Saturday, December 26, 2009
Thursday, December 24, 2009
After the Crash - Part 2 - Wall Street Week Oct. 23, 1987
Hosted by Louis Rukeyser, guests included John Templeton, Steven Einhorn and William Schreyer
Talking about "computerized trading systems" then....
Talking about "computerized trading systems" then....
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Stephen B. Burke was elected to Berkshire’s Board of Directors
Stephen B. Burke was elected to Berkshire’s Board of Directors as per SEC
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Remarkable Tweedy, Browne lost a partner, Christopher H. Browne
A Brief History from Tweedy website
Tweedy, Browne was founded by Forest Birchard Tweedy in 1920 as Tweedy & Co., a dealer in closely held and inactively traded securities. The firm’s 89-year history is grounded in undervalued securities, first as a market maker, then as an investor and investment advisor. Our investment approach derives from the work of the late Benjamin Graham who co-authored the first textbook on investment research, Security Analysis (1934) and authored The Intelligent Investor (1949). Graham, through his investment firm Graham-Newman Corp., was one of Tweedy’s primary brokerage clients in the 1930’s, 1940’s and 1950’s. It was through Graham that the original partners of Tweedy developed brokerage relationships with investment legends such as Walter Schloss and Warren Buffett, and met Tom Knapp who was to come to the firm in 1957 from Graham-Newman and lead its conversion from broker to investor.
In 1959, the partners of then Tweedy, Browne & Knapp pooled their capital in a partnership investment vehicle. In 1968, the firm accepted its first outside money management clients as limited partners of this vehicle. In 1975, Tweedy, Browne registered as an investment advisor and began managing separate accounts for individuals and institutions. As of September 30, 2009, the firm managed in excess of $9.7 billion for individuals, institutions, partnerships, off-shore funds and three mutual funds of a registered investment company, the Tweedy, Browne Global Value Fund, the Tweedy, Browne Value Fund, and the Tweedy, Browne Worldwide High Dividend Yield Value Fund. A more complete account of the firm's colorful history is contained in theMarch 31, 1995 Annual Report to shareholders beginning on page 7. We think you will enjoy reading it.
In 2006, Tweedy, Browne began to broadly offer its clients a value strategy that seeks long-term growth of capital by investing in companies around the globe that the adviser believes to have above-average dividend yields, an established history of paying dividends and reasonable valuations. The firm has managed some accounts in this strategy since 1979 and began to offer it more broadly beginning in 2006. In September 2007, the firm launched the Tweedy, Browne Worldwide High Dividend Yield Value Fund, which can accommodate investors of all sizes. Learn more about this fund here.
Experienced Management
Tweedy, Browne is owned by its four Managing Directors, William H. Browne, Thomas H. Shrager, John D. Spears and Robert Q. Wyckoff, Jr.; former Managing Director and now Senior Adviser, Christopher H. Browne; a limited liability company established for the benefit of certain employees of Tweedy, Browne; and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Affiliated Managers Group, Inc. ("AMG"), which owns a majority interest in Tweedy, Browne. In its entire history, Tweedy, Browne has had only eleven principals, four of whom are currently active. The operations of Tweedy, Browne are managed by its Management Committee consisting of the firm's four Managing Directors who have been with the firm for tenures ranging from 18 to 35 years. Will Browne and John Spears have worked together and have served as principals of the firm for over 30 years. No Managing Director or former general partner has ever left Tweedy, Browne to join another investment firm.
Experienced Management
Tweedy, Browne is owned by its four Managing Directors, William H. Browne, Thomas H. Shrager, John D. Spears and Robert Q. Wyckoff, Jr.; former Managing Director and now Senior Adviser, Christopher H. Browne; a limited liability company established for the benefit of certain employees of Tweedy, Browne; and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Affiliated Managers Group, Inc. ("AMG"), which owns a majority interest in Tweedy, Browne. In its entire history, Tweedy, Browne has had only eleven principals, four of whom are currently active. The operations of Tweedy, Browne are managed by its Management Committee consisting of the firm's four Managing Directors who have been with the firm for tenures ranging from 18 to 35 years. Will Browne and John Spears have worked together and have served as principals of the firm for over 30 years. No Managing Director or former general partner has ever left Tweedy, Browne to join another investment firm.
Focus and Commitment
We do not attempt to be all things to all people, but instead pursue a value-oriented approach to investment management first pioneered by Benjamin Graham. We invest in undervalued common stocks in the United States and outside the United States. Tweedy, Browne first began investing outside the U.S. in 1983 by applying the same principles of value investing that we had successfully applied for the management of U.S. securities. The Managing Directors of Tweedy, Browne have always invested right alongside the firm's clients. As of September 30, 2009, the current Managing Directors and retired principals and their families, as well as employees of Tweedy, Browne had more than $651.3 million in portfolios combined with or similar to client portfolios, including approximately $86.9 million in the Global Fund and $49.5 million in the Value Fund and $6.1 million in the Worldwide High Dividend Yield Value Fund. We have always owned what our clients own.
Monday, December 21, 2009
Former MySQL CEO lectures on business start ups
Aaltoes Talk with Mårten Mickos from Aaltoes on Vimeo.
Look at much more interesting talks and interviews in Vimeo
Wall-Mart goes to Brazil full speed
AO PAULO -- Wal-Mart Stores, the world's largest retailer, will invest up to 2.2 billion reais (US$1.2-billion) in Brazil next year, the largest-ever expansion plan by the company in Latin America's biggest economy, a top executive said on Monday.
Wal-Mart, which ranks third among Brazil's largest retail chains, plans to open between 100 and 110 stores in 2010, Hector Nunez, who heads the domestic operations for the company, told reporters in Sao Paulo.
The company's investment plan is 40% bigger than this year's 1.6 billion reais, and is the largest since Wal-Mart entered Brazil 14 years ago, he added.
Read more: http://www.financialpost.com/story.html?id=2367096#ixzz0aLiOY3FK Sunday, December 20, 2009
Invstment Professional's "must read" list of books from FT
Festive reading
Posted by Neil Hume FT Alphaville
Looking for something to read over Christmas? Or perhaps you are struggling to find a pressie for the banker in your life?
Well, FT Alphaville can help — with a little assistance from SocGen strategist Dylan Grice.
In his latest Popular Delusions notes he has drawn up a list of six books that every investment professional (including his colleague Albert Edwards) must own.
In the short time I’ve been doing this job, a recurring conversation I have had with clients has been about my favourite books. One client asked me what books we would recommend to a university graduate coming into the industry. Albert has passed on this onerous task, claiming he only reads “chick lit”; but since James Montier made book lists a bit of a SocGen tradition I’ve come up with the six broadly financial titles which fundamentally changed the way I view the world.
It’s very difficult to come up with a list of favourite investment books that doesn’t change each time I think about it. But the ones which have, I think, made the biggest impression on me are as follows:
1. Manias, Panics and Crashes, by Charles P. Kindleberger;
2. The Essays of Warren Buffett, edited by Richard Cunningham;
3. Reminiscences of a Stock Operator, by Edwin Lefevre;
4. Fooled by Randomness, by Nassim Taleb;
5. The Case against the Fed, by Murray Rothbard;
6. Judgement under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases, eds Kahneman, Slovic and Tversky.
Grice says the theme running through all of the books is that people are flawed in their ability to think rationally:
‘Heuristics and Biases’ proves, for example, that our preferences change when the context in which they arise changes, that we see patterns in random data; that we are even more prone to see patterns in random data when in possession of a theory predicting such patterns; that we overweight outcomes we can imagine easily; that even though we prefer more information to less we are hopeless at processing it; that we are hopeless at gauging correlations until they are very obvious. It proves, in other words, that we are flawed as rational thinkers, which is why the above authors are right.
And here’s what Grice will be reading on his skiing holiday this Christmas.
7. ‘The Panic of 1819′ by Murray Rothbard
8. ‘Once in a Golconda’ by John Brooks
9. ‘Lords of Finance’ by Liaquat Ahamed
Happy Xmas.
This entry was posted by Neil Hume on Thursday, December 17th, 2009 at 10:47 and is filed under Capital markets, People. Tagged with albert edwards, Christmas, Dylan grice, SocGen.
Posted by Neil Hume FT Alphaville
Looking for something to read over Christmas? Or perhaps you are struggling to find a pressie for the banker in your life?
Well, FT Alphaville can help — with a little assistance from SocGen strategist Dylan Grice.
In his latest Popular Delusions notes he has drawn up a list of six books that every investment professional (including his colleague Albert Edwards) must own.
In the short time I’ve been doing this job, a recurring conversation I have had with clients has been about my favourite books. One client asked me what books we would recommend to a university graduate coming into the industry. Albert has passed on this onerous task, claiming he only reads “chick lit”; but since James Montier made book lists a bit of a SocGen tradition I’ve come up with the six broadly financial titles which fundamentally changed the way I view the world.
It’s very difficult to come up with a list of favourite investment books that doesn’t change each time I think about it. But the ones which have, I think, made the biggest impression on me are as follows:
1. Manias, Panics and Crashes, by Charles P. Kindleberger;
2. The Essays of Warren Buffett, edited by Richard Cunningham;
3. Reminiscences of a Stock Operator, by Edwin Lefevre;
4. Fooled by Randomness, by Nassim Taleb;
5. The Case against the Fed, by Murray Rothbard;
6. Judgement under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases, eds Kahneman, Slovic and Tversky.
Grice says the theme running through all of the books is that people are flawed in their ability to think rationally:
‘Heuristics and Biases’ proves, for example, that our preferences change when the context in which they arise changes, that we see patterns in random data; that we are even more prone to see patterns in random data when in possession of a theory predicting such patterns; that we overweight outcomes we can imagine easily; that even though we prefer more information to less we are hopeless at processing it; that we are hopeless at gauging correlations until they are very obvious. It proves, in other words, that we are flawed as rational thinkers, which is why the above authors are right.
And here’s what Grice will be reading on his skiing holiday this Christmas.
7. ‘The Panic of 1819′ by Murray Rothbard
8. ‘Once in a Golconda’ by John Brooks
9. ‘Lords of Finance’ by Liaquat Ahamed
Happy Xmas.
This entry was posted by Neil Hume on Thursday, December 17th, 2009 at 10:47 and is filed under Capital markets, People. Tagged with albert edwards, Christmas, Dylan grice, SocGen.
Mobile Internet Market advance from Morgan Stanley report 15 Dec 2009
The Mobile Internet Report Setup height="500" width="100%" > value="http://d1.scribdassets.com/ScribdViewer.swf?document_id=24207539&access_key=key-2mosm4egptpjiib3ubrx&page=1&version=1&viewMode=slideshow"> The Mobile Internet Report
The Mobile Internet Report - Key Themes
The Mobile Internet Report - Key Themes
Saturday, December 19, 2009
The Baupost purchase of Facet Biotech's Rights
This STOCKHOLDERS AGREEMENT, dated as of December 16, 2009, is between Facet Biotech Corporation, a Delaware corporation (the “Company”), and The Baupost Group, L.L.C., SAK Corporation and Seth A. Klarman (collectively, the “Baupost Entities”).
WHEREAS, as of the date hereof, the Baupost Entities Beneficially Own (as defined below) an aggregate of 3,506,875 shares of common stock, par value $0.01 per share, of the Company (“Common Stock”), including the associated rights to purchase shares of Series A Preferred Stock of the Company (“Rights”) issued pursuant to the Rights Agreement (as defined below), which represents approximately 14.0% of the shares of Common Stock outstanding as of the date hereof;
Friday, December 18, 2009
Class Lectures on Value Investing from Columbia Business School
Class Recordings Archives (click to view)
In this archive you will find recordings of guest lectures delivered by accomplished and world renowned investors. These individuals have generously contributed their time to share their insights with Columbia Business School students and have kindly agreed to have their lectures shared on this website as a valuable resource to the value investing community.
 | Professor Andrew Weiss |
 | Thomas RussoPartner, Gardner Russo & Gardner | Bio |
 | Christopher Browne |
Glenn GreenbergManaging Director, Chieftain Capital Management | |
 | Lewis SandersVice Chairman & CEO, AllianceBernstein| Bio |
 | Michael PriceManaging Partner, MFP Investors |
 | Mohnish PabraiManaging Partner, Pabrai Investment Funds |
Five Competetive Forces (Porter 5 Forces) by Harvard Professor Michael E. Porter
Five porter Forces applied by Prof. Porter himself to Airline Industry analysis as an example:
M&A desision making from Harvard Business
Michael Mauboussin, author of "Think Twice," explains how to make better decisions, applied to Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A).
FT Business Book of the Year 2009
FT Business Book of the Year 2009: "
'Lords of Finance' on Amazon
FT Business Book of the Year 2009
Update: Lords of Finance by Liaquat Ahamed has won the 2009 Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award.
The ”beautifully written” history of how central bankers’ mistakes led
to the Great Depression bowled over the judges and swept away a strong
field of finalists to take the £30,000 prize. The prize was awarded on
October 29 at a special dinner at London’s Victoria & Albert Museum
Do you agree with the judges’ decision? Have your say in the Management blog
The Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year 2009 prize
aims to identify the book providing ”the most compelling and enjoyable
insight into modern business issues, including management, finance and
economics”.
Previous winners of the Business Book of the Year prize include When Markets Collide, The Last Tycoons, and China Shakes the World.
FT Business Book of the Year 2009
Update: Lords of Finance by Liaquat Ahamed has won the 2009 Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award.
The ”beautifully written” history of how central bankers’ mistakes led
to the Great Depression bowled over the judges and swept away a strong
field of finalists to take the £30,000 prize. The prize was awarded on
October 29 at a special dinner at London’s Victoria & Albert Museum
Do you agree with the judges’ decision? Have your say in the Management blog
The Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year 2009 prize
aims to identify the book providing ”the most compelling and enjoyable
insight into modern business issues, including management, finance and
economics”.
Previous winners of the Business Book of the Year prize include When Markets Collide, The Last Tycoons, and China Shakes the World.
What Is the Best Book You Read in 2009?
What Is the Best Book You Read in 2009?: "
Public Offering asked faculty members what books they enjoyed most this year and here’s what they said. (Take a look at last year’s list for more titles.)
Daniel Ames How to Break a Terrorist by Matthew Alexander is the story of the author’s experiences as a member of a U.S. intelligence and interrogation team working in Iraq in 2006. On one side, he struggles to coax information from hardened fighters as well as hapless suspects. On the other, he struggles with different attitudes in the military on the effectiveness of harsh interrogation techniques. It’s a fascinating glimpse into what is, for most of us, an unknown world. And the underlying story holds some lessons for how many of us might approach the “ordinary” conflicts in our everyday lives.
Ray Fisman Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan by Jake Adelstein is an enormously entertaining and instructive look inside the world of the original economic gangsters.
Ray Horton I’ve read a number of good books on the now two-year-old economic crisis, including Robert Skidelsky’s Keynes: The Return of the Master, Justin Fox’s The Myth of the Rational Market and Animal Spirits by George A. Akerlof and Robert J. Shiller. But the best of the bunch in my opinion is John Cassidy’s new book How Markets Fail: The Logic of Economic Calamities. He does the best job of tying the theory problems to the rationally irrational behaviors that nearly sunk the ship of modern finance.
Malia Mason The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America Is Tearing Us Apart by Bill Bishop with Robert G. Cushing.
Emi Nakamura This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly by Carmen Reinhardt and Kenneth Rogoff.
Many notable books and ideas were published by faculty authors this past year as well. Several of these have been recently featured in Columbia Ideas at Work including: The Curse of the Media Mogul by Bruce Greenwald, Jonathan Knee and Ava Seave; The Aid Trap by Glenn Hubbard and William Duggan; and Value Above Cost: Driving Superior Financial Performance with CVA: The Most Important Metric You’ve Never Used by Don Sexton.
"
Public Offering asked faculty members what books they enjoyed most this year and here’s what they said. (Take a look at last year’s list for more titles.)
Daniel Ames How to Break a Terrorist by Matthew Alexander is the story of the author’s experiences as a member of a U.S. intelligence and interrogation team working in Iraq in 2006. On one side, he struggles to coax information from hardened fighters as well as hapless suspects. On the other, he struggles with different attitudes in the military on the effectiveness of harsh interrogation techniques. It’s a fascinating glimpse into what is, for most of us, an unknown world. And the underlying story holds some lessons for how many of us might approach the “ordinary” conflicts in our everyday lives.
Ray Fisman Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan by Jake Adelstein is an enormously entertaining and instructive look inside the world of the original economic gangsters.
Ray Horton I’ve read a number of good books on the now two-year-old economic crisis, including Robert Skidelsky’s Keynes: The Return of the Master, Justin Fox’s The Myth of the Rational Market and Animal Spirits by George A. Akerlof and Robert J. Shiller. But the best of the bunch in my opinion is John Cassidy’s new book How Markets Fail: The Logic of Economic Calamities. He does the best job of tying the theory problems to the rationally irrational behaviors that nearly sunk the ship of modern finance.
 | ||
What is your book pick of the year? Please share your nomination. |
Malia Mason The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America Is Tearing Us Apart by Bill Bishop with Robert G. Cushing.
Emi Nakamura This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly by Carmen Reinhardt and Kenneth Rogoff.
Many notable books and ideas were published by faculty authors this past year as well. Several of these have been recently featured in Columbia Ideas at Work including: The Curse of the Media Mogul by Bruce Greenwald, Jonathan Knee and Ava Seave; The Aid Trap by Glenn Hubbard and William Duggan; and Value Above Cost: Driving Superior Financial Performance with CVA: The Most Important Metric You’ve Never Used by Don Sexton.
"
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Making Money When the Market Is Mistaken from 2005 till now
2005 article from NYT
Behavioral finance theory has gained currency among academics and economists as an alternative to the efficient-market theory, the belief that investors are rational and that the price of an asset is fair and accurate and reflects all available information about it.
According to principles of behavioral finance people are illogical, yet predictable.
"Adherents of this approach do not ignore the nuts and bolts of business - profits, sales, cash flow and so forth. But they contend that investors consistently err in evaluating such information, and that astute portfolio managers can profit from the ways that others make mistakes."
Mutual funds with names like "Undiscovered Managers Behavioral Value" were offered in 2001-2002 by J. P. Morgan followed a school of thought that there is good money to be made underestimating people's capacity to act rationally.
A Practical advice was offered by Mr. Tarca then the only Morningstar analyst following the funds:
"When companies have outperformed the market over three to five years, investors tend to extrapolate that performance out into the future," he said. "Investors become overconfident in their forecasting ability, they rush in to buy these glamour stocks, and they become overpriced."
But at the end "You really can't judge these on a short horizon," said Robert Shiller, an economics professor at Yale. So, how did they do after five rocky years till now? Latest news about those funds
Behavioral finance theory has gained currency among academics and economists as an alternative to the efficient-market theory, the belief that investors are rational and that the price of an asset is fair and accurate and reflects all available information about it.
According to principles of behavioral finance people are illogical, yet predictable.
"Adherents of this approach do not ignore the nuts and bolts of business - profits, sales, cash flow and so forth. But they contend that investors consistently err in evaluating such information, and that astute portfolio managers can profit from the ways that others make mistakes."
Mutual funds with names like "Undiscovered Managers Behavioral Value" were offered in 2001-2002 by J. P. Morgan followed a school of thought that there is good money to be made underestimating people's capacity to act rationally.
A Practical advice was offered by Mr. Tarca then the only Morningstar analyst following the funds:
"When companies have outperformed the market over three to five years, investors tend to extrapolate that performance out into the future," he said. "Investors become overconfident in their forecasting ability, they rush in to buy these glamour stocks, and they become overpriced."
But at the end "You really can't judge these on a short horizon," said Robert Shiller, an economics professor at Yale. So, how did they do after five rocky years till now? Latest news about those funds
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Buffett is selling off Moody's while Gates Foundation sells off Berkshire B's
The NYT article on big three troubled rating agencies with as much as 85 % of market share (moat!)
Just wondering - if you (Berkshire) own 20 % of something as big as you house, would you know what is going on with it before other people in a world? If you have suspected cracks - quietly sell it.
Link to my older post on Berkshire proposed B-shares 50:1 split can possibly explain why ONLY Gates Foundation is steady selling off their own Berkshire Hathaway Class B shares.
Just wondering - if you (Berkshire) own 20 % of something as big as you house, would you know what is going on with it before other people in a world? If you have suspected cracks - quietly sell it.
Link to my older post on Berkshire proposed B-shares 50:1 split can possibly explain why ONLY Gates Foundation is steady selling off their own Berkshire Hathaway Class B shares.
Reputational Risk Insurance
Insurers to launch reputational risk product says FT.com
Have a taste, Tiger Woods wished he had one :
"DeWitt Stern, a 110-year-old US insurance broker, has already received expressions of interest from London underwriters about backing a reputational risk product it aims to launch early in 2010."
High-Frequency Trading and Flash Orders
Latest Article from FT.com suggests that
"Much misinformation has been spread concerning high-frequency trading and related techniques."
and "There is also the misperception that high-frequency traders are speculators who move markets to extremes."
" Computers do the job even more quickly. The result is a more efficient electronic market that has marginalised the trading floor of the NYSE" and ultimately:
"Individual investors are the ultimate beneficiaries when their pension funds and mutual funds can transact large volumes of trades anonymously with great speed and at lower cost."
Who still believes it?
It's no surprise that the article comes under the pen of Burton Malkiel - Professor of Economics at Princeton University and the author of ‘A Random Walk down Wall Street’ and ‘The Elements of Investing’.
But surprise was in that that
This piece was co-authored by George U Sauter, Chief Investment Officer of the Vanguard Group
"Much misinformation has been spread concerning high-frequency trading and related techniques."
and "There is also the misperception that high-frequency traders are speculators who move markets to extremes."
" Computers do the job even more quickly. The result is a more efficient electronic market that has marginalised the trading floor of the NYSE" and ultimately:
"Individual investors are the ultimate beneficiaries when their pension funds and mutual funds can transact large volumes of trades anonymously with great speed and at lower cost."
Who still believes it?
It's no surprise that the article comes under the pen of Burton Malkiel - Professor of Economics at Princeton University and the author of ‘A Random Walk down Wall Street’ and ‘The Elements of Investing’.
But surprise was in that that
This piece was co-authored by George U Sauter, Chief Investment Officer of the Vanguard Group
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Mary Meeker - Internet Trends 2009 Presentation
Internet Trends and Economy presented by Mary Meeker
Mary Meeker's Internet Presentation 2009
And 2008 Web 2.0 Summit
Mary Meeker's Internet Presentation 2009
And 2008 Web 2.0 Summit
Columbia Business School, Kravis ' 69 Looks Ahead for Private Equity
What is the future of private equity? If the direction of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) holds a clue, it may start looking a lot more like Berkshire Hathaway, founding partner Henry R. Kravis ’69 said in a recent interview with BusinessWeek.
Public Offering : Post : Kravis+Looks+Ahead+for+Private+Equity
Public Offering : Post : Kravis+Looks+Ahead+for+Private+Equity
Monday, December 14, 2009
Buffett - Chairman and CEO of BNSF Railway Company
Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation's subsidiary BNSF Railway Company operates one of the largest North American rail networks, with about 32,000 route miles in 28 states and two Canadian provinces. BNSF Railway Company is among the world's top transporters of intermodal traffic, moves more grain than any other American railroad, carries the components of many of the products we depend on daily, and hauls enough low-sulfur coal to generate about ten percent of the electricity produced in the United States. BNSF Railway Company is an industry leader in Web-enabling a variety of customer transactions at www.bnsf.com.
|
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Feedjit
