Wobble or world’s end?
Investors are worried about a credit crunch threatening to choke off investment and precipitate the end of the take-over fuelled bull market. It may not be that serious, yet.
Judging by the bounce in the ‘footsie’ this morning yesterday’s sell-off was not the beginning of the end, although extrapolating long-term trends from short-time price movements is, [...]
You. Investor. You’re a sucker
Academic theory suggests you can’t knowingly beat the stockmarket. Investors that do are just lucky, or crooked. The majority that don’t are suckers. It’s not true.
My nomination for top blog posting on another blog this year is this one: You, investor, are a sucker. It sent me into a bout of introspection that all investors [...]
So you think Glaxo’s cheap?
So you think GlaxoSmithKline’s cheap? Time was you could pick it up on a pe ratio of 2.
Along with many of the world’s largest companies, Glaxo’s trading on a low price earnings ratio in comparison to recent years, and smaller fish. Its pe is about 13, which represents unthinkable value compared to the go-go years [...]
What Warren said about climate change
Even the most celebrated assessors of risk, their fortunes staked on the issue, can’t agree about climate change.
Warren Buffett, ceo of Berkshire Hathaway, and often hailed as the World’s smartest investor*1:
Buffett: I believe the odds are good that global warming is serious. There’s enough evidence that it would be foolish to say there’s a [...]
Weighing up the pros and cons
Businesses are complicated, but choosing which ones to invest in needn’t be.
There’s a classic point in part 2 of the BBC Radio programme, “The Art of Indecision“, where the presenter is interviewing young women about how they decide whether or not to dump their boyfriends. One of them makes lists. She lists the good [...]
Supply and demand 60 years on…
Ultimately supply and demand moves share prices, and it’s always been that way.
This is true of private equity buyouts now. It’s one of the factors driving the market upwards:
…a positive reinvestment effect occurs when companies are taken over for cash or near cash and the proceeds are reinvested. This affect may apply to the market [...]
DNA of a superinvestor
Occasionally a cult forms around an investor. In the case of Mohnish Pabrai, it’s a sub-cult of the mother of all investment cults.
Whilst searching Amazon for classic value investing texts, Eddie Bravo of Vale tudo investing blog, discovered that two ‘must-read’ books, both out of print, were selling for considerable sums. Seth Klarman’s ‘Margin of [...]
