Chapter 14
An Investor's Guide to the World Right Side Up
We both reached for the check. “No, no, I invited you,” I said. “I'll pay.” Then my guest made an offer I couldn't refuse.
“Come on, we're in markets. Let's flip for it.”
Well, how could I resist that? Everyone in markets, from the careful investor to highflying speculator, learns to live with chance, and even to relish it. It's part of the thrill of markets (and life); you just never know how things might play out.
So, we flipped. I called heads. Heads it was. And Frank Holmes paid for dinner.
Frank is the CEO and chief investment officer of U.S. Global Investors, which is a mutual fund company with a slate of award-winning funds. We met him earlier in the book on our Colombia jaunt, and my meeting with him serves as a nice capstone to our journey.
We met at Cookshop in Chelsea, Manhattan, a restaurant that favors seasonally available and locally sourced ingredients prepared simply. (We had excellent split-roasted chicken, cooked over a wood fire. Worth a visit if you are in the area.) We had a great conversation that covered seemingly everything.
One of the things we talked about was S-curves, which is kind of the house salad at U.S. Global. Holmes explained what this macro scenario is and why his firm relentlessly seeks them out. Take a look at Figure 14.1, which shows you a generic curve. The main thing here is to invest in the middle part of the curve, when growth accelerates.
Figure 14.1 What to Look For: An S-Curve ...
