28 Aug 2017

What the Hell is Bitcoin, Anyway?

In 2013, when Bitcoin prices were surging, a few readers asked me to write about Bitcoin.  I didn’t know much about it and didn’t write the article because I thought that Bitcoins didn’t seem legitimate, but they’re on a tear, so I’m giving it a shot. Bitcoin is the first, largest and best-known crypto-currency.   But what is a crypto-currency?  That’s a harder question.  To answer it for myself, I thought… Read More

By David Ott Tags: , ,
24 Jul 2017

The Most Remarkable Investor that You’ve Never Heard Of

Last weekend, I took an extended drive through the Great Lakes region to drop my kids off at their respective camps. We stayed in Michigan the first two nights – first in Holland and then Munising, right on Lake Superior in the Upper Peninsula.  After a drop off in Minocqua, Wisconsin, we stayed in downtown Madison.  All told, we traveled about 2,300 miles. While my wife and kids were hooked… Read More

By David Ott Tags: , , ,
22 May 2017

Quants and the Media

Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) printed four articles in what appears to be a 17 article series on what they call ‘the quants.’  I was so excited to see these articles because I think you could fairly describe some of the strategies that we pursue as quantitative in nature. Unfortunately, I was turned off immediately.  The second paragraph of the first article talked about how the quants use ‘high… Read More

By David Ott Tags: , , ,
3 Apr 2017

A Long View of Non US Stocks

For what feels like the first time in forever, foreign stocks are outpacing US stocks so far this year.  The table above includes the MSCI All Country World exUS index, which combines all developed and emerging markets.  As of Friday, the MSCI ACWI is outperforming the S&P 500 by 1.79 percent. That contrasts with the results over the last five years ending in March, when the S&P 500 earned 13.3… Read More

By David Ott Tags: , , ,
20 Mar 2017

A Fund Struggles and I Can’t Look Away

There are a fair number of reasonably well known investors that I keep my eye on even though I know that we won’t ever invest in their funds.  One of the most fascinating investors in my opinion is Bruce Berkowitz, manager of the Fairholme Fund (ticker: FAIRX). Berkowitz caught my attention at an investment conference bank shortly after the 2008 financial crisis because he had a booth that was swarmed… Read More

By David Ott Tags: , ,
9 Jan 2017

How Long is the Long Term?

One of the tried and true tenets of successful investing is taking a long-term perspective. Warren Buffet says that his favorite holding period is forever.  He doesn’t always hang on that long, but still recommends that you should ‘only buy something that you’d be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for 10-years.’ Regarded academic Jeremy Siegel wrote the buy and hold bible, titled ‘Stock for the long run,’… Read More

By David Ott Tags: , ,
31 May 2016

Lessons from Lawn Care

Three or four years ago, I gave up cutting the grass, which I wasn’t too happy about because I really liked seeing a physical change to my yard after a few hours of work. I love my job, but at the end of a year, the numbers on a screen may have changed, but they are still numbers on a screen.  It’s simply not as inherently satisfying. In any case,… Read More

By David Ott Tags: ,
27 Jan 2016

Drawdowns Part Deux

Yesterday’s insight on drawdowns was quite popular and enough people asked for the same thing, so I thought I would do an immediate update.  (Click here for the original post.) The first request was for the full history of the S&P 500 since yesterday’s chart only went back 25 years.  I picked 25 years somewhat randomly, but mostly because the other chart that went with it was difficult to read going… Read More

By David Ott Tags: , , , ,
12 Nov 2015

Navigating Bond Market Holidays

Yesterday was Veterans Day. A Federal holiday in the US where we honor those who have served in our country’s military during wartime and peacetime. But it also makes for something a bit strange in the financial markets. If Veterans Day falls on a weekday, the stock market is open while the bond market is closed. Because we are sensitive to transaction costs and realizing capital gains in our client’s… Read More

By Cliff Reynolds Tags: ,
9 Oct 2015

The Right Time Horizon for Stocks

When people ask me how long their time horizon ought to be when investing in stocks, I usually say 10 years.  It occurred to me the other day that either I’ve never really looked into this in a very detailed way or I’ve forgotten about it.  In either case, it’s now time to look. To answer this question, I looked at rolling returns for the S&P 500 since 1926 for… Read More

By David Ott Tags: , ,