Essentially, it's from a page stolen from spy agencies. In order to be able reliably assess information coming from a variety of informants, some sort of ranking system had to be devised.
These agencies rate their information from informants in two ways:
- Based on the past track record of the informant, and,
- Based on the informant's confidence in this particular piece of information.
This can provide you with a certain level of confidence in using this information as part of your investment process. For instance, an "A" ranked informant with an "A" piece of information would play higher in your investment process than a "B" informant, with "C" level information.
Mr. Mandelman even suggests that those so poor at any type of accuracy, can eventually become "A" level informants, by being contra-indicators. In other words, you studiously avoid their recommendations.
Of course, all of the above pre-supposes that you start tracking and rating your own informants, and keep those in your investment scrapbook. A worthwhile idea, in my view. By the way, I rate Mr. Mandelman as an "A" source.
JW
The Confused Capitalist
No comments:
Post a Comment