News List
Arne Alsin: Two simple questions that protect agai
A vast amount of intellectual energy is devoted to investing in the stock market. Much of that energy is misallocated. That is because many investors waste time pursuing answers to the wrong questions. All great investors, from Warren Buffett to Pet
Cody Willard: Instant access, the moving target of
Viacom, owner of MTV and Comedy Central, caused a brouhaha last month when it demanded that YouTube remove 100,000 copyright video clips from the website after the two sides failed to reach a distribution agreement. This is mere posturing. The studi
Mark Sellers: Focus on the downside and the upside
Last month I wrote about a method for outperforming the market using a contrarian strategy of investing in actively managed mutual funds. In a nutshell, the strategy calls for finding a few great managers, putting some money with them, and then addi
Whitney Tilson: Learn from your own investment mis
Investing is a game of averages: nobody bats 1,000 but, if your analysis and judgment are solid and your winners generally go up more than your losers go down, you can build an outstanding record. The key is not picking big winners; it is avoiding b
Arne Alsin: How to achieve above-average returns
It¡¯s self-evident that the majority of investors are average and that average investors generate average returns. The salient question is this: what does an investor have to do to be something other than average; specifically, to be ¡°above average
Cody Willard: Embrace the ¡®revolutionomics¡¯ of t
The endgame of the internet is the total empowerment of the end user. Because the internet has been built on open standards and the free flow of information, the 1.5bn people on this planet who have access to the web will continuously move to the pl
Whitney Tilson: Delve deep to find the good spin o
The deal machinations many companies put themselves through, while certainly a bonanza for investment bankers, can confound the typical investor. A Cendant or a Tyco, say, spends billions of dollars to grow by acquisition only to reverse course a fe
Arne Alsin: Canny investors can reap rewards from
The hallmark of a mispriced stock is misperception. Stocks that are properly understood by investors tend to have stock prices that approximate value. Not so for stocks where perception is faulty. It is fair to say that, generally, the greater the m
Mark Sellers: Be contrarian, beat the market
Last year, for the first time in 15 years, Bill Miller¡¯s Legg Mason Value Trust failed to outperform its benchmark, the SP 500 index, in a calendar year. If history is any guide, now is the perfect time to add more money to Miller¡¯s fund. Research
Cody Willard: Buy into the internet video business
We will look back in a decade and recall that 2006 was the year that internet video went mainstream. I am sure you already know that YouTube has been bought. But just as important, in 2006, Yahoo started featuring short video clips on most of their
Mark Sellers: Exploration of management talent is
Before investing in a company¡¯s shares, it¡¯s important to evaluate the management team. This is especially true for companies that deal in commodity products or services such as steel, oil or insurance. In these industries, the winners and losers
Vitaliy Katsenelson: It is not the cards you are d
¡°Any time you make a bet with the best of it, where the odds are in your favour, you have earned something on that bet, whether you actually win or lose the bet. By the same token, when you make a bet with the worst of it, where the odds are not in
Whitney Tilson: Good reasons to lock in your gains
Since I began writing this column in late February, I have made 10 stock recommendations eight longs and two shorts. All are in the money, with an average gain of 31 per cent, led by Lear Corp , the automotive components maker, which has almost doub
Arne Alsin: Short selling sells long-term investor
Short selling is a losing proposition for long-term investors and a waste of capital. A basic test for any investment strategy is whether or not it can generate profit over the long-term. On the basis of this test, short selling fails miserably. Not
Mark Sellers: For now, stocks are your best option
After a brutal three-year bear market to begin the 21st century, US stock markets have done well four years in a row. In spite of this fact, stocks (especially large-caps) remain a great buy. I come to this conclusion for several reasons. First, the
