Category Archives: What we read

Some links

Great stock write up collection from Capital Employed

A new study seems to show that correctly identified sin stocks (Alcohol, Tobacco, Gambling) have positive alpha

Swen Lorenz shares some experiences from an investor trip to Turkey

An interesting deep dive into LSE after the Refinitiv take over from Marathoner

A good intro into the economics of “Big Gaming”

How will “Uncle Carl” Icahn’s endgame look like for IEP after the Hindenburg “attack” ?

Despite the “advice” of many financial pundits, writing covered calls is destroying value in the mid- and longterm

Some links

First Citizen Bank from North Carolina emerges as buyer of (most of) SVB with kind support from the FDIC. According to the FT, First Citizen has experience with buying troubled banks.

The always excellent Morgan Housel on how mass panics develop and how to insulate oneself (if possible at all)

Carsten Mueller from Augustusville has posted an interesting Portfolio review

John Hempton has a pretty clear opinion on who ist to blame for the loss on Credit Suisse AT1 bonds

Hindenburg came out with a blazing attack on Jack Dorsey’s Block (ex Square)

Swen Lorenz thinks that Dinosaur Bones could be the next exciting “alternative asset” class

An interesting interview with Sam Altman, the Mastermind behind ChatGPT

Some links

The “3D Printing Winter” seems to be over and the technology is becaoming quite common in many areas

Ben Thompson (Stratechery) with a good summary on Sillicon Valley Bank (This is so last week)

A very thoughtful post on US Deposit Insurance from Rational Walk

Interesting Deep Dive on AMD from the Punch Card Investor

The excellent Wintergems Substack with a first post about Canadian company Richelieu Hardware

A good summary of the improvements of GPT4 which was released last week

Prime, a UK based, Influencer pushed Energy drink is taking Social Media marketing to the extreme

Some links

Highly recommended: Podcast on Earnings Quality with Columbia Professor Doron Nissim

Some more 2022 reports:

2022 Report from TGV Intrisic Value (FEMSA, Hostelworld)

2022 Report from TGV Compound Interest (Intred, About You, StoneCo etc.

2022 report from Third Point (AIG, Bath and Body Works, Colgate-Palmolive

– some Seth Klarman report comments via the FT

Some signs that “Value stocks” might see a mighty comeback after years of under peformance

Ben Thompson (Stratechery) on his slightly disturbing conversation with “Sidney” aka BingChatGPT

Spotify’s bet on Podcasts doesn’t look so successful right now

Some deep thought on why long term learning in capital markets is difficult for many investors (lifehack: Write a journal)

Some links

Great 2022 portfolio review of the very eccletic Emerging Value blog

Despite the lacklustre performance, Terry Smith’s Fundsmith annual letters are still a great read. 2022 is no exception

Describing 2022 as a very good year for David Einhorn would be a massive understatement

Interesting deep dive into a Canadian Port logistics company called Logistec

2022 letter from TGV Partners (Ferguson, Mutui, Tucows; Naked Wines)

Seawolf Capital, run by a “Big short” veteran, was up +169% last year

Some interesting insights how a decrease in population interacts with the economy

Some links

Tyler Cowen on who might win and how might lose from the advance of AI

A short history of the Video Game industry and the Activision/Microsoft case from Stratechery

The new Howard Marks memo “Sea change”

Mauboussin on Capital Allocation

Whenever Joel Greenblatt is speaking, one should listen (and watch)

Nature magazine with a good summary on the recent Nuclear Fusion “breakthrough”

Marc Rubinstein on retail banking and Vernon Hill (Commerce Bank, Metro bank)

 

 

 

 

Panic Journal 5 – Ukraine/Russia edition: Is Europe really Toast, Energy Silver Bullets and the Weather

It’s time after exactly 3 months for some new ramblings on Energy, Europe and of course the weather and other stuff.

Bad news everywhere:

The last few weeks felt like a new catastrophe is happening every week or so. Italian elections, the British Pound trading like a Shitcoin, Putin threatening the West with Nuclear Weapons, Energy prices for retail customers skyrocketing, potential Blackouts being a real issue in Europe this winter, steel and fertilizer companies shutting down in Europe, creating supply chain issues down the chain and in addition, rumors about regime change in China and/or preparations for an attack on Taiwan are surfacing every day.

I have been listening to some US podcasts and there seems to be consensus on that Europe is Toast. Even a comparison to the “Arab Spring” was made with the dire prediction that Governments will topple like Domino tiles. I don’t want to sound arrogant but one word of advice to my American readers: European countries are actually all Democracies and if people don’t like their leaders they will elect new ones.

The FT was just running an article about the coming Deindustrialization of Germany with the example of BASF threatening to “leave” Germany and Billionaire Ray Dalio thinks that Europeans are not working hard enough.

Read more

Some links

Interesting FT article on UK listed Venture Capital vehicles (Venture Capital Trusts)

A good “red flags” list for Venture investments that might work well for listed tech stocks, too

A very nice deep dive into LVMH and the luxury business

Interesting Podcast with UK investing legend Nick Train

Swen Lorenz with a very interesting introduction & Deep Dive into the Lloyds Insurance market

A nice pitch for Europe and Germany despite the current energy crisis from Noahopinion

If you haven’t tried out ChatGPT yet, do it. I wonder how schools and universities will cope with pupils and students doing their homework using this tool.

 

Some links

Trustpilot, which listed in the UK in  2021, doesn’t look like a must have stock

Some Spin-off stocks with insider buying

Insider Deals with a nice write up on Gym Group Plc

Bireme Capital really likes Meta

Great write up on 2 cheap micro caps: Atlas Engineered group (Canada, roofs) and HAV Group (Norway, boats)

The finance industry has invented “Collateralized Fund Obligations” that allow leveraged bets on (leveraged) PE Funds. What could go wrong here ?

An interesting deep dive on how to reduce the Carbon footprint of Cement

Some links

Profit Hunting has a nice write-up on Bolsa Mexicana de Valores (Mexico Stock Exchange)

In contrast to growth rates, high profitability seems to be very persistent over time

Good timeline and summary of the FTX & SBF drama. And the FT on “CZ”, the arch enemy of SBF.

Morgan Housel with some very good advice on how to write

Interesting long read on ETF Arbitrage behemoth Jane Street (former employer of SBF)

ByteDance, the parent of TikTok is an interesting example how non-traded equity stakes can be valued wildly different across investors

Verus on Interest rates and the attractiveness of Bank stocks (German)

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