Is the Chinese market still investable? from CNBC. I joined Sara Eisen on CNBC’s The Closing Bell to chat about Chinese stocks. Emerging markets have underperformed the U.S. market since 2009 for various reasons: political instability, currency weakness, commodity price weakness, and cyclical preferences. But after years of outperformance, U.S. stocks are now very expensive...Read More

Value investing has historically been a winning strategy… but it’s been a rough couple of years. So… is value dead? Should we all just buy the S&P 500 and be done? The rumors of value’s death have been greatly exaggerated. Larry Swedroe wrote am excellent piece on the subject this month, Don’t Give Up On...Read More

Growth stocks — and specifically large-cap tech stocks led by the FAANGs — have utterly crushed value stocks of late. It’s been the dominant theme of the past five years. Even the first quarter of 2018, which saw Facebook engulfed in a privacy scandal, saw growth outperform value. Value stocks in general underperformed, and the...Read More

Tadas Viskanta, editor of the excellent finanical blog Abnormal Returns, asked a group of financial bloggers the following question: Assume you are advising a pension fund, endowment or foundation. What is a reasonable long-term expectation for real returns for a well-diversified portfolio? The answered varied, but it seems like the consensus was somewhere in the...Read More

It remains to be seen whether the market is in the midst of a garden-variety 10% correction or if this is the start of a deeper bear market. But it does seem like this market is being held aloft buy a small handful of large-cap tech stocks: the infamous FAANGs. Let’s play with the numbers...Read More

I always try to read everything that Jeremy Grantham’s GMO publishes, but I somehow missed this one until it was republished on Meb Faber’s Idea Farm. Good stuff: Don’t Act Like Stalin. Lot’s of good takeaways (as always). GMO’s main point was that chasing recent performance is a game you can’t win. All good strategies...Read More

Prospect Capital’s (PSEC) latest earnings release didn’t do much to improve investor sentiment toward the stock. It remains mired in trading range and sits are barely 70% of book value. PSEC has long been accused of being a little more aggressive than its peers in valuing its assets. But even so, at these levels it...Read More

With market volatility picking up this past week, now is as good a time as any to review why it’s important to take your losses early. If you lose 10%-20% in a trade, it’s not that hard to recover. It only takes 11% – 25% to get back to where you started. But if you...Read More

Warren Buffett is a hero to many investors, myself included.  His record speaks for itself: 18.3% annualized returns in Berkshire Hathaway’s ($BRK-A) book value over the past 30 years compared to just 10.8% for the S&P 500.  And his returns in the 1950s and 1960s, when he was running a much smaller hedge fund, were...Read More

I originally penned this articled in December 2011.  Given Sears’ stock action in the year that has passed, it’s worth another read. A well-respected value investor buys an old American company in decline, promising to restore its fortunes.  Alas, the recovery never comes.  The economics of the industry have changed, and the company cannot compete...Read More