Hedging the Debt Ceiling Crisis
The past quarter was a rocky one for stocks, with several ups and downs. It was also an unusual one for my management, as I elected to hedge against the upcoming debt ceiling vote. The debt ceiling...
View ArticleHedge Against The Federal Sequester
Clients are now holding a moderate 20% cash hedge position ahead of the federal sequester next week. I believe it is very possible that Congress will not take action next week to avoid the sequester,...
View ArticleWhy Mutual Funds May Damage Your Long-term Portfolio Performance
If you’re not careful, mutual funds can damage your long-term portfolio return. Buy the wrong funds, or actively switch your funds too often, and your retirement can become much smaller than you...
View ArticleBenjamin Graham’s Checklist
Benjamin Graham was a master of simplicity. His entire investing philosophy centered on a simple, disciplined, approach: buy a bucket of stocks at a steep discount to fair value and then sell when it...
View ArticleInvestors Often Lack Knowledge
This was an excellent quarter for the stock market. Demonstrating its unpredictable short-term nature, the market shrugged off any and all bad news and applauded the good news. I’ll start with the bad...
View ArticleHow To Avoid The Herd
Since March 2009, the market has rebounded well, even breaking new records in recent weeks. Whether you think it’s better to sit on the sidelines or you see greater and greater highs in 2013, it’s...
View ArticleThe Challenge of Knowing When to Sell
Investors often have a harder time with the decision to sell a stock than they do with the decision to buy. This, of course, means that more mistakes happen on the selling end of things. This problem...
View ArticleSome Quick Tips for Investing
Use Scientific Thinking The most important skill for any investor to develop is temperament. No amount of research, know-how, data, or analytical capability can overcome the tendency of investors to...
View ArticleThe Best Investors Know Their Limitations
The economy is so complex is it literally unknowable until you can look at it in the distant past. On TV, you’ll see commercials for mutual funds that say their managers understand economic complexity...
View ArticleDiscipline and Fundamentals in Value Stock Investing
I recently ran across a couple graphs created by deep-value investor Seth Klarman. He specializes in buying companies that have major problems, but are underpriced, even accounting for the issues...
View ArticleWhy Most Investors Fail to Win at the Short-term Game
My approach to investing is founded on buying businesses for the long-term, not trading stocks for the short-term. At times of market volatility (for example, the start of this year), this might seem...
View ArticleWhy Benjamin Graham is Relevant Today
I first read about the forefather of value investing, Benjamin Graham, in the late 1990s. In the investing world, value investors have never been in the majority (or even the plurality), but Graham...
View ArticleThe Advantages Independent Investors Hold
The markets met the past quarter with more sanguinity. We had a dip in February, but the markets ended the quarter mostly flat. There are many positive economic signals: job numbers continue to...
View ArticleTake Advantage of Time Arbitrage
Many worry that insider trading, or stock price manipulation, undermines the fairness of the stock market. They worry that even if you pick the right stock, price manipulation will rob you of your...
View ArticleInvestment Selection and Patience Are Keys to Long-Term Success
I’ve been fielding a lot of questions on my website about how to take advantage of the current market. The market is bullish, so many feel it’s time to go all in. In response, I caution patience and...
View ArticleUnderreported And Ignored, Long-Term Economic Progress is Key to Investing
Print and television economic reporters spend most of their time reporting on short-term events, but the most important economic story over the last five years is one that is hardly reported on: the...
View ArticleAre Market Corrections Risk Or Opportunity?
It’s axiomatic that past market corrections are viewed as opportunities, but current and future corrections are viewed as risk. For most of the year, investors had been saying a pullback was...
View ArticleEarnings Season
Earnings season really brings out the investors with short attention spans and even shorter memories. During these fascinating few weeks every quarter you can find headlines like: “Amazon Plunges...
View ArticleSmall-Cap and Mid-Cap Volatility Creates Opportunities in the Long Run
This year was a rough year to be invested in small and mid-cap stocks, which make up the backbone of our portfolio. As I write, small-caps have underperformed the S&P 500 by more than 10...
View ArticleOnly the Disciplined Beat the Market
Research Affiliates, a highly respected market research firm, recently conducted a study on 45 years of mutual fund returns. The results were not surprising. Of 350 mutual funds available to investors...
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