"Life is like a big lake. All the boys get into the water and start swimming. Not all of them will swim across. But one of them, I'm sure, will. That one is Groff." ~Andy Grove's High School Physics Teacher Andy Grove concludes his memoir Swimming Across, with the line “I am still swimming.” This line perfectly epitomized a life of... Read More
Investing is cyclical in nature. There are periods where fear abounds and others when people throw caution to the wind. Sometimes the market goes nowhere and others times it feels like it’s running away without us. This cyclical nature of investing can lead to impatience and frustration. And I think we are currently in one of the most frustrating parts of... Read More
Many people look at Intel, or another wildly successfully company, as justification for a concentrated stock position. By the time of its IPO, an investment in Intel founder’s stock would have returned $2170 for each dollar invested. A fantastic result that fulfilled co-founder Robert Noyce’s vision that all Intel employees, from executives all the way down, would share in the success... Read More
In 1911, two teams set out with hopes of being the first in modern history to reach the South Pole. For one team, led by Roald Amundsen, the trek was a fantastic success. Amundsen and his team reached the pole on December 15, 1911, and safely returned to their base camp over the next 40 days. For the other team,... Read More
Equity investors over the last two decades experienced two of the worst bear markets in market history. Since March 2009, they have also experienced one of the strongest market rallies in history. Ben Graham, Warren Buffett's teacher, and mentor came up with an allegory that describes this market behavior: Mr. Market. In the allegory, Mr. Market offers you a price... Read More
According to Mike Rogoway at the Oregonian, Intel is gearing up for a round of job cuts that could be announced as early as this week. And, if his sources are correct, this reduction could be more substantial than those done last year. [Update: Intel has announced a reduction of 12,000 jobs worldwide, 11% of the global workforce.] The cuts may... Read More
In part one of our quarterly recap we looked at the bumpy ride over the last three months and we saw how a disciplined approach paid off. Now let’s look at two common questions investors are currently considering. The questions are: The market’s had a good run since 2009, so how much longer can the recovery last? But, the market’s... Read More
I came across an article the other day on Yahoo Finance with the scary sounding title of “One of the best signals in the stock market is saying it may be time to sell.” I hate articles like this. They prey on people’s emotions and (sometimes) limited knowledge of market history. I have enough context built to know that articles... Read More
A couple of weeks back, Bloomberg published an article titled “The World's Most Popular Stock Picks Are Sinking.” And from the first line, the conclusion was clear: “A successful strategy to avoid the worst of this year’s equity retreat: ask your analyst what to buy and sell, then do the opposite.” As we’ve written before, not making investment decisions based... Read More
Last week, in the New York Times Gary Belsky wrote an article titled “Why We Think We’re Better Investors Than We Are." In it, he lists several common cognitive biases which lead people to make poor investment decisions. However, I suspect (due to the first bias Belsky lists—overconfidence) a lot of individuals who read this article are going to think,... Read More
