Using HVIF™, artificial intelligence, and discipline — from a urologist who spent forty-five years being a fairly poor investor, then built a framework that fixed it.
The Independent Investor — publishing September 1, 2026.
For fifteen years I paid expensive advisors to manage my portfolio. Three years ago the one I ended up with couldn't tell me what his strategy was, or how I could tell if I was doing well. It was time for a change.
A friend's hot tip. A breathless headline. Four accounts, a hundred statements, and no honest way to say how any of it had performed. Every decision made on adrenaline and a 1%-of-assets fee.
Same four accounts. Same hundred statements. But every holding now has a score, every account a clear role, and every decision a written rationale. The complexity didn't shrink. It just stopped being frightening.
A surgeon doesn't operate on a hunch. There's a workup, a differential, a checklist — the same careful process every time. HVIF™ brings that habit of mind to a portfolio.
HVIF™ stands for the Hybrid Value Investment Framework.
Value — investment titans Benjamin Graham and Warren Buffett identified the worth of the underlying business, not the mood of its share price. Hybrid means quality alone isn't enough: HVIF™ pairs fundamentals with wider market conditions and purchase timing. And framework — a calm, repeatable way to support your investment strategy.
Q_SCORE rates a company on five pillars — moat, returns, quality, value, and management — on a single scale. A high score earns a closer look.
The Tide score grades the wider market — interest rates, the yield curve, credit spreads — and indicates whether it's a time to invest or a time to be patient.
The Gate is a short timing check on the individual purchase. Quality, conditions, and timing all aligned — only then does money move.
Every business gets rated the same way, so comparisons are honest. No gut feel, no story stocks — just a score you can defend.
A good company bought into a deteriorating market is still a difficult position to hold. So before any purchase, HVIF™ asks a second question: what are the wider conditions?
The Tide score weighs the things that quietly govern markets — interest rates, the shape of the yield curve, the spreads in the bond market — and settles them into one clear reading. At the calm end, conditions favour investing freely. At the other, the sensible move is patience and cash. Most of the time it sits somewhere in between, and says so.
It does not predict the future. Nothing does. It simply makes sure that the weather is part of the decision — rather than a surprise after it.
Part memoir, part method. Read it straight through, or start with the framework in Part Two and double back when you want to know where a particular rule came from.
What forty years of mistakes actually teach you.
Forty-odd years of questionable financial decisions — a Vancouver Stock Exchange mining stock bought at twenty, the Microsoft that got away, fifteen years building AccuroEMR, a vineyard in the Similkameen. Each story ends with the lesson that became a named part of HVIF™.
The scoring system — one component at a time.
The core of the book. The three-signal rule. The five quality pillars. The nine bond-market factors behind the Tide. The four Gate conditions. ETFs, cash, and diversification, each given the same rigour as individual equities — and each opening with the failure that made it necessary.
Putting the framework to work — and knowing when to rest.
The current market through the HVIF™ lens. Surviving black swans. How artificial intelligence changed what's possible for the independent investor. And a final chapter on how to relax after a good day's fishing.
Plus thirteen appendices — scoring worksheets, sector references, the Universe Discovery Pipeline, and the full HVIF™ v5.5 master prompt.
Macro conditions and the EA‑BF reading.
The five-pillar Q_SCORE in practice.
The equations and mechanics, plainly shown.
Stories from practice, markets, and the dock.
HVIF™ doesn't guarantee outperformance — no system can. What it does is help you make calmer, clearer, less emotional decisions: to stay disciplined, accept that markets move, and steer clear of the mistakes that catch out most self-directed investors.
Used carefully over a few years, the framework took most of the worry out of managing my own money. The uncertainty didn't disappear — it never does — but the way through it became clear, and that turned out to be the part that mattered.
“To be a successful independent investor you need a framework, a little discipline, and a little help from artificial intelligence — and you need to know that no-one cares about your money more than you do.” — from the Preface
The HVIF™ tools are in development for a 2026 launch alongside the book. Here's what's coming — join the waitlist and you'll get early access as each tier opens.
One stock, scored in full — on the house, after a verified email.
Free single-stock scoring opens after the book launches. Join early access to be first in line.
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Launching alongside the book in 2026. Pricing is preliminary.
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Launching alongside the book in 2026. Pricing is preliminary.
Get Early AccessPricing and features are preliminary and may change before launch. The HVIF™ tools are an educational decision-support framework — not investment advice, and not a recommendation to buy or sell any security. See the full disclaimer below.
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