Hottest links for Monday, February 17th, the early 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 Presidents’ Day enjoyment, we’ve got some great stories, including a thought experiment on what you’d do if investing were free, and a raft of 13F filings.
Hottest Links: Stories
Value Investing
Accounting Restatements in Asia
The results have practical implications for value investors who have that Pavlov-impulse to bargain hunt for “cheap” stocks whose prices have corrected significantly with the expectation of a mean reversion to returns without seeking to understand the accounting dynamics of the companies invested, which will be elaborated upon with the case of Korea’s CJ Group. [Koon Boon Kee, BeyondProxy]
If investing were free how would it change what you do?
Let’s do a little thought experiment. What if investing were essentially free? By that I mean the cost of indexed ETFs on the major global asset classes and the management of highly diversified portfolios rebalanced and tax-optimized. [Tadas Viskanta, Abnormal Returns]
How Private Banks Make Money. Part I
In the upcoming weeks I will do a whole series on how private banks make money. I will break down for you what you can expect from a private bank’s price list and how to read it so that you can compare it with competitors. [Climateer Investing]
The Private Market Value Strategy: Part 1 – Discounted Assets
In the past few years, my investment strategy has evolved and is now best described as being dominated by an analysis of private market value. By “private market value,” I mean the value that a potential buyer would assign to an entire company. [Philip Mause, Seeking Alpha]
Peerless Systems (NASDAQ:PRLS)
This is a short post on Peerless Systems Corp. (NASDAQ:PRLS) which I came across on Shadowstock. It is selling for below net cash and management is engaging in one of the most aggressive buybacks I’ve ever seen. Take a look at the table below. [Investing Sidekick]
Funds
13F Filings: Buffett, Einhorn, Tepper, Watsa, Bass, Klarman And Others
Below is a brief roundup of purchases and sales by famous value investors and hedge funds based on their 13F filings. It is important to note that the 13 filings only cover the period from 10/1/13-12/31/14, so positions may have changed. [ValueWalk] Related; Every quarter, fund managers file Form 13F-HR to disclose their holdings on a 45 day delayed basis. We created this report to make it easy to compare the current quarter’s holdings with the previous quarter. [Specsituations]
Twitter’s Recent 8-K Begs for More Transparency
With all of the bad weather here in the East, this aging number cruncher has had his hands full with scraping and shoveling. But I just had to take a break and comment on Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR)’s recent Form 8-K (February 5, 2014), particularly given the Company CEO’s comments last Fall on the importance of transparency to being a good leader. [Anthony Catanach, Grumpy Old Accountants]
Static allocations may foil growth ambitions of hedge funds
As the hedge fund industry matures, managers who survived the financial crisis are now beginning to focus on growing beyond their original business models, according to EY’s seventh annual global hedge fund survey. [Hedgeweek]
Hottest Links: Not The Onion
NYPD denies FOIA request for department FOIA guide
The New York Police Department’s Freedom of Information Law Unit is refusing to release its FOIL guide. Yes, you read that right. [Investigative Reporters and Editors]