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. Greenlight Q3 '17 letter | Greenlight Capital Given the performance of certain stocks, we wonder if the market has adopted an alternative  paradigm for calculating equity value. What if equity value has nothing to do with current or future profits and instead is derived from a company’s ability to be disruptive, to provide social change, or to advance new beneficial technologies, even when doing so results in current and future economic loss? The Morningstar Mirage  | WSJ Investors everywhere think a 5-star rating from Morningstar means a mutual fund will be a top performer—it doesn’t. There’s a link between CEOs who torture the English language and poor stock performance  | MarketWatch "Academic research shows when ma

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. Mergers and acquisitions often disappoint | The Economist The study looked at M&A deals done by listed companies in America’s Russell 3000 index between January 2001 and August 2017; deals were only included if they cost more than 5% of the total enterprise value of the acquirer (5% of the equity value, for financial companies). The acquirers’ shares underperformed the market (see chart) and those of rival firms in the same industry. Vital Signs: the spooky mortgage risk signs our bankers are ignoring | The Conversation To put it in context, there appears to be in the neighbourhood of A$1 trillion of interest-only loans on the books of Australian banks. Trump and Stocks: What Gives? | Bloomberg The International Monetary

"When your competitors go one way, do you follow them, or do you go the other way?" That question was asked of a room of close to 100 financial advisers by keynote speaker Geoff Ramm at Centrepoint Alliance's annual conference last week. The focus at the time was effective marketing but resonated with this investment manager in a different context. The stocks that contributed most to the performance of the Equitable Investors' Dragonfly Fund in the month of September were clear cases of neglect. Investors, on the whole, had turned their focus elsewhere... Read the full article here .