Hottest links for Saturday and Sunday, February 8th-9th, the weekend edition. Get our free daily newsletter (which HAS BEEN RECENTLY UPDATED) 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.
Lots of great value write ups for today’s hottest links. We start out with an age old debate – Jim Chanos was down 13% in 2013, many think that is a very poor performance – others (myself included, and I hope to do a story on this later) think that is a great return for a short biased fund, Seth Klarman on EBITDA as a valuation metric, A look at some potential value stocks, Philip Falcone gets a babysitter (for his hedge fund), while Mcgruff goes to jail, That and much more below.
Hottest Links: Stories
Value Investing
Compounding experience, redux
This weekend many investment professionals (and amateurs) will sit down and read the most recent quarterly letter from GMO. with contributions from Jeremy Grantham and Ben Inker. In it Grantham relates a story about his first experience in investing.[Tadas Viskanta, Abnormal Returns]
Short-seller Chanos falls double digits in ’13
Jim Chanos’s Kynikos Opportunity Fund fell 13.6% net of fees last year, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal late Friday. That, according to the paper, represented the fund’s largest decline in at least a decade. [Lawrence Delevingne, CNBC]
My motto: ‘Fresh mistakes, every year’
“More than anything else, what differentiates people who live up to their potential from those who don’t is a willingness to look at themselves and others objectively.” — Ray Dalio, Bridgewater [Barry Ritholtz, Washington Post]
Dollarama: It’s a wonderful business but…
Dollarama Inc (TSE:DOL) (OTCMKTS:DLMAF)’s stock has performed phenomenally well since its IPO. The underlying business has grown its profits as fast as Salesforce has grown its revenues. [Glenn Chan, Glenn Chan’s Random Notes on Investing]
What Do You Believe In?
We readily recognize that facts are not the same things as truth. Facts are true by definition (or they wouldn’t be facts), but they require analysis, understanding and interpretation to become useful and actionable, to become truth. [Bob Seawright, Above the Market]
The fallacy of exposing ideas
If it hasn’t happened to you yet it’s just a matter of time. Right now you read my blog and love to see some of the strange stocks I profile. [Nate Tobik, Oddball Stocks]
Talent Is Persistence
A fantastic interview with filmmaker Kirby Ferguson. This part hit me. What would your advice be to the 20-year-old version of you, who’s just starting their career? [Shane Parrish, Farnam Street]
Seth Klarman on EBITDA
It is not clear why investors suddenly came to accept EBITDA as a measure of corporate cash flow. EBIT did not accurately measure the cash flow from a company’s ongoing income stream. [Joe Koster, Value Investing World]
My Take on Silver Wheaton
Silver Wheaton Corp. (NYSE:SLW) (TSE:SLW) is simply the best precious metals business model I’ve been able to find after researching the sector all year. [Theron de Ris, BeyondProxy]
Funds
Flows Don’t Follow Value, They Follow Performance
Outflows from emerging market equity funds since the start of this year now exceed those for all of 2013 after investors continued to flee emerging stock and bond funds during the past week, banks said on Friday, citing EPFR Global data. [Joshua M Brown, The Reformed Broker]
John Thaler’s JAT Capital Starts Angie’s List Stake
John Thaler’s hedge fund JAT Capital has disclosed a new stake in Angie’s List Inc (NASDAQ:ANGI), per a 13G filed with the SEC. [Market Folly]
Money-Furnace VXX Is Unseated by Flamethrowing XIV
The news is at first blush of limited interest. Barclays iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (VXX) has fallen behind VelocityShares Daily Inverse VIX Short Term ETN (XIV) in assets under management, a spokesperson for the makers of the latter ETN tell Barrons.com. [Brendan Conway, Focus on Funds]
Harbinger Gets Independent Monitor
A private-equity manager will oversee Harbinger Capital Management during firm founder Philip Falcone’s five-year ban from acting as a hedge-fund manager. [FINalternatives]
Traders Find Short Bets on Puerto Rico a Challenge
Hedge funds and others looking to bet against the cash-strapped island of Puerto Rico are finding some typical methods a challenge. [Katy Burne, MoneyBeat]
The Singularity: Hedge Funds Become One with the S&P 500
Hedge funds appear to be facing their own singularity in the form of the S&P 500 (INDEXSP:.INX). They’re slowly but surely becoming one with the large-cap stock index. [Brendan Conway, Focus on Funds]
Hottest Links: Not The Onion
McGruff The Crime Dog gets 16 years
Authorities searched the guy’s place and discovered more than 1,000 pot plants and an entire arsenal of weaponry, including a grenade launcher. [Mike Bertha, Philly.com]
