📖Duan Yongping

Focus on Intrinsic Value

🌿 Intermediate★★★★★

Compare price to intrinsic value, not to past prices.

💬

Always estimate the intrinsic value of a business before investing. Compare price to value, not price to past price. The gap between price and value is where profits are made.

— Duan Yongping Interview,2021

🏠 Everyday Analogy

Valuation is like buying a house: the asking price reflects mood, but true value comes from structure, location, and long-term utility. Good assets still need sensible prices.

📖 Core Interpretation

In Focus on Intrinsic Value, Duan Yongping focuses on the gap between price and value. Returns come from paying less than what a business is worth, not from guessing short-term market moves.
💎 Key Insight:The price-value gap is the source of returns.

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❓ Why It Matters

Ignoring valuation turns even good companies into poor investments. Overpaying compresses future returns and leaves little margin when assumptions are wrong.

🎯 How to Practice

Estimate intrinsic value with conservative assumptions, set clear buy ranges, and act only when price offers a meaningful discount with acceptable downside.

⚠️ Common Pitfalls

Confusing a low price with true cheapness
Using one metric without business context
Overly optimistic assumptions that erase margin of safety

📚 Case Studies

1
Backing Tencent Early (2007)
Seeing Tencent’s network effects, user stickiness, and high switching costs in QQ and early WeChat, Duan considered its social and gaming ecosystem a powerful moat and accumulated shares.
✨ Outcome:Tencent became one of China’s most valuable tech companies, delivering multibagger returns over many years.
2
Avoiding Overpriced Chinese Equities (2008)
During the pre-crisis boom, many Chinese stocks traded at extreme valuations. Duan emphasized only buying when prices were well below conservative intrinsic value estimates.
✨ Outcome:Avoided severe drawdowns in 2008 crash and preserved capital for later opportunities.

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