This time the most interesting content I stumbled over includes: research as octopus and shark, patience, TISE, bitcoin, biases, banks, berkshire, …
Must read: Junto with The Sit-on-Your-Ass Philosophy to Life, about patience and focus. Also includes a mini-case study on a small business (these are the best to understand simple but important concepts).
I loved Broyhill’s The Octopus and The Shark. It explains the difference between broad ‘casual’ reading (octopus) and specific research to come to a conclusion (shark) and what to consider for and during research process(es).
Joachim Klement on Investing observed fast-changing CEO’s expectations regarding WFH after covid and interesting research on falling productivity at M&A target companies (especially in countries with less of a social safety net).
Swen Lorenz with his newest weekly dispatch* about The International Stock Exchange a niche player in a very attractive sector with technology platform features.
(behind the paywall he recently wrote about another exchange at an attractive price, especially considering peer valuations)
A good discussion about bitcoin with diverse arguments for both sides.
This was a profitable GME put sell.
GMO about quality cyclicals.
The undercover fund manager knows that It’s what you don’t see that matters and provides Good and bad lessons from the pandemic.
The Economist with Why people forget that less is often more. We usually try to solve a problem by adding things instead of subtracting things, reducing complexity (another form of biases).
Marc Rubinstein from netinterest looks at the forming of an Irish banking duopoly. Ireland had a big financial industry and had its fair share of fallout from the GFC. Dublin is a beautiful city (with beautiful pubs) which I eperienced during a banking internship. He concludes: There’s a very simple model that determines bank profitability in markets all over the world. Interest rates and regulation both matter but the overriding driver is market structure. It’s what explains low levels of profitability in Japan and Germany and high levels of profitability in Canada and the Nordics. A duopoly in banking is worth watching.
The last weekend of course brought the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholders Meeting 2021 for us. It includes a lot of wisdom, perspective on life and investing.
- I loved the part on inflation (4h33) and like many others I think this is a better and more timely insight than aggregated economic indicators
- Overall, I did not like their ‘PGR pitch‘ since I fear it will get more expensive now with many Berkshire fans taking a (second) look …
- Fearing a stock that I own becoming more expensive is possible a sign to take a second look / increase my position or re-read and refine my PGR pitch.
Company news
- Progressive (PGR US) reported strong results but benefits from depressed driving activity starts to fade, but should not go away due to WFH. (highway numbers from What We’re Reading · Collaborative Fund)
Best and happy investing, s4v
* marks an affiliate: if you want to become a paying member to Swen’s world-class content please use my link. hte price for you is the same. I might receive a referral bonus (money).
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