🗣️ Investor Talk #32: Charlie Tian

CEO - GuruFocus

Welcome to Investor Talk — where we interview successful investors to uncover their journeys, strategies, and the lessons they've learned. Get inspired by real stories and gain valuable insights to sharpen your own investment approach.

Every interview follows the same set of sharp, insightful questions — such as “What is your investment strategy?”, “What are your highest conviction stocks?”, and “What’s the biggest investment mistake you’ve made?”

In this edition, we have the pleasure of interviewing:

Name: Charlie Tian
Age: 56
Residence/Country: United States
Invests since: 1998

𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻
I was trained as a physicist but became attracted to the stock market during the dot-com bubble in the late 1990s. Making money in the stock market seemed easy, but then I lost almost all of it when the bubble burst a few years later. Fortunately, I didn’t have a lot of money invested. That’s when I realized I knew nothing about investing, so I began to learn. I read extensively and taught myself accounting. I absorbed everything I could about Warren Buffett and Peter Lynch, including their shareholder letters and those of other great investors (Gurus). That’s how I truly began my journey into investing.

In 2004, I launched the website GuruFocus.com, which led to a wealth of interactions with users. I learned even more from them. In 2007, I left my job as a scientist at a telecom company to work on GuruFocus full-time. This year marks the 20th anniversary of GuruFocus.com.

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆?
Only buy good companies! Good companies are those with predictable earnings, a high return on invested capital, and the ability to grow at a reasonable rate.