As some of you know, I’ve been working for some time now to introduce a premium section on this website (“Premium” is a euphemism for paywall).
There are a few reasons for making this decision. In short, it comes down to my incentives for writing on this site, and the increasing number of paid investment research services on the web (most notably Seeking Alpha Premium / Pro authors) that made it less fun for me to share ideas openly. That’s why I’ve been thinking for a long time about implementing some kind of membership system. After finding the right kind of system and some testing, I’m ready to launch it officially today.
VIB Premium
The premium posts on this site can be found through a new link in the menu above called VIB.net Premium. This is where I’ll be posting write-ups of positions that are in my personal portfolio, and other investment ideas that look interesting.
You can get access to VIB.net Premium by following these steps:
- Register your ValueInvestingBlog.net account
- Log in to your ValueInvestingBlog.net account
- Add credits to your account
- Visit the VIB Premium page and get access to a write-up you’re interested in by exchanging credits in your account.
Unfortunately, I’m not able to accept payments from users located in the European Union at this point. The only exception is for users from The Netherlands, as this is my home country and the standard VAT rules apply for me there. This is due to VAT rules that have been introduced at the EU level. I’ve explained this in some more detail here.
The first three premium write-ups have been released today:
- Company 1: a Singapore listed company trading at a low P/E multiple and a low price to free cash flow multiple. There’s also a substantial discount to book value. This write-up was first released to a few early testers of the membership system in January. Since the stock price has increased by ~20% since then, I’ve lowered the amount of credits to access this post from 20 to 10. I still own the company and think it is attractively priced.
- Company 2: a US-listed microcap bank that trades over the counter (OTC). An investor with some history of activism has taken a significant stake in this bank. I expect the activist to push the management of the bank for a sale of the bank to a larger entity.
- Japanese basket as of April, 2017: an overview of all the Japanese companies that are currently in my portfolio. Four new positions are disclosed since my last update in December, 2015.
About the credits-system
The system used on VIB.net is different from most other paid content services offered by other sites, like Seeking Alpha Pro / Premium and investment newsletters. VIB.net is not a subscription service, so you’ll not be charged a monthly or yearly fee.
Credits you buy for your VIB.net account do not expire. This means that you get to choose if, and when, you want to use your credits to get access to a certain write-up. The VIB Premium page offers a short description of each company and why it might be interesting. This should help you in picking those companies that you might be interested in.
All in all it’s a pretty big change for this site and a decision I’ve thought over carefully. I’ve kept things affordable for most, I think. All of you get to decide for yourself, whether – and when – you choose to pay for access to a particular write-up. I’ll be able to share more ideas than in the past and that also makes it more fun for me to write and to dedicate more time to the website. Thank you for your support. A special thanks to those of you who helped me test the membership system!