Immunize Your Portfolio
August 26, 2019
Obliquity Achieving Your Goals Without Intending Them
October 22, 2019
Last month I explained how idiosyncratic stocks would immunize your portfolio against very volatile market conditions. These stocks continue to play an important part in the thoughtful allocation of capital that will result in an investor being ambivalent as to political and currency risks.
Idiosyncratic growth stocks are an important building block in achieving a balanced portfolio. The profitability of these companies is driven by their own fundamentals rather than shocks like the drone attack on Saudi Arabia. These stocks provide a shelter for investors and their strong growth trends are untethered to the macro environment.
And these companies are less exposed to the affects of the U.S. – China trade war, including potential currency fluctuations, they are either uncorrelated with interest rates or perform better in a “lower for longer” interest rate environment; they have dominant market shares; and they have individual catalysts on the horizon that promise to boost their shares. Hilton Hotels is an excellent example of an idiosyncratic stock.
The story of Conrad Hilton, the hotel group’s founder, is one of the most inspirational you will ever read. It provides encouragement for anyone who is hungry and ambitious.
Let me quote the great Conrad Hilton: “I was twenty-three years old. I had been working for eleven years. So far I had earned partnership in a store in the town in which I was born. But it was my father’s store. A.H. Hilton & Son. A.H. Hilton & Shadow? a small voice within me was questioning. Wasn’t it time I formulated a dream of my own? I had an idea…. To accomplish big things I am convinced you must first dream big dreams. True, it must be in line with progress, human and divine, or you are wasting your prayer. It has to be backed by work and faith, or it has no hands and feet. Maybe there’s even an element of luck mixed in. But I am sure now that, without this master plan, you have nothing”.
Conrad Hilton always wanted to own a chain of banks but frustrated at every turn he eventually bought a hotel in Texas and changed direction. Soon he owned a chain of shabby hotels but his dreams were much much bigger. He wanted his own “Hilton” hotel. The Hilton Hotel, Dallas, was a big project. In a race against time he raised a million dollars, and in 1924 construction started. After running short of cash twice the hotel opened in August 1925.
The El Paso Hilton opened in the fall of 1929, built at great expense, it was a crown jewel. But nineteen days later the stock market crashed.
In the depths of the great depression, deep in debt and with a court judgment against him and his clothes at the pawnbroker what did Conrad Hilton do?
He clipped out a picture of the newly completed Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York – arguably the greatest hotel in the world – and put it under his desk’s glass top. Owning it was a ridiculous fantasy yet it was a recognition that he had huge ambitions.
Conrad Hilton said: “Most people fail in life not because they aim to high and miss – but because they aim too low, and hit”. Many, many years later Conrad Hilton bought the Waldorf Astoria.
Today Hilton Hotels operates in 113 countries, has 14 brands, 5900 hotels, 31 Waldorf’s, 163 000 employees and nearly half the world’s total population (over 3 billion guests) have stayed in one of these hotels.
So through a good work ethic, prayer and big dreams you can set yourself up for a huge success!
