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Bogle’s Blunders, intellectual honesty and historical perspective (Dorsey Wright):
To the guys at technical analysis shop, Bogle appears as a rigid idealist and someone unwilling to admit that his ideas might have seen their time. Apparently, Bogle believes investors only misuse ETFs and not index funds.
Should investors overweight companies with overweight CEOs? (Time):
Turns out fat CEOs equal fat profits according to a study in Psychological Today. There seems to be correlation between the width of CEO faces and financial performance. It’s like going long blockheads — but hey, the study posits all types of reasons for this (aggressiveness, imposing people don’t get as much pushback, etc.)
Investing like a jackass apparently works (Tradestreaming):
I interviewed Brandywine’s Mike Dever recently on Tradestreaming Radio on the launch of his book, Jackass Investing (Amazon). Dever’s done an admirable job making his strategies available to the public (and his returns, too). The August report on the Symphony Portfolio (described in Jackass) showed a return of over 2% vs. the $SPY’s loss of over 5%.
Mobius sees opportunity in micro emerging markets(The Guru Investor):
Templeton’s emerging markets man continues to pound the table on opportunities in countries like Thailand, Indonesia, Chile, Poland, Romania, and Turkey. I feel like he’s been doing this for awhile but always interesting to hear what Mobius is up to and where he’s headed. Also, check out Bill Ackman’s presentation on going long the Hong Kong dollar.
New Obama jobs package to legalize crowdfunding (Cutting Edge Capital):
Investors and companies seeking capital are attempting to evolve our capital markets. One channel for new investments is crowdfunding — taking small amounts of money from the masses. It appears the new job proposal aims to lobby the SEC to change their stance on crowdfunding.
Robots to replace human traders (Finextra):
After studying the future effects of high frequency trading (HFT), the UK Government’s Foresight Panel expects the number of humans employed on trading floors to drop dramatically in the years to come. Shall we play a game?
Barry Ritholtz rips inaccuracy of Wall Street analysts (The Big Picture):
Barry snubs Wall Street’s inability to accurately predict financial results and future stock movements. Check out his interview with Jeff Macke.
Buy and write beats buy and hold (Barron’s):
Barron’s looks at a new study on the Russell 2000 ($RUT) and compared a buy and hold strategy to investors who sold call options 2% out-of-the-money and that expired in one month while holding the index. Over 15 years, buy-write wins: 263% vs. 226%. Sounds write (ha, even though it never seems that way in real practice).
The Power of 2 Simple Investing Ideas (Capital Spectator):
Built on simple idea of a proprietary passive index (Global Market Index) out performs the vast majority of actively managed funds. Earn a premium with little risk by rebalancing across asset classes. Simple and it works.