High Profits
Dr. Jeff Miller wrote an interesting question the other day: “Why does a Shiller disciple care about profit margins?“ Now, I am not a disciple of Dr. Shiller, I disagree with him on many issues, Trills for an example. When Shiller talks, odds are 50-50 that I agree, which makes him interesting to me, unlike...
Little Things are Important
One of the problems with many politicians, journalists, financial analysts, economists, etc., is that they don’t think systematically. Go back to late 2006, when I wrote my piece Wrecking Ball Looms for Big Housing Spec, which was regarding the coming subprime crisis. (Note: my editor often retitled my pieces; my original title was more circumspect.) ...
Book Review: The Alpha Masters
This book has just been released. I got an early copy. The book is interesting enough that I would like to do a Q&A with the author, and I have contacted the PR flack to do so. To the review: Would you like to understand the mindsets of a variety of successful hedge fund...
Don’t Become the Market
It was late 1993, and I knew that we could make a lot of money if I sold floating-rate Guaranteed Investment Contracts. Let me quote an earlier piece: My goal as an actuarial businessman was to make profits with modest risk for my ultimate owners, who were the mutual policyholders. Once I faced a situation...
Elderly Poor?
There will be elderly poor. Look at page 26 of this PDF. I interpret those that don’t know or declined as being well below $50K in assets. That means 60% of those reaching “retirement age” will have less than two years income stored up. That said I feel more sorry for younger workers who have...
Skewed Incentives
May is a tough month for me, because I have to submit reports for the nonprofits that I work with, and this year is worse, because I have a moderate injury that I need to see a doctor about, but can’t until next week, because of the schedule. But I do want to say a...
Simple Stock Valuation
I appreciate Eddy Elfenbein. He comes up with ideas that make me say, “Huh. Interesting. Let’s test that.” His recent article, World’s Simplest Stock Valuation Measure, put forth the idea that: Growth Rate/2 + 8 = PE Ratio Cool, reminds me of my 1993 formula for value investing: Price per share < Tangible Book per...
Sorted Weekly Tweets
Eurozone Danske Bank’s Patience With Moody’s Evaporates http://t.co/eGbf3kV5 Questions over willingness of Denmark to provide support in a crisis. May 11, 2012 CIC Stops Buying Europe Government Debt on Crisis Concern http://t.co/dljk9Tau Overblown; China will return to funding the Eurozone $$ May 10, 2012 Greeks May Hold $510 Billion Trump Card in Renegotiation http://t.co/P7U4LSpG...
Book Review: The Little Book of Emerging Markets
This book is written by one of the foremost stock investors in emerging markets, Mark Mobius. This is a short book that has little to no math in it, and few graphs. It can be read in 2-3 hours. The edge that this book will give you is understanding the limitations of emerging market investing. ...
The Best of the Aleph Blog, Part 15
This stretches from August 2010 to October 2010: The Education of a Corporate Bond Manager, Part VII On the value of credit analysts. The Education of a Corporate Bond Manager, Part VIII On price discovery in dealer markets, and auctions gone wrong. I never knew that I could haggle so well. The Education of a...
Book Review: The Little Book of Bull’s Eye Investing
Before I start this evening, if you like my reviews generally, please go to Amazon and tell them that my reviews are helpful. From this link, it does not take long to do so. Thanks. This was one of those books that grew on me. The author, the well-known John Mauldin, strings together a bunch...
Versa To Reduce Avenue’s Store Count To Around 300
Plus-size retailer Avenue, which was acquired by Versa Capital out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last month for $32 million, will reduce its footprint to "slightly above 300" stores from the current 415 to 420 locations.
