Tag Archives: Behavioral Finance

Mohnish Pabrai Has Not Made an Investment in a New Idea in Over 18 Months

Forbes once identified Mohnish as one of the investment managers who could assume the value-investing guru mantle from Buffett. In his 2013 Annual Letter, Pabrai wrote that he has not found a new idea in which to invest in over eighteen … Continue reading

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Seth Klarman is Sitting on a Mountain of Cash

“…around 50% of our assets are in cash, and that’s a very high absolute number, now around $14 billion and rising…”–Seth Klarman I recently came across this quote from Seth Klarman of the Baupost Group, which he said during a … Continue reading

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A Book Review

Heh, I was looking at the NYSSA website and stumbled on a book review written in 2011 of Joel Greenblatt’s The Big Secret for the Small Investor and forgot that I wrote the review. Enjoy: http://post.nyssa.org/nyssa-news/2011/05/book-review-the-big-secret-for-the-small-investor.html Continue reading

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Tie Yourself to the Mast

Jason Zweig writes an excellent column on tying oneself to the mast (as in the above painting) for financial decision making when the alternative is to rely on willpower alone. Many people believe they can maneuver in choppy markets; fully … Continue reading

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The Stock Market: Looking in from the Outside

We are nearly halfway through 2013 and the S&P 500 Total Return Index is on pace to deliver a return of over 47% for the year. In the last 188 years of stock market activity, the market delivered an annual return of … Continue reading

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Wisdom from Jean-Marie Eveillard (and Seth Klarman)

JME reflects on a conversation he had with Seth Klarman at a wedding. I love that he uses the term “genuine” value investors to distinguish them from the imposters. I have been using the term “true” value investors, but I may switch … Continue reading

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The Equity Market Annual Return Histogram Updated for 2012

Better late than never. I have updated the equity market annual return histogram for the 16.00% total return generated by the S&P 500 index in 2012. As Michael Mauboussin says, when understanding an investment idea, we should try take an outsider’s … Continue reading

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RIP, Robert A. Haugen

Robert A. Haugen passed away Sunday, January 6, 2013 and I did not discover that until now. Haugen is perhaps best known for his book The New Finance in which he summarized important academic studies that proved that markets were … Continue reading

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Jason Zweig Interviews Jean-Marie Eveillard

Jason is correct that many investors who place their capital with value investing firms will not stay with the firm long enough through multiple cycles in order to capture the value premium. Paradoxically, that is part of the reason that … Continue reading

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Thinking in a Foreign Language Helps Reduce Loss Aversion

According to behavioral finance theory, Loss Aversion causes investors to sell winning investments quickly in order to “lock in” gains and to hold on to losing investments in order to get even, regardless of the underlying fundamentals, changes in circumstances, or overall … Continue reading

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