Hottest links for Friday, 20th December, the late edition (see Thursday’s edition of hottest links). 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. Some highlights for today include more ways we can admire Warren Buffett, an in-depth look at Saudi stocks as a possible winner, and a warning about the clean cut “family men” of Wall Street.
Hottest Links: Stories
Value Investing
Choose Yourself
I was hesitant to get a copy of his latest book, Choose Yourself. While James Altucher is a compelling writer, I didn’t know if the book would be a good fit with Farnam Street readers. [Shane Parrish, Farnam Street]
The 13 Biggest Investing Mistakes to Avoid
The Bill Russell investment strategy is about avoiding the crippling mistakes that so many investors make on a consistent basis. [Cullen Roche, Pragmatic Capitalism]
The Warren Buffett Difference, Derivatives edition
Actual new information about the great man and his methods is rare indeed. Warren Buffett is the investment equivalent of Churchill, endlessly.. [Dan McCrum, FT Alphaville]
Think, Act, and Invest Like Warren Buffett
It seems that a new book “Think, Act, and Invest Like Warren Buffett: The Winning Strategy to Help You Achieve Your Financial and Life Goals, 2013 by Larry E. Swedroe.” about Warren Buffett’s investment strategy is released to the public every few months, probably for good reason. [CFA Institute]
Funds
Valuation Distributions Across Time
For readability’s sake, I’ve bolded the 5th and 95th percentile values, as well as the median, in each of the valuation distributions. Some interesting statistics from the chart below: [Mebane Faber]
Lucky Escapes
The first company I’ll cover is EZCORP Inc (NASDAQ:EZPW), which runs pawn shops and gold buying outlets. It did very well in the recession but my per store analysis showed that if revenues returned to more normal levels then profits would suffer greatly. So I passed on the investment and it looks like a good decision. [Investing Sidekick]
Orora Australis – Amcor Completes Its Spinoff
Amcor Limited (ASX:AMC) (OTCMKTS:AMCRY)’s shareholders overwhelmingly approved the demerger of Orora Ltd (ASX:ORA), its Australasia and Packaging Distribution business, at a shareholder meeting last week with over 99% of the votes cast in favor. [Stocks Spinoff, Spin Doctor]
What Happened to The Money Americans Borrowed Before the Crisis?
Recently retitled Financial Accounts of the United States (formerly Flow of Funds), the new data have provided a new, and perhaps final, chapter in the great financial crisis: the end of acute deleveraging. [Matt Busigin, CFA Institute]
Passport Capital Takes a Road Less Traveled in Saudi Stocks
John Burbank believes the oil-rich kingdom has the makings of a global winner – fueled by undervalued stocks in an inefficient market. [Jan Alexander, Institutional Investor]
Bitcoin Evangelists See Path to a Cashless Utopia
Mr. Allaire and other bitcoin investors see a similar trajectory for bitcoin, a digital unit of exchange whose supply is generated by independent “miners” by solving complicated computations problems. [Michael J. Casey, MoneyBeat] Related; Overstock.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:OSTK), an online discount retailer, is preparing to accept the virtual currency bitcoin as payment in the second half of 2014, according to Chief Executive and Chairman Patrick Byrne. [Saumya Vaishampayan, The Tell]
Hedge funds and the biz journalists who go to work for them
Hedge funds are advertising that they want to hire business journalists to come work for them on journalism job websites. They’re starting their own websites to provide content to other hedge funders. [Chris Roush, Talking Biz News]
AlphaBet ETFs
Vanguard is expanding its ETF lineup with the introduction of the AlphaBet series of ETFs, an innovation in the ever-growing ETF space. [Wesley R. Gray, Turnkey Analyst]
Big Year For Active Managers? Not if You Nix Vanguard’s 98%
It’s true by the top-line numbers. Inflows for stock mutual funds are positive during 2013. But here’s the catch. Take Vanguard Group out of the equation and, shockingly, the money spigot is almost dry on a net basis. Even in a year when the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSEARCA:SPY) is up 27%. [Brendan Conway, Focus On Funds]
Misc
A Guide to Private Placement Due Diligence for Stockbrokers
A recent disciplinary action by Finra has sent a warning shot across the bow at stockbrokers who sell private placements to customers without having done adequate due diligence. [Joshua M Brown, The Reformed Broker]
The gravity of the market
The market is nothing more than millions of individuals making millions of decisions at the same time. Yet through these millions of decisions consensus forms and stocks slowly rise or decline towards their fair value. [Nate Tobik, Oddball Stocks]
Charlie Gasparino: Beware The Wall Street Guy Who’s Never Done A Hooker Or A Line Of Coke
Drugs and personal excess will always be found on Wall Street (and in any profession that pays big bucks), but it’s been my experience that fraudsters are more often family men like Bernie Madoff… [Bess Levin, Deal Breaker]
Greenberg: And the Worst CEO of 2013 Is…?
He is, after all, John Chambers — the same John Chambers, Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)’s CEO for 17 years, who built one of the great tech companies. [Herb Greenberg, TheStreet]
The Challenges of Year-End Forecasting
Christmas will soon be upon us. Many of us in the investment business have just completed annual performance reviews and informed our staff of compensation decisions that are charged with practical and symbolic significance. [Jason Hsu, Research Affiliates]
A Quiz to Test Your Financial Intelligence
Please take this Quiz to test your Financial IQ. Please do not use Google to search for answers. [Safal Niveshak]
Ten Weird Things About Herbalife Saga
Our deep dive into the Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE:HLF) dispute. [Dan McCrum, FT Alphaville]
Hottest Links: Not The Onion
Shopper caught masturbating in Sainsbury’s meat aisle
A grandfather caught masturbating in a Sainsbury’s meat aisle has been banned from every supermarket in the UK. [Metro]
