‘The Passive Investor Test’ by Charlie Bilello
‘20 Rules of Personal Finance’ by Ben Carlson
‘Life on the Edge’ by John Mauldin
Introduction
By Meb Faber
It wasn’t always this way…
Investing in, say, 1975, was a relatively arduous process. Back then, if you wanted to buy a stock, your best bet was to trek to the local library to read newspapers and financial periodicals on the company of interest. Of course, there wasn’t always plentiful information.
The other option was to contact a company directly (or ask your broker to). You would request the latest financial reports. It would take days or weeks – if the company even responded – before you’d have the information.
But let’s say you went to all this effort. And let’s assume your research paid off – you found a great company and you’re ready to invest…
Actually, you’re not ready.
Before you break out your checkbook, how much are you going to offer for the shares? You’d typically get your pricing information from the newspaper. But it would show you yesterday’s price. If the stock had risen 3% that morning, the price you might have prepared to pay would be insufficient.
And then there was the cost of broker commissions. Remember how expensive they could be? According to a report in the Journal of Economic Perspectives, an average broker commission for a stock trade as recently as 2001 was $210. At this price, you really had to be committed to that purchase.
The reality is, investing decades ago could be a pain... but that pain protected you from a huge problem: the overload of market data available to us now, combined with technologies that make trading easier and faster than ever, which together, often results in impulsive, rash investment decisions that lose us money.
Today, our world is all about now, more, and faster. Instead of the library, we have our smartphones. Financial reports that used to take weeks to obtain now download in seconds. Online commissions have fallen to below $5, and at some brokerages, are completely free.
Now, to be sure, the technological advances that have streamlined investing and lowered trading costs are wonderful – if only our investment choices themselves were as wonderful...
But therein lies the dark underbelly of all these improvements: too many market experts shouting too many conflicting opinions at us. The result? Bad investment decisions, while at the meantime investing has never been easier or more accessible.
It’s a bit like handing your child the matches…
There are the headlines, the pundits, the investment professionals, the newsletter writers, the friends, the friend of a friend who has the inside scoop…
Who do we believe? Which expert knows best? If he was right yesterday, does that mean he’ll be right tomorrow?
Consider a visit to the popular investment site, Seeking Alpha. Here, market experts post articles evaluating stocks, funds, strategies – you name it.
I picked a stock at random – Intel – and looked under the ‘Latest’ section.
Here are just a few of the headlines at the time of this writing…
Intel Should Fear AMD
AMD’s Assault on Intel is Barely Noticeable
Intel Threats Compound
Intel: Adding Growth To A Solid Dividend Play
Intel Set For An EPYC Meltdown
Intel: Expansion Time
So according to these headlines, Intel should be fearing a barely noticeable assault by a competitor. Its threats are compounding and it’s set for an EPYC meltdown, yet it’s simultaneously a solid dividend play that’s expanding…
Super helpful, thanks.
We’re not wired for this much information – and this much contradictory information. After all, Seeking Alpha boasts that they have over 13,000 contributors that have authored over 700,000 articles!
Virginie Maisonneuve, head of global and international equities at Schroders, recently warned about this in a research paper…
“Overloaded investors have been shown to make worse decision, but have more confidence because information gives the illusion of control. This results in short-termism, overly aggressive trading and higher market volatility.”
So what do we do?
Enter The Best Investment Writing – Volume 1.
The pages that follow are written by some of the brightest, most insightful minds in investing. They are real experts, speaking to you from years of research and experience. And the wisdom contained in this compilation is the kind that can make a real, tangible difference in your portfolio.
The first piece you’ll read is Jason Zweig’s excellent article, titled ‘A Portrait of the Investing Columnist as a (Very) Young Man’. In it, Jason describes his experiences as an antiques collector (at the age of about 14, interestingly enough).
One of the things I found most fascinating in the article was the immense time and energy Jason invested in his research. He describes going through encyclopedias in order to write down, and then memorize, the dates of when America’s greatest authors published their first works (so that at estate sales, he could quickly bypass anything except first editions). He did the same thing with paintings, memorizing dates, styles, and compositions.
Jason was a true expert. This gave him an advantage over the would-be collectors wandering about the same estate sales, overlooking the treasures directly in front of them.
As investors, wouldn’t we all be better off taking counsel from someone equally an expert? Someone who could help us identify the real treasures while bypassing the junk?
These market experts do exist, but they can be difficult to find amidst the hoard of imposters shouting at us. Like great investments, they are rare.
We’ve done the hard work of identifying not only the writers, but also curating some of their best writings, and compiled them for you in this book.
You could think of it as a masters in investing.
And so, rather than wax on any longer, our experts will take it from here. My hope is you’ll find the following pages as valuable, entertaining, and insightful as I have.
Good investing,
Meb Faber
Meb Faber is donating to charity his author royalties from the sales of this book.
‘A Portrait of the Investing Columnist as a (Very) Young Man’ by Jason Zweig
When an inmate in federal prison reminisces about what you were like as a child, you pay attention.
For the past couple years, I’ve been mulling over an article in which the art collector and convicted felon Ralph Esmerian describes me when I was a boy. In 2011, Mr. Esmerian, a dealer in luxury jewelry, a prominent collector of American antiques, and a former chairman of the Museum of American