My Ideal Mr. Lin - Cryptocurrency Exchange Platform

Today, let’s talk about a person everyone knows—Mr. Lin Yuan. Many people in China call him the stock god. Lin Yuan’s performance is outstanding, basically not inferior to Buffett, having once turned 10,000 yuan into billions or hundreds of billions. First of all, I think he is a genius. Mr. Lin Yuan is a genius in China’s cryptocurrency and stock markets; no one can compare to him, not even someone close.

I believe his investment talent is innate. He just happened to encounter China’s reform and opening-up, which coincided with the cryptocurrency and stock markets, giving him a great opportunity—just as Buffett’s many talents also aligned with America’s great development background. In the last century, the US was rising rapidly; the 20th century was America’s era, which also made Buffett. So his luck was good, and the national fortune was prosperous. I think Mr. Lin Yuan’s talent combined with the country’s fortune has made him a great investor.

Mr. Lin Yuan also has a book titled “Chinese Stock God Lin Yuan’s Stock Trading Secrets,” published in 2007. In fact, this book is edited from some of his interviews and ideas. For example, he mentions some very important concepts that were very popular in China at the time—talking about infant stock capital, giant brands, and so on. The discussions in the book were very well expressed.

Contents about Yunnan Baiyao, Moutai, and many banks are also mentioned repeatedly, but after careful reading, I didn’t learn much substantial. An upgraded version came out in 2019, which I haven’t purchased yet. If interested, I will review it. From my perspective, why is it difficult to absorb the content of this book? What’s the main reason? Mainly because the author is a genius. What makes a genius different from an ordinary person? Ordinary people improve step by step.

For example, Mr. Dong Baozhen and I faced many difficulties. Most people don’t have that kind of insight or feeling about investing. So they make many mistakes, struggle a lot, and only gradually improve, gaining some insights along the way. If you write something—like this article—I can deeply relate because only those who have experienced it can express these feelings. But Mr. Lin Yuan hasn’t, because he has always been very successful. His talent is excellent, so he hasn’t had many failures, which is why I consider him a genius.

The biggest problem in learning is the lack of relevant experience, so he can’t write about those. He can only write about success. Therefore, ordinary people can’t learn much from him in this regard. Many ordinary people can’t learn from geniuses because, for a genius, anything is easy. So he doesn’t have the struggles that most people do, and he doesn’t have those intense feelings. That’s why he can’t write about them—he can only write about success. So most people reading what a genius writes might find it quite plain, as if there’s no close connection to the soul—that’s the reason. Because his feelings are different from yours, many things are indeed very easy for him. That’s why calling him a stock god makes sense to some extent.

Buffett is a genius plus effort. Buffett was born with talent; he has great patience. But he works very hard, so reading Buffett’s autobiography reveals that he started doing various businesses at age five or six, always aiming to make money, and was very diligent in business. Ultimately, he became an outstanding investor, achieving success through talent and effort. Therefore, many of his viewpoints are insightful. I especially recommend reading “The Snowball.” Although he didn’t write it himself, it essentially depicts his entire life experience.

For example, Buffett was very afraid of public speaking when he was young, shy around people, like a science and engineering guy. He even signed up for speeches, knew his own flaws, and wanted to change, motivated strongly to improve, but kept failing. He couldn’t speak well, which delayed him for over ten years, and he put in a lot of effort. He once signed up for Dale Carnegie’s speech courses but changed his mind at the last minute because of shyness, but he kept trying.

As he grew older, he finally overcame this, giving speeches everywhere. At American universities, he even taught modern culture, with five or six thousand people attending shareholder meetings, and he still spoke clearly and humorously. This was developed through his later training. So Buffett is effort plus talent.

Lin Yuan truly has talent, of course, but he is also very diligent. Compared to his talent, effort is relatively less demanding. So some people might find his words hard to get used to; he’s very straightforward—says what he thinks. I really like his honest personality—never pretends. Sometimes his speech might seem a bit arrogant, but he has his reasons.

He said a very famous quote: “All the stocks I mention are bull stocks; the ones I don’t mention are not bull stocks.” It sounds exaggerated, but it doesn’t matter because what he says makes sense. The book he wrote over ten years ago has stocks that have increased dozens of times, which is not easy. Some stocks recommended have risen dozens of times; they are self-praising. Stocks not recommended are not mentioned. The book mentions many stocks, all with high gains. If you’re interested, you can find his old edition and take a look.

So he is indeed a genius; his talent is unmatched. Ordinary people should try to learn from him. If you can’t learn, don’t be too discouraged—I feel quite frustrated myself. He is very sensitive to the industry, which also influences his stock selection. He rarely uses traditional valuation metrics like P/E ratios but looks at future prospects, company and industry characteristics, especially in terms of future outlook.

Recently, he has been studying the pharmaceutical industry quite well. He says it could rise 100 to 500 times. The pharmaceutical industry is indeed a good sector, but I don’t know for sure—time will tell. I think this reflects Mr. Lin Yuan’s business insight. Business intuition is often innate, though he is also very diligent and has cultivated a lot through effort. But this is his competitive edge. In China, I believe no one can match his core competitiveness—the sensitivity to business opportunities.

The second point is that Mr. Lin Yuan is very patient. He can hold stocks for a long time. For example, Moutai from decades ago, he has held all along, which is impressive. Mr. Dong Baozhen, although he made a lot of money from Moutai, has also sold some, but Mr. Lin Yuan has always been consistent. So I think his patience is exceptional. I believe this is his true core strength in making money.

What are his weaknesses? I’ll mention them briefly. It might be related to his role as a fund manager, so he has some concerns about performance. When you’re worried about performance, you tend to rely more on market predictions—judging whether the market is bullish or bearish. You see him often mention bear and bull markets in his speeches, but you won’t hear this from Buffett.

This old man, the world’s richest man in 1960, doesn’t mention these things because, in his view, bull and bear markets are not that important. Although he manages other people’s money, others can’t influence his fate or decisions. Lin Yuan keeps talking about market timing, bull markets, and in 2017, he said it was the beginning of a bull market. Three years later, he still said it was the beginning of a bull market because it’s unpredictable—neither a genius nor a stock god can predict it.

Because the market is the result of thousands of participants, with many variables—national conditions, macroeconomic interest rates, and complex economic cycles. No matter how capable or talented a person is, at this level, it’s unknowable. Peter Lynch also knows this and says it’s impossible to predict whether six months later it will be a bear or bull market. I think what they say is just experience-based. But he likes to talk about these things, probably because he’s a fund manager, so he has some understanding of market cycles.

But regardless, he is a very successful and great investor—arguably the most successful in China. But I personally believe that investing and wealth are just tools, props—ultimately, they serve the meaning of life. I think making money through investing is just a means, a tool, ultimately to understand the principles of life. I haven’t seen many similar insights about this in Lin Yuan’s books.

Regarding insights into life, I think attitudes and perspectives on life are higher-level. I see a lot of this in Buffett and Munger, and I find their discussions very enlightening. Mr. Lin Yuan’s attitude towards life is very optimistic. I hope he has the opportunity to share his views on life with us, so I can learn more. I think Mr. Lin Yuan is a genius but not a stock god, because he always tries to guess the cryptocurrency and stock markets, which is actually unnecessary.

In my mind, Buffett is the stock god because he has already stepped on the market gods and has a completely different view of life—he sees through life. I think his level is different from Mr. Lin Yuan’s. One day, Mr. Lin Yuan will surpass Buffett. He is nearly 40 years younger than Buffett, and I believe his wealth will someday surpass Buffett’s because the old will eventually die, and wealth will transfer. But that doesn’t mean his realm is higher. Nonetheless, Lin Yuan is one of China’s greatest contemporary investors—very talented.