Volatility (as defined by the VIX) has been trending lower, as the many sources of bad news fail to get any worse and confiscatory interest rates relentlessly push investors into the water. Investors are searching for ways to bet on it rising again – a tricky concept to get right. As investors climb the wall of […]
From Felix Salmon’s examination of AIMA’s latest attempt to counter the criticisms of the hedge fund industry in my book. Felix is far more eloquent than I ever could be in assessing AIMA’s report. It’s well worth reading his analysis.
The title isn’t my creation, but is rather the work of Michael Edesess, PhD, CIO of Fair Advisors (an investment firm) and author of The Big Investment Lie (which I am currently reading). Michael just posted a review of my book, and he does an excellent job of summarizing the highlights and adding his own […]
Last week’s Knight Trading (KCG) disaster marked the first time that I can recall when a software glitch actually threatened the surivival of a public company. In recent years computer technology has played an increasing role in the functioning of the equity markets, and KCG’s mis-hap was preceded by the Facebook (FB) IPO mess and the Flash […]
In late July I had the opportunity to present the ideas in my book, The Hedge Fund Mirage, at the CFA Institute’s Financial Analysts Seminar in Chicago. Flying to Chicago for the day afforded me time to catch up on some reading, and some new ideas. From time to time we’ve written about the Equity […]
As we head towards another deadline for Greece, during which they must convince the troika that austerity is on track, there is growing speculation that Greece may be forced out of the Euro. A “Grexit” to use a popular term. Well, maybe, but here’s why it’s not inevitable. First, from Germany’s point of view, Greece’s […]
Modern financial theory holds that a diversified portfolio of securities is the most efficient way for an investor to access an asset class. Idiosyncratic risk, the risk associated with an individual stock say, can be diversified away and therefore theory holds that investors don’t achieve any additional return for holding concentrated portfolios of their favorite […]
The Energy Information Agency (EIA) is a rich source of data on everything related to energy production, consumption and storage in the U.S. This chart caught my attention, showing that coal use for electricity generation continues to fall sharply, with the result that in April for the first time natural gas was used to produce […]
I am once again indebted to The Economist for writing about my book and noting some of the points I made about hedge funds’ poor performance. On January 7 they covered it in the Buttonwood column, and this weekend they once again discussed the issues I raised. They are performing a public service by highlighting […]
Last week Coeur d’Alene (CDE) announced plans to issue debt, even though they have no obvious need of any extra cash. It looked very much as if the company was planning to make an acquisition rather than focus on returning value to shareholders, and we commented as such on this blog. It seems the bond […]
