http://blog.iii.co.uk Inside one of the UK's leading websites Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:27:48 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Magic squared  Things are looking up for the stockmarket according to Edmund Ng, an Analyst at Morgan Stanley. In a research note published the day before Halloween, he recommended investors buy shares in quality, stable, growth companies that typically perform well in bull markets. During the panic culminating ... http://blog.iii.co.uk/growth-stocks-for-bull-and-bear-markets/ I wondered whether it would survive It’s doubly ironic that St Ives (SIV) chooses to feature a direct mail campaign promoting Google Maps in its annual report. Admittedly it also devotes pages to a giant carrier bag it made to promote Sainsbury’s Finance, brochures ... http://blog.iii.co.uk/as-i-was-going-to-buy-st-ives/ Dawkins dates earth, says God created it... Before I bashed the Efficient Markets Hypothesis again last week. I looked it up in what must surely be the ordinary investor’s efficient markets bible, Burton Malkiel’s A Random Walk Down Wall Street. The book is in its ninth edition, and my ... http://blog.iii.co.uk/what-a-difference-five-words-make/ I've caught a big fish in my net, and I'm not altogether happy about it. Wolseley (WOS) is the world’s largest distributor of plumbing, heating, and building supplies, Unless you’ve come across it as an investor you might never have heard of it. The company owns an army ... http://blog.iii.co.uk/plumbing-the-depths-with-wolseley/ A random walk into recession You’ve got to watch these two interviews with Benoit Mandelbrot: part 1 part 2 Mandelbrot saw the financial crisis of 2007 coming, He couldn’t have told you exactly when or how it would ... http://blog.iii.co.uk/blame-it-on-bachelier/ In practice: The contrarian’s sector As contrarian ideas go, the auto industry is hard-core, yet, despite having added engineering consultancy Ricardo to the Thrifty 30 model portfolio last week I haven’t finished with the sector. While some manufacturers have maintained their research and development efforts to ... http://blog.iii.co.uk/casting-around-for-value/ In theory: The holy grail Contrary to conventional notions of risk and reward, buying shares in safe companies really does improve returns. That’s the message from a research note published last year by Morgan Stanley. It published an alluring chart, which depicts what goes on over a ... http://blog.iii.co.uk/reward-without-the-risk/ In practice: Diversification: good, diworseification bad I fell in love with Ricardo (RCDO) when I saw the artwork on the front cover of its annual report: The bold, calm design oozes technology, quality and environmental concern, which represent a big danger for investors in the ... http://blog.iii.co.uk/rcdo/ In practice: Up fell, down dale I'll start today's blog more or less where I finished Monday's appraisal of Anite, a profitable software company, with strong finances that is maybe, kind of, but not certainly, cheap. Like most value investors I think much more about safety, than ... http://blog.iii.co.uk/guarding-against-ego-risk/ In practice: A little patience, a lot of profit Anite (AIE) presents something of a dilemma. The figures are very enticing. For financial strength, the company scores a perfect nine. It’s cheap too, the share price is just eight times its average profits over the ... http://blog.iii.co.uk/thrifty-anite-tests-resolve/