About Me

I’m an individual investor and advisor to micro cap companies (<$500m mkt cap). I had a choice early in life to take some of the money my parents saved for my college education and use that for college or to invest it. Well lets just say I did both.  I went to a less expensive state school while also dabbling in investing and that’s where the learning curve began.  I lost a small fortune the first couple years, but losing money is a great educator and motivator.  Later in graduate school I ditched more classes to go visit companies on the road.  Long story short, I learned from my mistakes, not from books or sitting in a classroom, and that’s why for some reason I’m half decent at what I do. Over the last decade I’ve taken what I’ve learned and have developed a pretty good instinct for the next big stock. I only invest in 2-4 companies at any given time, get to know the management teams, and sometimes advise them on how to grow the company and stock.

Investment Mission:
To make as much money as quickly as possible so I don’t have to worry about making as much money as quickly as possible again.

Life is too short to diversify:
I have always hated diversification ever since my first finance class in high school. The reason why an 8-10% average annual rate of return is considered excellent is because that is what we are taught. Life is too short to be spent wasting time in a job you don’t enjoy, a relationship going nowhere, or diversifying your investments. If you want to make big money in stocks, buy the big stocks when they are small stocks. Quite honestly, even though there are thousands of micro/small cap stocks that exist, only a handful have what it takes to make big sustained moves in stock price.

What do I do?:
I personally take large positions in a FEW micro/small cap companies that I believe are significantly undervalued. The key for me is finding companies that are hitting an inflection point in their business model where multiple expansion is likely in the near term.

From time to time I may also consult with the companies I invest in. My full disclaimer is here: www.iancassel.com/disclaimer