The boom must go on
There’s a buzz on the Internet about a chart published on The Big Picture. It purports to show the level of the Dow over the last year against the period leading up to the Crash in October 1987. The two match, almost as if one were a shadow of the other. Back in 1987 the [...]
Private equity revealed
If you’ve been following the private equity story, Alphaville is plugging a ‘Special‘ on the subject. Not all of it’s free to non-subscribers, but much of it is. Here, Peter Smith explains the basics.
Why journalists shouldn’t be taken seriously
Salutory post from Maoxian: Why technical analysts shouldn’t be taken seriously
Actually he gives one example of a technical analyst talking mumbo-jumbo and a number of examples of loose thinking on the part of the journalist who reported it. There must be an old market saying along the lines of “don’t take anyone too seriously”. [...]
The Interpretation of Financial Statements
Todd Sullivan of ValuePlays recommends, “The Interpretation of Financial Statements“ by Benjamin Graham. It was originally published in 1937 (reprinted 1998), so don’t expect it to cover the latest rule changes, but as a primer it gets good reviews. Graham, is of course a legend - born in London :-).
I like “The Intelligent Investor”, also [...]
Facing the economic facts
The Adam Smith institute says UK media is vapid. It churns out commentary about how people feel, but too rarely presents economic facts:
How much more effective our public spending would be… if the familiar cry for ‘more resources’ were routinely coupled with the idea of ‘opportunity cost’…. And how much less would be squandered on [...]
How to exploit monopolies and distort markets
How to exploit monopolies and distort markets - interesting collection of hi-tech business models.
Profiteering
This week’s we focused on the defence industry, and Wallstrip looked at the defense industry:
Trend-loving, hyper-texting Howard Lindzon who created Wallstrip and runs an investment advisory and fund of funds says:
This trend seems like the absolute no brainer in hindsight (especially since the breakout of the Iraq war), but who is to say the trend [...]
The Lewis Hamilton of investors
Third in Australia, second in Malaysia, second in Bahrain. It’s never happened before in Formula 1, but Lewis Hamilton, has won a place on the podium in his first three motor races. The fact that he’s a Brit makes his sporting achievement all the more remarkable. No doubt he put lots of work into lesser [...]
Watch out for Enron Beelzebub typeface
If you haven’t come across Footnoted.org, I like its style. Michelle Leder reads the documentation most investors consign to the pending tray, permanently. Yesterday she commented on Mastercard’s preliminary proxy statement (in English that’s information for shareholders intending to vote at its Annual Meeting). Mastercard pays for security systems in the homes of it’s executives, [...]
Wondering about Woolies
Graeme’s wondering if Woolworths (WLW) can recover. I wonder too. It’s a contrarian’s dream. Even its largest shareholder seems to despise it, and its share price languishes at levels last seen in 2003. Graeme says:
On and EV/sales of 0.3× (at 30.75p) and a gross margin that, although it deteriorated a full percentage point, remains reasonable [...]
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