Hottest links for Monday August 5th, 2013 (see Sunday’s edition of hottest links here). Top stories for today include; Bridgewater tells us what could bring the apocalypse in Europe; It is no longer losers living in their parents’ basements, and the ramifications for the economy are huge; The case for a small cap IT company; Hedge fund re-insurers have it good, but there are cases where they have been a disaster; Flaw in studies justifying commodity investments as an asset class; Was the American economic boom a total random and ‘lucky’ event?; How to deal with trolls; Men and women perceive risk quite differently; Lessons from Ben Graham on indexing and trying to beat the market; Evil forces are conspiring to create a Greater Badakhshan, but China and Russia is going to prevent this. That and more in today’s hottest links.
Hottest Links: Stories
Several links today were found via AbnormalReturns
Greenlight.. Redlight?
Hedge fund re-insurers have held an allure for over two decades as the tax structure is great (for avoiding paying taxes), but some have experienced the unintended consequences which come along with the vehicle. [Nihon Cassandra]
Commodities: The end of the Holy Grail
Commodities are usually advertised as the ‘orthogonal asset class’ by the financial industry and are recommended by many in the financial universe. But studies which show their benefits have a bias and a flaw. [Anne-Laure Delatte, Claude Lopez, VOR EU]
Karl Popper and Dividend Growth Investing
Since the advent of Yahoo finance message boards trolls have lurked the internet attacking everything good in this world. They have now spread to other areas and forums; here is how one dividend investor deals with them. [Roger Nusbaum, Random Roger]
The Spider and the Fly
Michael Lewis has a great piece on a former a star programmer at Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS). And Rajiv has a great piece discussing the story from the aspect of high frequency trading and how it disrupts the market place. [Rajiv Sethi]
Men and Women Gauge Risk Differently
Small gains now or big rewards later? Men and women look at this aspect differently. Surprisingly, some new research shows that women tend to focus on small gains now in certain cases. [Luciana Gravotta, Scientific American]
A Foolproof Plan For True Market Timers
Quick question for market timers: Can you tell the difference between “imminent” and “imaginary” trends in the markets? [Mitch Tuchman, Forbes]
The Art Of Worldly Wisdom
The Art of Worldly Wisdom: A Pocket Oracle is a book of three hundred aphorisms for making one’s way in the world and achieving distinction. [Shane Parrish, Farnam Street]
The Blip
Very interesting and provocative topic. Was the American economic boom over the past 200 years merely an event of luck? See this in-depth article on the topic, which has big ramifications for the future. [Benjamin Wallace-Wells, NY Mag]
DynTek And The Problem With Earnings
DynTek, Inc (OTCMKTS:DYNE) is a IT services and vendor business. The company offers IT consulting services, and resells software from Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), among other names. [Nate Tobik, Odd Ball Stocks]
Who Should Try to Beat the Market?
Ben Graham gave an interview shortly before his death in 1976. He was asked whether people could and should try to beat the market. Here is Morgan’s take and lesson from Graham’s answer. [Morgan Housel, Fool]
Where are all the new households?
Housing is doing well, but there is one thing holding it back. The number of grown ups living in their parents basement has grown astronomically, which could have big implications for the economy. [Joshua M Brown, The Reformed Broker]
Bridgewater Associates: A Perfect Storm Brewing in Europe?
Bridgewater Associates lays out the doomsday scenario in Europe. The Troika faces a big decision regarding Portugal, and the world’s largest hedge fund believes the ramifications could be felt across the Euro-Zone. [Value Walk]
FTSE 100 Valuation – August 2013
Most of financial media focus in the UK pay most attention to the daily movements of the FTSE 100 (INDEXFTSE:UKX). But investors should take a look at the valuation of FTSE 100 instead, and here is one analysis. [John Kingham, UK Value Investor]
Will Rhode Island’s Big Bet On Hedge Funds Pay Off?
A few weeks ago, Dan Loeb, who has $66 million in Rhode Island state pension funds, made nearly 10 times that when he sold 40 million shares of Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) recently. Paul Singer also scored big for the pension fund, but? [Mike Stanton, Providence Journal]. Related, see Paul Singer’s comments from Elliott Associates’ Q2 letter if you have not done so.
Not the Onion
Are Outside Forces Conspiring To Create “Great Badakhshan”?
Think tanks in Tajikistan has accused “some countries” and “certain forces” of trying to create an independent ‘Greater Badakhshan’ from parts of current day Tajikistan and Afghanistan. However, fear not! Russia and China are going to thwart the evil plan. [Joshua Kucera, Euraisanet]
