AlephBlog.com
Filed Under Investments, Blogging, Business, Economics, Wall Street, Personal Finance | 2 Comments
AlephBlog.com is David Merkel’s investment blog. If you read TheStreet.com or Realmoney.com you probably recognize his name. He has been a contributor since 2003. He primarily writes about stock and bond portfolio management. He started the blog so that he could do have more one on one interaction with readers and do less structured writing. So while he mainly cover equity and bond portfolios he can now talk about anything he wishes.
If you click on his investment books from which I have benefited page you will notice right off the bat that he is primarily a value investor. The Intelligent Investor, The Aggressive Conservative Investor, Value Investing, and Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits are books that are and should be on every serious investors bookshelf.
Looking at his categories the top four things that he writes about are Stocks, Macro Economics, Portfolio Management, and Bonds. His writing style is easy going and not very confrontational. He lays out valid points for almost everything he writes and figures that if you like it you will keep reading and if you don’t you will move on. In this reviewers opinion his blog is a nice break from all of the (absolutely no shame at all) self promoters out there.
If you want common sense investment advice and wisdom then you should make the AlephBlog.com a regular stop and add it to your RSS reader. David Merkel is a investor that happens to be a good writer and is worth listening to.
Happy Blogging,
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TheFloat.typepad.com
Filed Under Investments, Blogging, Business, Economics, Wall Street | Leave a Comment
TheFloat.com is a blog written by some of the people at Interlake Capital Management. While we don’t know much about the money management firm we do that they are smart. Their blog entries are insightful and over time you kind of get a feel for what they look at. They are also skeptical which pays in the investment world. They question stupid statements like this one that the heard on CNBC. They also do mini Linkfests every few days. Most of their commentary is useful for perspective if not always actionable.
One nice feature is that because they are also out trying to get more money to manage they sometimes post things regarding presentation that they have done such as this on on 401K’s.
Basically if you read this blog regularly you will find all kinds of interesting and useful information regardless of where your investment knowledge stands. As we state quite frequently here at BlogRaters you should add this blog to your feed reader and read it often.
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DailySpeculations.com
Filed Under Investments, Blogging, Sports, Politics, Venture Capital, Technology, Telecom, Music, Instruments, Economics, Speculating, Relationships, Fitness, Wall Street, Education, Entertainment, Globalization | 3 Comments
DailySpeculations.com is Victor Niederhoffers blog. It started because he has long had an e-mail list named “the spec list.” He is the man who runs it but everyone from the spec list contributes to it. So what do they talk about? You might think that because it is called Daily Speculations and the owner of the site runs a hedge fund that it only deals with stocks and other tradeable securities but you would be wrong. DailySpeculations deals in stocks, bonds, futures, options, statistics, software, philosophy, literature, history, people. world events, etc. Basically Victor has a bunch of really intelligent people contribute whatever they feel like. The result for the most part a very insightful blog where you can learn something or at least get a different perspective on something almost every day.
So who is Victor Niederhoffer? If you have been trading for a long time you have heard of him. He was one of the most successful hedge fund managers for about 15 years ending in 1998 when he had a series of unfortunate events and a case of overleverage leading to his fund “blowing up” and the saying goes. He then came back and had a wonderful three year run but once again getting hit very hard back in August. A lot of people do not like listening to him because they don’t want to hear anything from someone who has blown up twice but there are a few reasons to read his writings. First if you have read his two books “Education Of A Speculator” and “Practical Speculation” you have learned a lot. You have learned to question and test everything if nothing else (and I would venture to say you have learned a lot more). Second is that you can look at the other fruits of his labor, namely that his shop has helped produce such trader legends as Monroe Trout, Toby Crabel, Roy Niederhoffer, and several other successful traders. So why has he blown up twice you might ask. I am not totally sure but I think it is probably the psychological aspect of trading that has gotten him and not his processes for finding trades. Basically a little overconfidence now and then when you are leveraged can wipe you out in a short time. Enough about Vic and back to the blog.
Here are some fairly recent insightful posts.
Vic on Practice
Levered ETF’s
Fired
Capitalism In Schools
These are illustrative of the types of writings you will find over at DailySpeculations.com It is a treasure trove of insights into all sorts of things. Go and read it and then go and read more of it. There is a lot of content and lot of good content.
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TheMacroTrader.com
Filed Under Investments, Blogging, Business, Politics, Economics, Speculating, Make Money, Wall Street, Personal Finance, Globalization | 1 Comment
TheMacroTrader.comTheMacroTrader.com is the blog to the newsletter of the same name. Macro trading as explained in this post is basically looking at any asset class, in any country, using a variety of strategies looking for the best risk to reward opportunities in the globe. They are trying to fill the void in good global research. We all hear about George Soros, Paul Tudor Jones, Bruce Kovner, and several other legendary Macro Managers but we never get to see research reports that explain what global markets to invest in or why precious metals should go up or why emerging market bonds are a good buy. TheMacroTrader.comis aiming to narrow that gap with their newsletter and blog.
One of the more recent posts Global Watch List gives charts of the countries currently passing their proprietary liquidity/trend screens. They have also shown us some of the criteria they look for when investing in foreign markets here with this post on the Singapore EWS etf.
We have found that with a few exceptions the majority of investment or stock blogs out there cater almost exclusively to the US stock market and while there is nothing wrong with that there are several other opportunities out there to exploit and profit from. TheMacroTrader.com focuses on every market that they can. So far their posts have covered global stock indexes, junk bond/high yield bond trading models, and systematic vs discretionary trading.
Basically if you want a glimpse into what global macro is all about and more specifically you want to see some examples of the type of trading a global manager does you would be well advised to stop by TheMacroTrader.com often and add it to your feed reader.
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VIXandMore.com
Filed Under Investments, Blogging, Business, Speculating, Wall Street, Personal Finance | Leave a Comment
If you trade stocks you probably look at the VIX. Some people use it more than others and some have even built trading systems that focus almost entirely on the VIX. Now you can even trade the VIX in the futures and options markets. So where other than the CBOE can we get good info about the VIX’s uses? One of the better sites that we have seen that deals with the VIX is VIXandMore.com. They look at the VIX from several diifferent angles such as for an indicator of sentiment to a trading vehicle.
The writer at VIXandMore also writes about some different model portfolios and trades that he does. Obviously the VIX and market sentiment are an integral component to his trading. Looking at a lot of his charts he also uses Bollinger Bands a lot. So you can tell that he is a fan of volatility as a tool to trade.
If all this kinda sounds like praise it is because it is. We have followed VIXandMore for a while now and appreciate his sound advice and insights into how this space of the market works. If you trade add this site to your RSS reader.
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RGE Monitor.com
Filed Under Investments, Blogging, Business, Politics, Economics, Speculating, Wall Street, Globalization | Leave a Comment
RGE Monitor.com Setser
Are you one of those type of people that not only want to sound informed and sound smart but actually be better informed and understand what you are talking about? Well if you do and you like talking investments than this is one of the better blogs to read. These guys run a subscription based service that is known on the street as a great piece of research. They pump out timely economic advice and discuss different perceptions on a wide array of topics. Well lucky for all of us they also have two great blogs. Nouriel Roubini and Brad Setser are both excellent analysts and economists. Lately they have covered a lot of topics regarding energy, oil, and all things Asia.
Want to know all about Level 3 mark to model? Do you even know what that is? Well if the answers to those questions go Yes, but No, then you will want to read this Level 3 If you have read about it anywhere else then they probably got there info from these guys.
They aren’t perfect but if you want to be far better informed then anyone you know. Or just like knowledge for knowledge sake you can’t miss making RGE Monitor a regular stop in your RSS reader.
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TheKirkReport.com
Filed Under Investments, Blogging, Business, Economics, Speculating, Wall Street, Personal Finance | Leave a Comment
TheKirkReport.comThe Kirk Report is one of the deans of investment blogs. Kirk was there pretty much from the beginning and he continues to provide excellent information in his posts. He posts on everything from trading/investing strategies to trader psychology. He also has regular LinkFests where he discusses market related news. There are a lot of sites out there that do this but he is definitely one of the best.
One of the nice things about Kirk is that his posts are very useful and sometimes even actionable. What do I mean buy “actionable?” Basically that you not only learn something but if you trade you could implement what you learned today. On many blogs they provide a lot of info on different topics but when you can actually do something with the info the true value really comes through.
If you invest/trade, would like to, or just like learningThe Kirk Report.com should be on your regularly read list and if you use RSS you should be subscribed. It is definitely worth yout time.
Happy Blogging,
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Random Roger.com
Filed Under Investments, Blogging, Business, Wall Street | Leave a Comment
Random Roger is a blog dedicated to investing. For the most part Roger focuses on the intermediate to long term with his investment wisdom and ideas. He focuses a lot on ETF’s and global investing along with what he is doing with his money and client money. He is very common sense oriented. Of course along with common sense he does his DD on the topics that he writes about. What do I mean by that? Well due diligence is when you realize that you need to actually do research into the big picture, medium picture, and small picture. For instance when he writes about ETF’s he actually looks at the holdings and what makes this ETF different from another ETF with the same theme. Here is a good example of ETF research. Now you might ask “what is so different about that?.” Well I would venture to say that 80% of financial advisers that use ETF’s or Mutual Funds could even tell you one of the top 10 holding for any of its funds, or what the expense ratio is, or a host of other factors. Most just know that the SPY is the SP500, OIH is the oil industry, etc. Not very detailed oriented. Contrast that with Roger who not only looks at the big picture but the micro picture as well. Remember the devil is in the details.
A few other notes about this blog is that he has been at it for three years now. A long time for a blogger. He also does a weekly review video that he posts using YouTube. He calls it the Big Picture. Overall this site has a lot of good info. Both current ideas as well as just good investment habits are written almost daily on this site. If you are sick of high strung Jim Cramer then give low key and calm RandomRoger.com a visit and actually learn.
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The Big Picture
Filed Under Investments, Blogging, Business, Economics, Speculating, Wall Street | Leave a Comment
If you are into trading, finance, or really anything to do with the financial markets you should be reading Barry Ritholtz regularly. If you like Jazz you should stop by at least weekly. You might be wondering why would I go to a market blog to read about music? Well Barry does an excellent job of blending together his primary interests. If you got to his site you will see that in the header he has six different categories. They are Markets, Economy, Federal Reserve, Housing, Energy, and Digital Media. He uses the digital media category quite liberally covering everything from the Ipod and what it has done for APPL to Friday Night Jazz.
That being said the vast majority of his content is related to the markets. He posts at least once a day but usually 2-3 times. He hails from the trading world and then became a market strategist. These days he runs his own research firm Ritholtz Research and Analytics. The research is good, clean, and easy to read. That talent comes through on his blog. In addition to the blog and the research firm Barry also writes for TheStreet.com.
Here are some samples of his work.
One from today explaining where the SP500 returns have come from SP500
Here is one on The Baltic Dry Index. Have you ever heard of it? Well it is actually useful so read this post and learn about it.
And the the whopper. Here is one of many excellent articles on the housing market and its effects on other industries and sectors Housing Slowdown and its Effects. If you want to know more about housing and the economy Barry is the man. He has a ton of posts related to this and they are well written so that the layman can read it and the professional can profit from it.
As you can tell I like this blog. I have been reading it for a few years now and throughout the trading day I go back to it 1-3 times. Yes, I get it in my RSS reader but guess what? I like reading the whole thing right away with all the charts. Whereas many of my feeds I read the headline and move on I think I read 90% of his posts all the way through. So go and make The Big Picture part of your daily readings. You will become smarter after day 2.
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NakedShorts.com
Filed Under Investments, Blogging, Business, Wall Street | Leave a Comment
NakedShorts.com is a site dedicated to Wall Street and more specifically hedge funds, private equity funds, and other controversial subjects related to the street. Greg Newton is the writer and he has a sense of humor. Most of his posts are relatively taboo (except for nothing is taboo on Wall Street). Here is an example of a recent post regarding Red Sox owner and CTA fund manager John Henry. If you are a Sox fan and were wondering why they couldn’t bid as high as desired for The Rocket this might be the reason. Most of his funds are down 30% or more. WIll he rebound? Probably but that is yet to be seen.
He also follows other controversies such as this one Refco figure at Man Financial. In case you were wondering Refco is a futures brokerage that blew up a while back and lost a lot of customer money in the process.
If these types of posts of Wall Street gossip/news interest you then you will love Naked Shorts.com. He posts quite regularly so if you want to stay up to date stop in every day or two. Or as I do just put it in your RSS reader.
Happy Blogging,
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