shares.com and my plans for next year, then read on to learn more about:

• Why running real-life events is so useful for all readers.
• What I set as my writing goals for 2024.
• Which challenges I face operating Undervalued-Shares.com.

If you'd rather read about specific stocks, skip today's article and instead watch out for a very cool Weekly Dispatch tomorrow. It will cover a quirky sector!

2023: events, events, events

This past year saw me ramp up events with readers – finally!

Real-life meets and building a community had always been one of my top goals for Undervalued-Shares.com. After the pandemic, which had temporarily thrown a spanner in the works, 2023 offered a chance to deliver on the pent-up demand.

In May, 15 readers joined me on the investor trip to Turkey. Most of the Turkish companies we met only had vaguely interesting investment prospects, and trading Turkish stocks is near-impossible anyway. BUT the trip scored highly in terms of forging new friendships and professional contacts, and Istanbul proved a world-class location for such a get-together.

In July, I hosted a dinner with investment legend Harris "Kuppy" Kupperman. With nearly 40 participants, we totally maxed out the London venue's capacity, and enjoyed a raucous evening with a thought-provoking talk.

In September, I hosted dinners with Michael Steindler, a highly successful German private investor turned fund manager. How did he achieve returns of >25% p.a. for 23 years, where does he turn to in order to generate ideas, and what are some of the themes he is looking at right now? Attendance was 34 in Munich, 24 in Frankfurt, 22 in Hamburg, 10 in London, and 14 in Guernsey. Needless to say, I was chuffed about the demand!

In October, I brought a dozen readers onto the investor trip to Hungary. Contrary to Turkey, this trip hit the mark in terms of interesting investments. Participants judged OTP Bank, ANY, and Raiffeisenbank International as their top finds of the trip. All three stocks are up strongly since then. As one participant emailed me: "ANY has already earned back the costs of the trip."

In November, I organised the US East Coast meet-ups as my first-ever reader gatherings across the pond. New York City and Washington, D.C. were quite intimate with half a dozen participants meeting in a bar. In Miami, I teamed up with the Explorer Partnership, hosting a dinner for 25.

Each of these events helped to generate interesting content for Undervalued-Shares.com, meaning they benefited not just those of my readers who were able to attend (check out "11 highlights from our dinner with Kuppy" as an example, or some of my recent research reports which include inputs from experts met at these real-life events). Clearly, the Undervalued-Shares.com community is getting bigger, stronger, and better with each year.

I have thoughts on how to improve these events further, and have started to develop a simple tool to help event participants build new professional contacts and friendships. Building new relationships is a key reason why readers come to these events. "I don't have anyone in my existing circle of friends with whom I can talk about these subjects" is something that participants said on countless occasions.

In any case, 2024 will see more such events and in other geographies, too.

Research reports, articles, and other content

Earlier this year, the 250^th Weekly Dispatch got published. I am just a bit proud that every Friday – come hell or high water – I put one of these free articles onto Undervalued-Shares.com.

"How on earth do you manage to write so much?" is a question that I often get asked.

Personally, I actually feel that my writing output is quite inadequate. There are so many subjects and ideas that I would love to write about, but which are stuck in a queue – a backlog of at least 50 articles and reports at any given time.

Yours truly at work in Puerto Rico.

Also, writing is never work for me but sheer pleasure. I love exploring new subjects and letting my readers come along for the ride.

My goals for 2024 include:

• Write a few more research reports than I did on average during the past years.
• Tackle a few long-standing passion projects that I want to write about, but which take more time than your average article to research and write. These are:
• Stories that am uniquely positioned to cover because of my personal network, like "Nicholas Roditi – the phantom billionaire".
• Philosophical subjects that I have an intellectual interest in, like "zeitgeist, turning points, and the value of forgotten truths".
• True world-exclusive investment stories, like "Pinelawn Cemetery – making a fortune from 'land share certificates'".
• Create educational content that I know will be helpful for many of you.

Can I get all of this done, you may wonder?

In 2024, I will become stricter about protecting my mornings – my most valuable writing time. Putting up barriers so that no one can eat into my morning hours should help me produce 10-20% more content across the year, as a minimum.

To get off to a good start, I have rented a house in the remote Galapagos Islands for all of February, where I will not have anyone mess with my focus before midday. Bliss! (In case you are passing through Santa Cruz Island that month, do let me know. We can have a coffee – in the afternoon!)

Gearing up but staying small

Undervalued-Shares.com is still very young (today is its 5^th birthday!), and I do have the ambition to see it evolve and expand further. There are a few obvious missing aspects that would help you on your investment journey, and make this community grow further.

God willing, I intend to operate for a few more decades. I am in no hurry to rush through changes.

At the heart of Undervalued-Shares.com lies the idea that every single word was written by myself – and no one but myself.

That said, 2024 will generally see me lean more heavily on outsourcing tasks and hiring more staff. Heads-up, when you book event spaces next year, you'll probably hear from a colleague rather than myself.

Last but far from least, I'll also continue to lean on you – my dear readers – to help grow this operation. This past year, I have received INVALUABLE input from many of you, and in more ways than I can even keep track of:

• Ideas and research.
• Help with introductions and domain expertise.
• Frank feedback and constructive criticism.

Thank you for being part of Undervalued-Shares.com in 2023, and I am sending you my best wishes for 2024.

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