January 6, 2009

Excel Wankers and Recession Averages

Averaging pretty much anything to do with historical recessions & related bear markets is a meaningless exercise in spreadsheet-based thumb-sucking. Leaving aside my "financial history is bunk” rant, it doesn’t matter whether you’re averaging recession length, severity, or whatever, it’s...

Sorry, New York is Closed. Check Back Later.

Courtesy of a reader, a grounded example of how things are even more intense in employment markets than sterile economic data might show: NY Unemployment Claim Systems Overwhelmed Flood of calls, online requests crash NY unemployment systems; no timeline for...

Catching Falling 2009 Earnings Estimate Knife

From John Mauldin via Barry, the tumbling path of 2009 earnings estimates for the S&P 500. As Barry points out, a market at 22x forward earnings ain't cheap. Now, whether markets can get cheap when everyone is waiting to buy...

Survivorship Bias in Global Markets

Had to re-read Goetzmann's classic 1996 paper on world markets today, and thought I should share my favorite table from it. It shows survivorship bias in global market performance....

Talking Positions on a Lazy-ish Retirement Portfolio

I don't talk specifics on portfolios very often, but I have been helping a family member with their current allocation across ETFs/sectors/funds. They are about fifteen years from retirement, and, while conservative and worried about inflation, are more bullish than...

A California Subprime Quake

A helpful report out from insurer Aon showing that things in California could be worse: We could get a significant quake along the San Andreas fault. As it turns out, the fault is pretty much a bus tour of the...

And Fortress Shall Lead the Way

Having the stock of beaten-down private equity company Fortress Investment Group leading the way in year-to-date in U.S. stock performance is appropriately surreal. Before Citi moonshots too, we should close for the year right now with FIG having almost doubled...