Time to Short Credit Spreads?
As the Bespoke boys point out, spreads of corporates vs. treasuries are getting to historical levels. Below is a chart that takes the data back a little further. All data is from the St. Louis Fred database.
Index Huggers
Is your fund manager just an index hugger in disguise? (Cartoon from www.nicholsoncartoons.com.au )Investing in most mutual funds is a waste of time as they rarely offer any benefit over low cost index funds. Sure there are some exceptions of managers willing to hold unconventional portfolios like CGM (CGMFX), Fairholme (FAIRX), and Hussman (HSGFX) - but most...
Follow-Up Post To Largest Company By Market Cap
About a year and a half ago I wrote and article investigating the performance of the largest public stock by market capitalization each year.The original study was featured in the book "Mosaic: Perspectives on Investing" by Pabrai.Pabrai did a backtest and reported a near 500 bps underperformance for the top mkt cap company vs the S&P 500. I...
LinkFest
Some of my research got mentioned in the new issue of the New Yorker. You can find the article here: "That Uncertain Feeling". Although the author makes it sound like the reason markets are more volatile when they are declining is that traders are chasing losses - which I disagree with. I think it is simply...
And the Winning Cover is. . .
I thought my book was coming out in November, but now it looks like February. Sheesh.A good indication of the quality of my design tastes shows that my favorite cover garnered a puny 5% of the total vote for the three covers. Maybe that is a good sign that I am a contrarian (or have really bad...
Hedge Fund Masters Update
Are the top value hedge funds going to beat the market every quarter, or just outperform when the market is going up?Maybe we should ask Will Ferrell, errr, I mean Robert Goulet:"You win, you always do - that's why I come up here." (Video at the end - thanks to reader SB.)All data is from the close on Wednesday....
LinkFest
Man I bet the magazines are going nuts over this site - Mygazines. I have no idea how this is possibly legal.----One more aggregator launches - Blogs.com. At least they have the name going for them, but I can't say I have any reason to go to their site. . .----Man I wish I had this when...
If I Were A Woman…
that was looking for a permanent mate, then I sure wouldn't be taking the pill.(Sorry for the random non-investment related post, but I have to indulge my biotech background on occasion.)Studies have shown that individuals prefer members of the opposite sex to have highly different genes that code for the immune system. This makes evolutionary sense, as the...
LinkFest
I'm not sure exactly what to do with Finviz, but there are lots of cool charts and tables.----Everyone seems to like Amazon's Kindle - any readers have any reviews they care to share? I'm thinking about getting one for the plane.----There was once an academic paper I read on the Olympics and and pre and post games stock...
