Tuesday, June 19, 2018

Links

"It does not matter what you bear, but how you bear it." --Seneca ("Of Providence")

Warren Buffett and Bill Gates visit a candy store in Omaha (LINK)

The Behavioral Economics Guide 2018 (Introduction by Robert Cialdini) (LINK)

Theranos Lessons - by Morgan Housel (LINK)

The Koch Brothers Say No to Tariffs (podcast) (LINK)

TED Talk: The surprising science of alpha males | Frans de Waal (LINK)

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An excerpt from Burton Malkiel that I came across today in The Inflation-beater's Investment Guide: Winning Strategies for the 1980s that seemed to fit well with the latest Howard Marks memo:
I believe that the start of the 1980s is the ideal time to pick individual stocks on the basis of my rules. Unlike the early 1970s, it will not be hard to find an abundant selection of strong companies that fill the bill. 
But remember that a large number of other investors—including the pros—are trying to play the same game. And the efficient-market theory suggests that the odds of anyone's consistently beating the market are pretty slim. Nevertheless, for many of us, trying to outguess the market is a game that is much too fun to give up. Even if you were convinced you would not do any better than average, I'm sure that most of you with speculative temperaments would still want to keep on playing the game of selecting individual stocks. 
Picking the Manager 
There's an easier, more profitable way to gamble in the race for investment performance: instead of pricing the individual horses (stocks), pick the best jockeys (investment managers). 
...While some readers may well be disappointed that I do not "name" stocks in this book, I have absolutely no hesitation about citing mutual fund managers who run their portfolios by following rules similar to the rules I use and who have enjoyed perfectly splendid records. John Marks Templeton is one such person. 
...According to every mutual fund rating service, the fund that bears John Marks Templeton's name has been the outstanding performer over the past two decades. Indeed, Templeton's record of beating the broad stock indexes extends as far back as the 1930s. In a field crowded with mediocrity, Templeton seems to be one of the true investment greats—a living embarrassment to the efficient-market theory.