I'm a fan of using screens to scan the universe for opportunities. One very popular screen is Joel Greenblatt's 'Magic Formula' which he talks about in his best selling book "The Little Book that Beats the Market". Express Scripts (ESRX) is one of the stocks given by the screen and is up more than 15% before the market opens today. This is because it was just announced that … [Read more...]
How to buy Spotify and Dropbox pre-IPO
Both Spotify and Dropbox are well-known brands not only among the investment community but in general. I literally do not know 1 person (besides my non-tech wife) that doesn't use either product or both. This name recognition is likely to attract a lot of attention when these companies go public. IPOs are expected this month. GSV Capital invests in private companies. … [Read more...]
ValueX Presentation: Discovery Communications
In January, I had the honor to be invited to Guy Spier's ValueX. The event took place in the village of Klosters (Davos region) in Switzerland. I had not seen so much snow since my college days at Illinois. People skied or took group walks during the day while the presentations started at 3 pm and went on until late in the evening. The event had many similarities to the … [Read more...]
ETFs that destroyed accounts…
ETFs started off as a 'savior' product for the retail investor, giving him options at a low cost. That product has turned into a monster in my opinion that has both resulted in distorting the market and destroying accounts. Investors experienced the 2015 flash crash which resulted in index funds dropping 35%+ intraday. At least by the end of the day the prices of these … [Read more...]
We simply went too long w/o a correction
The press tried to find reasons to attach to the drop, but they forgot a basic fundamental fact of finance. With higher returns comes higher volatility. It's that simple. If we define the end of the bull market to be one which experiences a 20% correction, then the current bull market is the 2nd longest in history! As shown below, the longest bull market ended in March … [Read more...]
