Eye Roll

In New Ideas From Dead CEOs, Todd Buchholz tells a story about the time Akio Morita said no. Long before Sony was a household name, they had an opportunity to turbo-charge their growth. Their hand-held radio caught the attention of the watch company, Bulova. At the time, the young scrappy company was selling units out of a…

The Perfect Track Record

If you’re reading this you probably already heard that the yield curve has inverted, which you can see in the GIF below (H/t Nicky Numbers). You probably also heard that it has a perfect track record of preceding a recession.  Empirically, this has not been good for stocks. 1, 2, and 3-year returns have been…

Animal Spirits: Footing the Bill

Mention Animal Spirits to receive 20% off (*New YCharts users only) Stories Discussed Footing the Bill Ben on Kahneman And Ben on IPOs Is real estate a better investment than stocks? Sign up for Tony Isola’s blog The majority of bitcoin trading is not real See Jeffrey Skilling Hedge fund launches fall to 18-year low Listen Here…

Multiples Are Not Valuation

“You have to earn the right to use a multiple.” Simple yet profound words from Michael Mauboussin. I learned this lesson the hard way. My first experience with “investing” – and I use quotes because what I was actually doing is an insult to real investors- was picking stocks based on a ratio I found on the internet….

How Concentration Affects Portfolio Performance

One of the reasons why so many mutual funds fail to beat their benchmark is because so many stocks fail to beat their benchmark. This idea has been pushed forward with papers like The Agony & The Ecstasy: The Risks and Rewards of a Concentrated Stock Position and Do Stocks Outperform Treasury Bills? Vanguard recently came out with a…

Animal Spirits Talk Your Book: Creating a Buffer

Today’s Animal Spirits Talk Your Book is presented by Innovator ETFs. For more information, click here. On today’s show we discuss: Surviving the upside when trying to hedge the downside The ideal client for a hedging strategy Using options to provide a buffer on the downside and capping the upside Why the payouts of a structured product…

5 Keys to a Rewarding Career

Bill Gurley, general partner at Benchmark Capital, recently spoke at the University of Texas. During the talk, he gave his 5 keys to a rewarding career. I’ve listed them below, with some additional thoughts of my own. Pick a career about which you have immense passion If you’re lucky enough to have a passion at a…

These Are the Goods

Articles Don’t ever feel sorry for a vendor. He knows what he can sell for, and we want his bottom price.’ By Zack Kanter Free money on the sidewalk is always picked up By Morgan Housel Past outperformance tends to beget future underperformance By Jeffrey Ptak while it is easy to find fast-growing companies, it…

Mee-Lee-Wah-Kay

This week Ben and I spent a day in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. At its peak in the 1960s, it was the 11th largest city in the country. Today, with just over two million residents, it is the 30th largest metropolitan area in the United States. Below is a shot from the window as the plane left…

Animal Spirits: The Expectations Gap

Mention Animal Spirits to receive 20% off (*New YCharts users only) Stories Discussed: How the feds found out about the college admissions scandal Some ides for college Putting investors first, go Dina! How Much Does Getting Into an Elite College Actually Matter? Doubling down on private equity J.P. Morgan’s Guide to Retirement Lifestyle creep Ben’s take on…