Hottest links for Wednesday, March 12th, the late edition. Get our free daily newsletter and never miss a single linkfest. Also, now if you sign up you will get our new e-book on value investing.
Top stories for today are included below. For your Wednesday reading pleasure, we’ve got in-depth interviews with Greenberg and Shapiro, a guide to microcap portfolio management, and a great piece on why mutual funds can’t match Warren Buffett.
Hottest Links: Stories
Value Investing
The Chiefs of Value – Two In-depth Interviews With Greenberg And Shapiro (Part 1)
Glenn Greenberg and John Shapiro of Chieftain Capital are legends in every sense of the word. Although now split into two firms, Chieftain – when Shapiro and Greenberg were together – had perhaps one of the best long-term track records of all time. [The Odd Lot]
Hope Is Not An Investing Strategy
“I hope the stock market continues to rise,” my friend Ravi told me as we met for dinner last week. [Vishal Khandelwal, Safal Niveshak]
SMT Scharf – indirectly benefit from the commodities boom?
SMT Scharf AG (ETR:S4A) (FRA:S4A) (OTCMKTS:SMTAF) (SMT = Solutions for Mining Transport) developed and produced especially rail-bound railway systems for the mining industry. I had the company years ago (think early 2010) been viewed once. My conclusion at the time, sales in Germany continue to fall due to the cessation of coal mining. [Stefan Mohr, Simple Value Investing – Translated Version]
Special Situation Ideas for week of 10-MAR-2014
URS Corp (NYSE:URS): This is an interesting time to take a look at a company, that’s a play on US and internal infrastructure. The company operates in 4 major sectors – Government (roads, bridges, water infrastructure, nuclear, among others); Oil & Gas, Power and Industrial. [Kedar’s Special Situations Investment Ideas]
MicroCap Portfolio Management and Position Sizing
In 1977 Elton and Gruber worked out an empirical example of the gains from diversification. Their approach was to consider a population of 3,290 securities available for possible inclusion in a portfolio, and to consider the average risk over all possible randomly chosen n-asset portfolios with equal amounts held in each included asset, for various values of n. [Ian Cassel, MicroCapClub]
Funds
2 Reasons to be Bullish About Peripheral Europe
Financial markets have taken note of the improving situation in southern European countries, with major equity indices and bonds posting double-digit performances over the past six months. [Cullen Roche, Pragmatic Capitalism]
Clear Leisure: a liquidating train wreck
Clear Leisure PLC (LON:CLP)’s NAV/share number isn’t very meaningful because it is outdated, but even taking into account the loss of ORH SpA it gives a hint that this company might be worth a lot more dead than alive. Given managements intention of selling assets and paying dividends that’s good news. [Alpha Vulture]
What gives a patent its value?
The elements of value of traditional asset classes are well-understood. Equity traders know that the number of shares of stock in circulation defines the overall percent of ownership one share demands. [Reed Jessen, Preferred Embodiment]
Why Mutual Funds Can’t Copy Warren Buffett
There are countless number of “value” mutual funds trying to replicate some form of what Warren Buffett does by purchasing companies well below their intrinsic value. [Cullen Roche, Pragmatic Capitalism]
How to Move ESG from Philosophy to Alpha Generator
Many investors are privately more fervent proponents of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) philosophy than they are in public. Conventional wisdom holds that the investment pro’s job is to make investors money, and besides, investing in ESG is a sure way to lose alpha. [Jason Voss, CFA Institute]
Inefficient Markets: Informational Efficiency Versus Emotional Efficiency
This open and unfettered access to information is referred to as “informational efficiency” and it makes it nearly impossible to get an informational edge on your opponents in the stock market (you likely won’t be able to find any information regarding any of your stocks that everyone else is not already aware of). [Contrarian Ville]
Hottest Links: Not The Onion
My High School Canceled Dances Because Students Would Rather Stay Home and Text Each Other
Your high school may have had different names for them, but you probably recognize what they are: school dances. A staple of American culture, the dramatic climax of countless high-school movies, and the background of so many teenage memories. The dances were something to look forward to. [Caroline Mass, Business Insider]
