I don’t like to publish reading lists too often, as it’s a bit of a cop out from a blogger writing a proper article in my opinion! But I like to save a few stand out articles I read over the weeks and share them occasionally. So here are some of the highlights I’ve found over the last few weeks:
- The market is often bubbly at times and many commentators are saying that 2014 is one of those times. You may be tempted in times like this to go into cash, or hedge. Brooklyn Investor has a wonderful post looking at Buffett’s partnership years when the market was highly valued and how he acted http://brooklyninvestor.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/buffett-market-timer-part-1-partnership.html
[spoiler – he didn’t go in cash, or hedge, he just invested in undervalued companies of course!] - Allan Mecham – perhaps you haven’t heard of him – is manager of Arlington Value and has a great investing record. I recommend following his transgressions and here’s a good article introducing you to him
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-400-man-1328818316857 - Do you sneer at tech companies trading at large valuations? Well maybe you shouldn’t, here is an interesting article on why you shouldn’t focus on the negatives http://www.bhorowitz.com/can_do_vs_cant_do_cultures
- Executive compensation is one thing I don’t think about enough to be honest, but I suppose being a small time investor one has to either take a company as it is, highly paid executives or not, or just leave it. Anyway there is an interesting article on Rational Walk about Coca Cola’s new compensation plan which caused a mini controversy
http://www.rationalwalk.com/?p=13571 - Do you short stocks, or are considering it? Here is a very interesting presentation from a long time shorter Whitney Tilson http://www.scribd.com/doc/215835994/Shorting-Whitney-Tilson-ValueWalk. While I’m not his biggest fan in terms of his investments I agreed with a lot of what was in his presentation and it covers most of the reasons why I never short.
- Finally this is an incredible article about how the stock exchanges were/are being manipulated by High Frequency Traders by Michael Lewis. Its a long read but gives a great understanding of exactly how they made guaranteed money by exploiting time lags between different exchanges http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/06/magazine/flash-boys-michael-lewis.html?hp&_r=2 It’s based on his latest book, Flash Boys, so if you don’t have time to read the whole book the article does a good job of summarizing it.
Investing Sidekick
Founder of Investing Sidekick. Works as a research analyst and is an avid value investor, always searching for undervalued shares.