Welcome to Ragnar Is A Pirate! My name is Jeff and I am a value investor with a BA in General Studies. This is my blog where I talk about things that interest me... Generally, the latticework that surrounds investment; be it politics, sociology, psychology, business, or straight up stock analysis. I have lived in Kentucky my entire life, which is fine with me- it keeps me out of the maddening elevated drywall boxes of big cities (not to say that I don't enjoy visiting them). Plus, if the end of the world happens and Mark Twain is correct, I will have another 20 years to live. ;)
A lot of the things that I say on here are pretty tongue in cheek. So, hopefully no one gets too offended at anything that I write. I am never afraid to say what I think, will talk about when I get something wrong, generally take pretty unpopular positions, and frankly, have made some pretty outlandish statements on here. Additionally, I am an old school fan of Rand Paul; being one of the first people to throw some money his way... With all that said, even if I disagree with somebody, that doesn't mean that I think they are a terrible person or even that I don't like or respect them. I think that people should be a lot more civil; it is bothersome when the anonymity of the internet makes people feel that they can say some pretty repugnant things.
My investment style is undoubtedly under the "Value Investing" tent. As long as I feel I am compensated for the risk I take on, I don't mind walking in a rain storm of falling knives. I also like nano caps and turnaround plays. I generally look at a company's balance sheet first, then compare it and cash flows to the market cap of the company- but I have been known to like buying call options of (arguably) overlevered companies. If you don't like that I have very few write ups (or that I post a lot on the ones that I am long), I am unapologetic. As I do posts on things that interest me, I am naturally most interested in the companies that I am invested in. I will post on other equities if something is of high curiosity to me or something that I find interesting... A lot of times it's activism, but there are some other things that I have found to be pretty neat too... Generally, I only own a handful of securities; the most that I have ever owned at one time was 13- and I hated every single day of it. There have been times when I owned as few as 3 stocks- but, the price/value/risk scenario made a lot of sense at the time.
And yes, the name of this blog does come from one of my favorite books; Atlas Shrugged. This is despite the fact that I am not overly "Objectivist"- just really sympathetic to the cause (plus, Ragnar Danneskjold is one of the most bad ass literary characters to have been written up.). :)
Feel free to drop me a line sometime- even if we have differing opinions, I'll be likely happy to chat with you. :)
ragnarisapirate[at]gmail.com
