Equitable Investors

Warren Buffett says, “I just sit in my office and read all day.” Not everyone can afford to devote themselves to reading to that extent so here's a shortcut - the headlines that caught our eye this past week and compelled us to click and read... or this week view a number of charts.

Behind the most unbelievable stock run of 2017 at Big Un Limited | AFR
Beyond that the most enthusiastic backers of Big are excited punters who frequent online stock forums, who have found themselves on to a winner. The lack of institutional share ownership means it's almost impossible for the sceptics to bet against the stock by shorting it, as no shares are available to borrow.

What’s hot, what’s not – Stockhead’s yearbook of ASX debutants for 2017 | Stockhead
From cannabis for pets to infant milk formula, ASX debutants make quite the class for 2017.
Overall there have been 93 IPOs on the market to November 30, not including reverse takeovers or re-listings... if all participan…

There's plenty of people out there at this time of year cutting the numbers on how various classifications of equities have performed during calendar 2017: Industrials compared to Resources; Small Caps relative to Large Caps; Value versus Growth; maybe Health v IT. What about those sectors that have had a real "Buzz" about them, relative to the market or even compared to each other?

What have been the buzz categories this year? Off the top of my head, I come up with Cannabis, Chinese demand for Aussie food brands, cryptocurrencies and lithium (if you've got others, let me know).

So how have these buzz stocks performed? Stocks associated with cryptocurrencies under-performed relative to other buzz categories - they only delivered a capital return of 140% in the first 11 months of the year.

Sure that looks great compared to the 10% capital gain for the S&P/ASX Small Industrials or the 24% gain for the S&P/ASX Small Resources. But its nothing compared to the 364…

Warren Buffett says, “I just sit in my office and read all day.” Not everyone can afford to devote themselves to reading to that extent so here's a shortcut - the headlines that caught our eye this past week and compelled us to click and read... or this week view a number of charts.


US mean & median household net wealth showing sharp divergence | WSJ

Interesting papers on the "alpha" from stock-picking & public communication of analysis... | via Alpha Architect
"Throwing a bone to stock pickers".

These Maps Show How Economic Freedom Around The World Enriches/Impoverishes People | ValueWalk
Australia and New Zealand also stand out in the Pacific as bastions of freedom.

Returns-based View of Opportunity Set | OSAM Research
For all but the largest investors, we would argue a returns-based approach is more likely to be applicable when assessing the opportunity set.

Australasia Targeted M&A by Quarter | WSJ
Australian M&A's Santa Rally - previous …

A net return of 3.44% for November lifted the Equitable Investors Dragonfly Fund’s net return for its first three months to 5.5%. One of our strategic value investments struck an attractive deal to sell a business and one of our growth investments completed the purchase of a business that will more than double group earnings, resulting in healthy monthly returns in both cases.

Read the full report here.

Warren Buffett says, “I just sit in my office and read all day.” Not everyone can afford to devote themselves to reading to that extent so here's a shortcut - the headlines that caught our eye this past week and compelled us to click and read.

View from above

Pool of negative yielding bonds tops $11tn in November | FT More than $11tn of sovereign and corporate bonds traded with a yield below zero at the end of November, despite quickening global growth and a view among investors that central banks will begin to remove their extraordinary accommodation.
How To Read Financial News | Collaborative Fund October 27th, 1929. It’s the day before the Great Depression begins. One of the most important days in market history. Let’s go back in a time. What would you find? Dig through the New York Times that day, and the entirety of stock market coverage is summarized on one page, a third of which is a Chanel shoe ad.
Companies shunned all-stock mergers in 2017 | FT The proportion of merger and a…

Warren Buffett says, “I just sit in my office and read all day.” Not everyone can afford to devote themselves to reading to that extent so here's a shortcut - the headlines that caught our eye this past week and compelled us to click and read.

Myth Busting: Stocks Correlations and Active Investment Opportunities | Alpha Architect
I will show that stocks can be perfectly correlated and have massive return variability, similarly, one can show that stocks can have zero correlation and maintain limited return variability.

Bubbles | @jsblokland
Past financial bubbles, excluding the Dutch Tulip mania of the 1600s

Opinion: The chance of a bitcoin crash is greater than 80% | MarketWatch
There’s a greater-than-80% chance that bitcoin will soon crash. To be sure, mine is not the first column to suggest that a bitcoin BTCUSD, +0.47%  crash is imminent, especially as bitcoin’s price tops $10,000. But you may not realize just how high the probability of a crash has become.

Directors in firing line…