An interesting collection of investment ideas are “SumZero’s top stocks for 2019”
Seth Klarman these days is concerned about capitalism as such
It’s maybe a good idea to stay away from industries where everyone seems to be a winner
The Bank of the bAnks (BIS) surprisingly doesn’t think that Proof-ofWork Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin will work in the long run.
Elliott has released a plan how to make EBAY “great again”….
Forager likes Fast Fashion Retailer Glasson
Farnam Street on how not to be stupid plus its 2018 review
And ValueInvestingWorld with a fitting “final checklist” before making an investment decision
An interesting view on how “factors” like size, EV/EBIT etc. performed in 2018
Honeywell looks potentially interesting after the spin-off as well as ARLO
Good feature on Paul Singer (Elliott)
Four blogs with totally “off the beaten track” portfolios have posted 2018 reviews:
– GlobalStockPicking
– Alpha Vulture
– Value Investing France
– Clark Street Value
David Einhorn had a catastrophic year in 2018
Don’t miss: Stratechery 2018 review
Some very insightful investing lessons from Morgan Housel
GlobalStockPicking with a nice write-up on HK based Modern Dental Group
A quick look at the upcoming United Technologies Spin-off
Great collection of 50 reasons why most of “us” are not thinking long term enough
Farnam’s Street 2018 letter to its readers
A quick look at offshore drillers (Rowan, Diamond)
Plus a Christmas Bonus: Eric Clapton performing “White Christmas”;
A great deep dive on how to measure network effects from A16Z
Ben from Wertart with some general thoughts and reflections on investing
A good overview on how Buffett’s investment focus changed over his carreer
Ben Thompson’s “State of the technology” is a very good read on Google & Co
AMD has benefited form the Crypto craze. Is it now a short candidate ?
“Big Beer” AB Inbev is facing headwinds
Manning & Napier: Cheap active asset manager or gone for good ?
One upfront remark: I do not recommend to invest in Venture Capital right now. The market is clearly overheated and the asset class is known to be very volatile although Warren Buffett’s Todd Combs seems to just have discovered Fintechs.
This post is ment as a “long-term perspective” view on the sector and not a buy recommendation in the current environment.
How to invest into Venture Capital as a Private Investor
Famous VC funds
Venture Capital, i.e. the industry funding (technology) start-ups is known that almost everything depends on relationships.
It is no secret that a few funds like Sequoia or Kleiner Perkins have produced outstanding returns but these funds are “invitation only”, there are little chances even for larger institutions to invest in them and for individuals without direct connections it is more or less impossible to get in.
DISCLAIMER
This is not investment advice. Please do your own research and don’t follow any anonymous bloggers.
Let’s continue with this nice “anti Buffett” stock from my post last week.
The people / founders
FitBit’s original founders from 2007, James Park and Eric Friedman are still on board.
Interestingly, although both ar only 41 years old, FitBit was the third company they founded together.
The other companies were Windup Labs, a photo sharing company they sold in 2005 and Epesi, a B2B software company that didn’t work out.
Watches again…..
Although I wrote a lot about Watch companies over the past few years (Swatch part 1, Swatch part 2, Hengdeli, Fossil part 1, Fossil part 2, Movado, Richemont), no investment came out of it. However I had a lot of fun researching these companies so it was time well spent.
When I initiated the series in 3 years ago, Smart Watches were a big thing and especially the Apple Watch was perceived to be the “Swiss Watch” killer, which, as we know now didn’t happen as they seem to coexist quite well.
Besides Smart Watches, Fitness Trackers were the “hot shit” and especially VC backed FitBit that IPOed in 2015 was taking oer the world.
This chart shows Fitbit against Fossil (blue) and Richemont (green) and we can clearly see who had staying power and who not:
