This week’s guest on The Rules of Investing is Alex Milton, the Principal and Co-portfolio Manager at NovaPort Capital, a small cap and microcap fund manager with an impressive list of awards.

Something that stands out is NovaPort's ability to look past labels like 'growth' or 'value' and focus purely on the expected return of a business, with high PE stocks sitting next to value stocks in the portfolio. In this podcast, we discuss the October market selloff, the attributes of a great investment, and two small caps that Alex would be comfortable holding if the market were to shut for 5 years.

Tune in for the latest episode of the Rules of Investing.

Content discussed:

The history (and future) of inflation ...

Time Stamps:

• 2:25 – What you’d expect to see from Novaport when the markets are coming down
• 3:55 – Are the ingredients for a downturn out there?
• 6:40 – What was it like to invest in Australian shares in the early 90s?
• 9:59 – The mood amongst investors during the 90s recession
• 11:40 – A time when Alex has made an investment mistake and what he’s learned from it
• 13:48 – What does a great investment opportunity look like?
• 17:27 – Some of the characteristics of a good investment
• 18:42 – Strategies to build conviction in an idea
• 23:35 – Questions that Alex likes to ask companies’ management to generate valuable insights
• 26:48 - A current stock that looks compelling and how he’s built conviction on it
• 31:14 – Alex shares a recent piece of research that was particularly impressive
• 34:39 – A lesson for his younger self
• 36:32 – Which company he’d own if the market was to close for 5 years

More about Novaport

NovaPort Capital is a boutique Australian equities investment manager specialising in small and microcap ASX-listed companies. Find out more here.