A week ago, I heard Blackstone’s COO, Jon Gray, talk about his company’s recent growth tilt. He said that decline in the U.S. interest rates that has gone on for last 30 years has come to an end. And with that, expansion of valuation multiples too. He is now focused on acquiring … [Read more...] about My two-year bet on Apple
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My uber dividend payers
CenturyLink (CTL), a large U.S. telecom operator, has just slashed its dividend by more than one-half. For the last two years, it had sported a mouth-watering double-digit dividend yield that reached as high as about 16% recently. It was no surprise that many dividend-seeking … [Read more...] about My uber dividend payers
Weekend worrying about the economy
A couple of weeks ago I was at our local library checking out the Barron’s weekly. They had their annual roundtable issue out. Every year in January, Barron’s invites a few successful well-known money managers to gather around a table and discuss their thoughts for the new year. … [Read more...] about Weekend worrying about the economy
Market neutral investing
Last week, John Rekenthaler of Morningstar wrote an article on worst alternative investments of the decade. Market-neutral funds were among his top-five worst investments. Average annual return from the funds in this category was 0%. He wrote this, tongue in cheek: … … [Read more...] about Market neutral investing
Investing amid volatility: My 4Q update
What a quarter that was! The US stock market first reached a new high in October and then dropped 10%. It bounced around for a while. And then in late December, it dropped again—this time more than 15% off its peak. By some measures, it actually dropped 20% briefly (intra-day) … [Read more...] about Investing amid volatility: My 4Q update
How I keep my long-term investing outlook?
During the holidays, I had some idle time and I re-read parts of Jason Zweig’s 2007 book, Your Money & Your Brain. It’s a good book with lots of interesting anecdotes. It was also one of my early reads into investor psychology. In one section appropriately named Fighting Your … [Read more...] about How I keep my long-term investing outlook?
Anchor on a business’s value, not its price
The other day, I came across an interesting, albeit hypothetical, auction scenario: Ten companies were bidding for the right to drill in a land tract. Each had done a geological survey of the land and privately assessed how much oil is in there. These surveys were known to be … [Read more...] about Anchor on a business’s value, not its price
How am I investing in commercial real-estate?
RealtyShare, a crowdfunded real-estate investing operation, just shut down its business a few weeks ago. Hopefully, everyone who invested through them will be fine. The company said they will keep skeleton staff to manage existing properties for investors but won’t offer any new … [Read more...] about How am I investing in commercial real-estate?
Grading CEOs as capital allocators
If there were just two questions to ask about a CEO, ask these: Does he run the business well? Is she good in utilizing shareholders’ capital? The first question requires no explanation—this is obviously any CEO’s number one task. The second question is a bit more complex. We … [Read more...] about Grading CEOs as capital allocators
Volatility is good for my investments
People fear double-digit stock market declines. I see them as opportunities. The US stock market has been more volatile lately. And my portfolio is better off because of this volatility. I just finished reading Nassim Taleb’s book Antifragile. He has got me thinking about my … [Read more...] about Volatility is good for my investments