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...
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...
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...
Buffett Musings
Buffett made a few comments over the weekend that I thought were significant. Warren Buffett, who built Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK/A) with stock picks before focusing on takeovers, said he recently opted against a $22 billion acquisition because he didn’t want to sell investments in marketable securities. (Article here) and Berkshire Hathaway Inc is adding...
Sorted Weekly Tweets
Market Dynamics On Paradigm Shifts http://t.co/h68quEDX Hunter takes us through mental exercises 2 make us intelligently contrarian. “Invert, Always Invert” May 02, 2012 Hedgers’ net short position vanishes in US oil http://t.co/X0hLOWGB Commercial interests do not fear lower prices, could be bullish 4 crude May 02, 2012 There’s Plenty of Money for Junk http://t.co/vXML0Bao...
Correlating Risky Assets
Asset allocation is tough, because the correlations are not stable. Here’s an example: in the 90s, at many conferences that I went to, I was told that one of the smartest moves you could make was to invest heavily in every new class of Asset Backed Security [ABS] created, because they all tighten in yield...
Book Review: Abnormal Returns
I consider Tadas Viskanta to be a friend of mine. I write my eclectic blog, and Tadas occasionally features me on his daily curation of the economics/finance/investment blogosphere. But it is not friendship that leads me to write the following: this is a really good book. Why? Every day, Tadas curates the best thoughts in...
Book Review: The Facebook IPO Primer
There is more money to be lost than made in most controversial IPOs, on average. Don’t get me wrong, this is a good book, and the author knows what she is talking about, but whether one should buy Facebook in its IPO next month is a huge open question, and I would encourage you to...
