Hottest links for Monday September 9th, 2013 (see last edition of hottest links here). Top stories for the day include; Ray Dalio is back and he thinks that the cheering for Japan is premature. The founder of the world’s largest hedge fund sees China bottoming and thinks Japan could use some more stimulus; Even though the JOBs act was not yet enacted ‘Capitalistpig Asset Management’ was pitching its superb returns to potential investors; Find CAPE ratios for any stock you wish; Howard Marks spoke today and we have the transcript; What is Contrarian investing? An argument to be made for someone who rejects shorting some really over-valued, high growth names; Pension assets have now reached a whopping total of $14 trillion, which is close to the GDP of the United States; That and much more below in today’s hottest links.
Hottest Links: Stories
Hedge Fund Chief Says Japan Needs Another ‘Big Round’ Of Stimulus
Ray Dalio said on Friday the Japanese economy will need another big round of stimulus to boost sluggish growth. The hedge fund giant also believes that some emerging markets are headed towards a crisis. [Katya Wachtel, Reuters]
CTPost: First Hedge Fund to Advertise Since ’33
Last year, a hedge fund called Capitalistpig Asset Management (no typo here) became the first hedge fund since 1933 to advertise — well ahead of the passage of the JOBs act. Would you invest in a fund with that name? [Jonathan Hoenig, CapitalistPig]
On “Contrary” Thinking
I love that Humphrey Neill’s book The Art of Contrary Thinking, translates into today’s conditions. A successful contrarian is the value player who rejects a short investment in Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) or LinkedIn Corp (NYSE:LNKD) despite conviction about overvaluation. Do you agree? [Derek Hernquist]
Howard Marks On What Investors Should Worry About
Howard Marks spoke at Barclays Global Financial Services today. Below are his comments from a transcript obtained by ValueWalk. [ValueWalk]
Insights on Metals and Mining (Part 3)
In this part of Insights on Metals and Mining, we go back to basics and ask the following questions: What are the major categories of metals? Which defining attributes do they possess? And how should investors think about each category? For example, have you ever considered why iron ore or coal companies may be more properly thought of as “infrastructure businesses attached to deposits” rather than as mere resource assets? Or why issues of geology are much more paramount for copper versus iron ore assets? [Oliver Mihaljevic, BeyondProxy]
New Website Launched: CAPE Ratios for Stocks
Paul Boland has launched a website devoted to CAPE ratios for individual stocks, all you need to do is enter the ticker, check it out? [CAPE Ratio Capital]
Peripheral Central Banks Go In Reverse
Until quite recently, the central banks of many emerging markets have fought a losing battle against rapidly appreciating currencies. See a detailed analysis on this subject. [Harris Kupperman, AdventureInCapitalism]
World’s Largest 300 Pension Funds Growth
World’s largest 300 pension funds grew by almost 10% in 2012 to $14tln (up from $12.7tln in 2011) Total assets of the world’s largest 300 pension funds grew by almost 10% in 2012 (compared to around 2% in 2011) to reach a new high of US$14.0 trillion (up from US$12.7 trillion in 2011), according to Pensions & Investments and Towers Watson research. [Opalesque]
Why Have Markets Learned Nothing in the Last 50 Years?
An editorial last week about financial market liquidity, by my new colleagues at Bloomberg View, cited this fascinating paper by Jennie Bai, Thomas Philippon and Alexi Savov called “Have Financial Markets Become More Informative”?* The answer is no. Matt Levine is now at Bloomberg [Matt Levine, Bloomberg]
Is the ABS Market Making a Comeback?
Having suffered—and inflicted some large losses—during 2007 and 2008, largely due to leverage issues and poor collateral choices, ABSs have slowly but surely found their way back onto investors’ portfolios in the past 12 months. [Charlie Thomas, aiCIO]
Latest News: Video Feed
ValueWalk now has a video news page updated with the latest videos from The Street.com.Check it out here. [ValueWalk]
TripAdvisor Visits the Friday Night Dump
The Friday Night dump, that 90 minute period after the markets close, but the SEC remains open. This past Friday, 96 8-Ks were filed after 4 pm, which is actually a slow night according to accounting guru, Michelle Leder. In that pile was this 8-K filed by Tripadvisor Inc (NASDAQ:TRIP). While the press release extolled the virtues of the two new directors, Zillow Inc (NASDAQ:Z) CEO Spencer Rascoff and LinkedIn senior vice president Deep Nishar, it failed to mention that Rascoff will be one of three members on the company’s audit committee. [Michelle Leder, footnoted]
Hedge Funds Cut Back on Fees
Hedge Funds are finally cutting back their fees amid dismal performance. Don’t get too excited, you still have to pay a lot to underperform the market, but the 2/20 model seems to be going away (at least for now). [Gregory Zuckerman, Juliet Chung and Michael Corkery, The Wall Street Journal]
Fate or Destiny?
I suppose I don’t believe in fate but I do believe in destiny. Is that even possible? Do I want to believe in destiny because it seems to have a positive connotation while the term fate seems to have had much graver implications throughout history, religion and literature? [Joshua M Brown, The Reformed Broker]
Good value: Betting on Buffett and Malone
Wally Weitz likes to invest with billionaires he’s known a long time. He’s been a shareholder for more than 35 years in Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.A) (NYSE:BRK.B), run by his Omaha, Nebraska, neighbor Warren Buffett, and has held stakes in companies run by media mogul John Malone for more than 20. The investments helped Weitz Partners III Opportunity Fund (MUTF:WPOPX) produce the best risk-adjusted performance among U.S. value funds in the past five years, according to the Bloomberg Riskless Return Ranking. [InvestmentNews]
Not the Onion
Japanese Prison Creates Cuddly Mascot
A Japanese prison housing a range of convicted criminals has unveiled a cuddly life-size mascot that bosses hope will help change the jail’s forbidding image. [AFP, Fox News]
