Ben Graham sat before the Committee on Banking and Currency to testify about the stock market.
This was 1955.
The stock market had risen significantly in the past few years. The government wanted to know why. Continue Reading…
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Happy Hour: Dividend Hits
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Right before the year ended, the folks at Dividend Reference put together their top 50 dividend articles for 2015, including yours truly (see #12).
I’m dividend agnostic myself, but I certainly understand the draw. It’s hard to turn down a good company, at a great price, that also pays a consistent and growing dividend.
Since I wasn’t posting last week, I thought I’d share it now since it is a great collection worth perusing when you have some free time. Continue Reading…
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Asset Class, Sector, and Country Returns for 2015
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Every chart tells a story. Which story depends on what you choose to see. The asset class tables tell stories of best returns, worst returns, or a middle ground that avoids both. Maybe it’s the tale of mean reversion and infinite cycling of markets. Or randomness. Unpredictability. Irrationality.
I’ve explained it before here, here, and here. This time, I’ll hold off till the end because most people will see what they want to see and ignore the rest.
As usual, I’ll point out a few things I see in the tables, along with some other year-end data that was left out. Continue Reading…
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Happy Hour: Fed Distraction
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Every year is filled with exciting, scary, stressful, eye-catching, all important headlines that turn out to be nothing special in the end. There were a few this year, but the big one was the recurring theme around the Fed raising rates.
Well, we can finally toss this one in the nothing special pile too because it’s official – a 0.25% fed funds rate hike was announced Wednesday. The Fed dragged out the most telegraphed move of 2015, until December…and the world didn’t end. Continue Reading…
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Happy Hour: Looking Ahead
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I plan to do a few things differently next year. Sort of. Nothing drastic, though.
As it stands, the plan is to update the tables – the asset class, sector, etc – with the 2015 full year returns. I’ve already had a few people asking when – so expect it the first week of January.
After that, things are a bit fluid because I haven’t quite figured it all out. Continue Reading…
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Looking Back at 2015
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It’s been another long, fun year with a lot written. There were hits. And misses. But overall it was a good year…I think.
This blog has always been about learning. Really, it follows my path of learning and trying to share what I learn as simply as possible. Writing helps me understand…well…how much I actually understand this stuff.
Sometimes I get it right. Sometimes it’s plain as day that I don’t have a clue. And sometimes I write purely for fun just to mix things up, or as an excuse to try out a new toy because I like to see how things work.
So, while I privately dwell on the misses (not really), here are ten of the more fun and popular posts from this year. Continue Reading…