Imagine two NBA teams. Team one starts Anthony Davis, Russell Westbrook, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, and James Harden. Team two starts Hassan Whiteside, DeMarcus Cousins, Brook Lopez, Marc Gasol, and Nikola Vucevic. Who wins? The two teams above were determined by a stat called PER (player efficiency rating) with the twist being that while team…
Posts Categorized: Finance
Are You A Paul Revere or William Dawes?
You know Paul Revere, but you probably don’t know William Dawes. They both left Boston with the same mission on April 18th, 1775: to alert others that the British were coming. Their message reached an area of 750 square miles by the next morning: an incredibly fast diffusion of information given the lack of communications…
Buybacks and Debt
One advantage for investors and corporations is to be really good at boring stuff. Two things that are boring are capital structure and capital allocation. There are no Apple or Tesla-like events to unveil new strategies for mixing debt and equity, although such an event is funny to imagine. I’ve written about buybacks (here and…
To Gain an Edge, Run Up Stairs
Where can you find an advantage? This is the question I ask myself more than any other. There are many ways, but this (from Paul Graham) is one of the best: Suppose you are a little, nimble guy being chased by a big, fat, bully. You open a door and find yourself in a staircase….
Another Thing That Worked in the Past That Won’t In the Future
Meb Faber, one of my kindred investing spirits, has a new book out. He asked twitter for book title ideas. One of my favorite twitter cynics (@ianjoblingrox) joked that he should name it “another thing that has worked in the past that won’t in the future: mean reversion is a bitch.” I laughed pretty hard at that one. I…
Improvisation
I began to think of children not as immature adults, but of adults as atrophied children. – Keith Johnstone The topic of this post is an obscure book called “Impro: Improvisation and the Theatre” which was recommended to me twice in a day by 1) a standup & comedy writer (my sister) and 2) a…
25 books on how to think & create, be yourself, communicate, and learn from others
I learned more reading these 25 books than I did in four years of college. I think you will too. These books—in four parts—are about thinking & creating, being happy and authentic, communicating, and learning from others. I plucked these books from the 1,000+ that I’ve read. They have all made me better at what…
Is Dividend Yield Still A Value Factor for U.S. Stocks?
Value factors rely, for the most part, on some comparison between current price and some fundamental measure of a company’s production like sales, earnings, or cash flow. Dividend yield—dividends paid divided by price—has been in the stable of value factors for a long time. But does a high dividend yield indicate cheapness for a U.S….
Under-the-Radar Investment Books
I cannot find a good new investing book. It’s driving me nuts. Maybe you are in the same boat? If so, here are several “under-the-radar” books from my Evernote archives. If you know of more, leave suggestions in the comments. If you want to receive suggestions like this every month, sign up for the book…
High Conviction Buybacks
Large U.S. companies spent nearly half a trillion dollars on net buybacks (cash spent on buybacks less cash raised through issuance) during the 12 months ending 6/30/2015. That’s almost as much as the buyback peak in 2007, which didn’t turn out too well. Scary! But hold on. Something that gets lost beneath this broader trend is…
Millennial Money Book
