The term “value investor” has been thrown around endlessly for decades, with prominent proponents like Warren Buffett, Benjamin Graham, Seth Klarman and Walter Schloss. The key principle of value investing is contrarianism — going against the flow of the general markets. Value investing isn’t some arcane, rare philosophy that’s tucked in some secret section of the Library of Congress that only Nicholas Cage can extract information from. It’s a widespread understanding that can be read by anyone with half an imagination to Google it when they first hear about Warren Buffett’s successes in the market. It’s hard being a contrarian when everyone who reads about value investing wants to be contrarian as well. The market is made up of people’s perceptions, and the more people read about value investing and contrarianism, the more efficient the market gets – imagine everyone becoming value investors and start investing in “value stocks”, they ......