Yet another personal lesson learned from the recent market turmoil

The lesson that I learned was that I am not the only value investor who suffers from "premature allocation". Even the big names in the value investing universe suffer from the same ailments. These heavyweights are, fortunately (perhaps unfortunately for them), are required by law to sometimes reveal their purchases. During this long-drawn bear market run, almost every major value investor had the opportunity to not only disclose their latest holdings, but some also openly talked about their rationale behind them. Bruce Berkowitz, Warren Buffett, and Tom Gayner come to mind.

This is a gold mine of information because one can use this list as a starting point to do their own research. You may not always see the same value that the famous investor sees; and that is OK. One should not fall into the trap and become a victim of the copycat speculation. Some investors may have rationales that may not work for the individual investor; for example undisclosed derivatives positions, etc.

One must always do their own homework.