Hottest links for Monday 13th January, the late edition (see Weekend’s edition of hottest links). Get our free daily newsletter (the updated version) 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. Some very interesting stories today, including a great piece where a chess master works through retrograde analysis by working through problems backwards from a known position, a tidbit about the Chinese number two man, and a study looking at aging male hedge fund managers and the pursuit of the ‘warrior physique.’
Hottest Links: Stories
Value Investing
Keynes, the Investor
Upon exploring Keynes the investor for my book Keynes’s Way to Wealth, I discovered a man smitten with the financial markets. He relished speculation and complex trades and pushed many of the portfolios he managed into buying stocks, which was rare in the early part of the 20th century for institutional investors. [John F. Wasik, Morningstar]
Celesio Merger Arbitrage – Follow Up (and Exit)
On Thursday, acquirer McKesson and Elliott agreed on a slightly increased offer 23.50 EUR (vs. 23 EUR) per share which Elliottt promptly accepted. Interestingly,the stock trades now higher than the offer: [Memyselfandi007, Value And Opportunity]
Economic Predictions
An investor recently asked what we thought about Bob Doll and his 10 Economic Predictions for 2014. While we are still working on our annual letter and investment outlook, I figured I’d share our thoughts on someone else’s. [Christopher Pavese, The View from the Blue Ridge]
Map Of Success
The lesson of the Internet age is that traditional media may not reach the target audience. In other words, just because it’s in the newspaper, that does not mean everybody knows about it. [Barry Ritholtz, The Big Picture]
Working backward to solve problems
In this short video, grandmaster Maurice Ashley walks us through retrograde analysis, which is a method to solve game positions in chess by working backwards from known outcomes. [Shane Parrish, Farnam Street]
Portfolio Rebalancing and Weighting Strategies
Portfolio rebalancing and weighting are powerful risk management strategies every investor should employ. This is universal for every investor, but especially relevant for the value investor. [Ken Faulkenberry, The Arbor Investment Planner]
Tata Motors: Will You Play Devil’s Advocate for Me?
I first bought Tata Motors Limited (ADR) (NYSE:TTM) (BOM:500570) in March 2009 at Rs 28 and sold it at Rs 70 in May 2009, thinking the stock had run up too fast too soon given that the business fundamentals were still weak, especially in the company’s global markets. [Vishal Khandewal, Safal Niveshak]
Funds
The Chinese Emperor and His Number Two
In an important shift that has bearings on China’s economic reform, Xi is weakening the role of his number two man Premier Li Keqiang and assuming the primary duty of overseeing economic reforms, particularly after the Plenum in November 2013. [Koon Boon Kee, BeyondProxy]
Chart o’ the Day: Advisor Allocations
Advisors seem to be practicing what they preach based on this survey from Financial Planning Magazine and they are not chasing the stock market for their clients just because it feels good or they’re worried about losing assets. [Joshua M Brown, The Reformed Broker]
Hedge Funds Burned By Soaring Intercept? Looks Like No
Intercept Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:ICPT) may be one of those unusual cases where just about everybody wins — if by win we mean There was no big bloody massacre of hedge-fund short sellers. [Brendan Conway, Focus on Funds]
Vanguard Ups Global ETP Market Share
U.S. fund manager Vanguard was the only one of the three largest exchange-traded product providers globally to increase its market share in 2013, highlighting the competitiveness of a sector in which the top three firms account for 70% of assets. [Sarah Krouse, MoneyBeat]
Corporate Pensions’ Funded Status Continues to Soar
The typical US corporate pension plan’s funded status reached 95.2% as of December 2013, according to BNY Mellon’s Investment Strategy & Solutions Group (ISSG). [Sage Um, ai-CIO]
The newsonomics of momentum in the WSJ/NYT battle
As we look back at 2013 — and forward to 2014 — we see that The Wall Street Journal, an innovative leader in the digital news business, seems to have lost momentum in its titanic battle with The New York Times. [Ken Doctor, Nieman Journalism Lab]
How to avoid becoming a sheep of Wall Street
The rising stock market, with its record share prices, has ushered us into an era of “caveat emptor”: buyer beware. Last year was a great year for stocks. [Suzanne McGee, The Guardian]
Reminiscences of a Stockblogger
I wrote up my position in Hovnanian Enterprises Inc (NASDAQ:HOVNP) in April 2013, so a little over 9 months ago. During that time the preferreds have went on a round trip to nowhere, peaking out at $18 in the summer before falling back to $14 in the last few weeks of the year. [Lsigurd, Reminiscences of a Stockblogger]
Lampert’s Lemon and Lemman’s Lemonade
This time, lets focus on two admirable investment billionaires: Jorge Paulo Lemman and Eddie Lampert (despite his recent languish, I still remain a fan of his earlier work). Fundamentally, the similarities between the two stretch beyond their appearances on the Forbes Rich List. [The Odd Lot]
SodaStream Story Goes Flat
This Sodastream International Ltd (NASDAQ:SODA) warning is just plain bad — and there is NO syrupy sugar-coated way of getting around it. [Herb Greenberg, Herb on TheStreet]
An Activist Hedge Fund Manager Has A Coffee Mug Specially
DealBook’s Alexandra Stevenson has an article on activist investors like Daniel Loeb, Carl Icahn, David Einhorn and Bill Ackman. [Julia La Roche, Business Insider]
Study uncovers ageing hedge fund traders’ pursuit of ‘warrior physique’ ideal
Beware ageing male hedge fund traders. A new study of a London fund has found that older men in hedge funds are prone to enthusiastic exercise in an attempt to achieve a hyper-masculine, super-fit, warrior-style physique. [Sarah Butcher, eFinancialCareers]
ADLPartner, a Euro crisis recovery candidate with a 10% dividend
ADLPartner SA (EPA:ALP) shares some of the same characteristics of PD-Rx; there are a number of differences as well. [Nate Tobik , Oddball Stocks]
Hottest Links: Not The Onion
Woman At Red Light Hit By Car Driven By Chihuahua
“I was shocked. I didn’t know if I was crazy, if there was just this little dog that had taken a joyride,” said victim Tabitha Ormaechea. [CBS Denver]
