📖Duan Yongping

Ignore the Noise

🌱 Beginner★★★★★

Do not watch stock prices daily; most market information is noise, not signal.

💬

Don't follow stock prices daily. Don't read too much news. Most market information is noise, not signal. Focus on what matters: the business fundamentals.

— Duan Yongping Weibo，2020

🏠 Everyday Analogy

Imagine driving in heavy rain with loud music, honking cars, and flashing billboards everywhere. If you keep turning your head to every light and sound, you will likely crash. The safe driver turns down the volume, ignores distractions, and focuses on the road, the speed, and the direction. In investing, the ‘road’ is business fundamentals, and the ‘noise’ is daily fluctuations and news.

📖 Core Interpretation

Most market activity is irrelevant to long-term investment success
💎 Key Insight：Duan rarely checks stock prices, focusing instead on business fundamentals. Daily price fluctuations are mostly noise driven by sentiment, not changes in intrinsic value. Obsessing over quotes encourages emotional, short-term thinking. By ignoring Mr. Market mood swings and concentrating on business performance, investors make better long-term decisions. Price matters only when buying or selling.

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❓ Why It Matters

Duan claims to check his portfolio only a few times per year

🎯 How to Practice

Check prices rarely; spend time reading annual reports instead of news

🎙️ Master's Voice

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication in business and investing.
Duan values simplicity in both business models and investment strategies. The best opportunities are often simple to understand and explain. Complexity often hides problems.

⚔️ Practical Guide

✅ Decision Checklist

  • Is this simple to understand?
  • Am I overcomplicating things?
  • Could I make this simpler?

📋 Action Steps

  1. Prefer simple business models
  2. Simplify your investment approach
  3. Be suspicious of unnecessary complexity

🚨 Warning Signs

  • Unnecessary complexity
  • Convoluted business models
  • Complicated investment strategies

⚠️ 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
NetEase Dot-Com Crash (2000)
NetEase plummeted over 90% during the dot-com bust amid fears Chinese internet firms would fail.
✨ Outcome：Duan ignored market panic, focused on fundamentals, increased his stake, and the investment later became a multi-bagger.
2
Apple iPhone Doubts (2008)
Global crisis and skepticism about iPhone margins led to sharp volatility and frequent negative headlines on Apple.
✨ Outcome：He ignored short-term noise, held his position, and Apple’s earnings and stock price compounded substantially over the following decade.

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