LimJianYang

Hello, I'm Jian Yang.

I write about investing, software, books, cooking, and other things that interest me.

This site serves as a public journal to document ideas and capture insights. By putting them into writing, I hope to further develop these concepts and look back to see how my understanding changes over time.

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Persona Replication: Building an AI That Writes Like You

Computing ·

My final-year project on teaching an AI how a person writes, what they believe, and how to combine both in a personalised writing agent.

Jian Yang
Lim Jian Yang @jianyangg
Computing

Wouldn’t it be great if AI could generate videos using other videos as references? That way, the movement in generated videos could resemble real life more closely. For example, imagine a generated video of your dog moving just as she does in real life.

A Blueprint for Investment Writeups

Investing ·

Deconstructing the analytical logic and valuation framework behind the TerraVest report.

Jian Yang
Lim Jian Yang @jianyangg
Musings

Such a joy to watch videos like this. Ikea’s philosophy reminds me of Costco.

Inside IKEA: The Brilliant Trick That Makes You Buy More

Jian Yang
Lim Jian Yang @jianyangg
Investing

Terravest just bought back 1% of outstanding shares after the fiasco with Charles Pellerin caused a sharp contraction in share prices.

Recall this snippet from Chris Waller’s writeup on TerraVest:

Terravest also buys back stock from time to time, viewing the attractiveness of a buyback as about judging the return from its stock rising to intrinsic value vs the more certain return from making an internal investment. The company has not been afraid to aggressively buy back stock when it is trading well below intrinsic value, buying back 36% of shares outstanding in 2012.

Management has better insight into returns than outside shareholders, and this management will do what it takes to get the highest returns.

Constellation Software (CSU.TO)

Investing ·

A brief writeup on Constellation Software $CSU submitted to VIC.

Jian Yang
Lim Jian Yang @jianyangg
Investing

DCF valuation with wishful inputs is as good as saying “if I’m able to make a million dollars by year 5, I will be a millionaire.”

Jian Yang
Lim Jian Yang @jianyangg
Investing

Valuation framework by Joel Tillinghast (from Big Money Thinks Small):

  1. Determine the Discount Rate (using the Gordon Growth model):

    Discount Rate = FCF Yield + FCF Growth Rate

    Rearranging this gives:

    FCF Yield = Discount Rate - FCF Growth Rate

  2. Calculate the Reinvestment Rate: Use Return on Equity (ROE) to identify the portion of earnings that must be reinvested to achieve FCF growth:

    Reinvestment Rate = FCF Growth Rate / ROE

  3. Determine the FCF Fraction of Earnings: The remaining portion of earnings that represents free cash flow:

    FCF Fraction = 1 - Reinvestment Rate

  4. Calculate Value: Use the FCF Yield derived in step 1 to value the FCF fraction of earnings:

    Value = (Earnings * FCF Fraction) / FCF Yield

    Or expressed as an implied P/E multiple:

    Implied P/E = (1 - Reinvestment Rate) / FCF Yield