May 28, 2025

The Most Underdiscussed Problem in Investing

james-early

The Most Underdiscussed Problem in Investing

Investor, you've got plenty of stock market data. You've got ratios. You've got valuation modeling. You've got tools that automate ratio analysis and valuation modeling, and now AI tools that almost automate the automation.

But nobody tells you what to prioritize.

Prioritization is actually a series of "Why?" questions underneath: Why prioritize one factor over another? Why sequence analysis one way instead of another? With thousands of stocks and limited time, investors must constantly make choices about what to focus on and what to ignore.

But despite its importance, almost nobody talks about this. We're here to change that – in a small way – with this conversation with Todd Wenning, founder of KNA Capital Managment.

In this video, Curia CEO James Early and Todd discuss:

-How to filter thousands of available investments down to a workable set of targets

-Why Todd considers a moat his #1 criterion for choosing stocks

-Quantitative metrics for measuring moats that both James and Todd like, like return on invested capital (ROIC), return on equity (ROE), return on incremental invested capital (ROIIC), and weighted average cost of capital (WACC)

-Why Warren Buffett is a phenomenal investor while devoting seemingly little time to deep research and analytical techniques

James Early

James Early

Our CEO, editor in chief, and investing Swiss Army knife - covering income, macro, and a bit of everything else with a unique flair for storytelling. James is the former Director of Research & Analysis for The Motley Fool, CEO of Stansberry China, and Chief Investment Officer of BBAE. The last time he ran a premium recommendation service, it beat the market 10 out of 10 years in a row across the most turbulent decade of the past century.

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