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Of Interest, June 2020 Thumbnail

Of Interest, June 2020

 

9700 El Camino Real, Suite 302, Atascadero, CA 93422

 

Of Interest, June 2, 2020

Greetings!  I hope this finds you well.  Of Interest is my occasional compilation of things that I found interesting or useful over the last month or so.  While this does tend to be investment focused, I try to include a variety of things I’ve read, and sometimes useful tools I’ve discovered.

Lately, the COVID-19 pandemic and related government actions to shut down our economy has dominated the news, and more recently the social unrest allegedly stemming from a homicide in Minnesota is gaining a lot of press.  While the news media thrives on disaster, controversy and conflict, I will try to stay positive and educational.

Please let me know if you find this useful.  Please also share with me interesting or useful books, articles, podcasts, gadgets, etc. that you came across.

I also encourage everyone to be a thermostat and not a thermometer.  Choose to be happy and upbeat and to look for the good in the world.

Happy reading!

Jake

 

Articles

How to Host A Zoom Meeting, and general Zoom tips

Pizzaria that didn’t deliver got complaints from deliveries.  Doordash essentially hijacked its online presence and allowed delivery orders, which it delivered.  It never said anything to the owner.  Due to a mistake in its algorithm, it charged $16 for a $24 pizza.  Can you arbitrage pizza?  You bet!

Mauldin on the economy: monetary policy by the Federal Reserve will prevent the US from entering into a depression, but we will still likely see 20-25% unemployment.  

Who is buying stocks?   Zerohedge: Institutional investors are not buying.   Retail investors are buying big on small volume, driving prices up, even as fund flows are negative.  This always ends in prices coming down.

Can you time the market?  It’s common knowledge that timing the market is impossible.  “It’s time in the market, not timing the market.”  So goes the old adage.  Fred Piard shows that some indicators have been useful for timing the market to avoid large drawdowns.  His study spans about a hundred years for most of the signals and is designed to be robust to the day of the month that trades are placed .   Very interesting.

Heisenberg looks at the S&P 500 with and without its megacap tech darlings and finds that virtually all of the outperformance of US large cap vs. the rest of the world is due to these six stocks.

And finally two articles on value investing.  Here and here.  The second is fairly technical.

 

 

Podcasts

The Brian Buffini Show https://www.thebrianbuffinishow.com/

Ep. 221: In Awe with John O’Leary

“Kids expect beauty all day long.  They just expect greatness.  They expect today is going to be Christmas again.”  John O’Leary

“Expect great things in your life and in the lives of those you serve and you love. Just don’t be surprised when you actually move in the direction of making it so.” – John O’Leary

“When you’re at work, work like a dog. When you’re at home, play like a puppy.” – John O’Leary

Ep. 220: Napoleon Hill’s Powerful Principles for Perilous Times, 

“The truth of the matter is, you don’t pursue significance, significance develops. You live a rich life; you’ll leave a very significant legacy. It’s just a by-product.” – Brian Buffini

“There is no labor of love that doesn’t have pain attached to it.” – Brian Buffini

Ep. 218: What I learned from James Allen

“A man is literally what he thinks; his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts.” – James Allen

“Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves; they therefore remain bound.” – James Allen

“He who would accomplish little must sacrifice little; he who would achieve much must sacrifice much; he who would attain highly must sacrifice greatly.” – James Allen

Grant Williams: The 2020 Hmmmminar Series – great interviews.  David Rosenberg and Jesse Felder were fantastic. https://ttmygh.com/

The Meb Faber Show: Ep 221, Chris Davis 

A value investor reflects on his career, lessons learned from his grandfather (a famous value investor) and the current situation

 

 

Books

Over the last couple of months I’ve been reading motivational and leadership books and focusing on focus.

Fast Focus by Damon Zahariades – a very practical book on dealing with distractions and focusing better

The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy – very motivational look at doing the little things right consistently over time to get big effects.  This could be a perennial read.

Take the Stairs by Rory Vaden – one of my favorites on self-discipline, this was my third time through this and I still love it.  The pain paradox is that easy decisions make for a hard life and hard decisions make for an easy life.  Successful people are those who do what other people don’t want to do.

No Excuses by Brian Tracy – similar to Take the Stairs, this is a good one to read every year, to remind oneself to do the hard thing and continue to build character.

Connect More, Lead More by Bil Sadler – 31 daily readings on leadership through connecting with other people.  Good, sound, wise advice.

Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin – I love listening to Navy Seal books while I run, but this book is much more.  It’s a leadership book with lessons learned from the battlefield.

The Advantage by Patrick Lencioni – this will be the next featured book review and is a great book about leading teams and creating a culture that is an advantage.

Sleep Smarter by Shawn Stevens – techniques and strategies for a great night sleep.  A couple big takeaways – lower your body temperature before bed to fall asleep quicker and get better quality sleep (I use an icepack on my pillow), and timing of sleep is important: generally 10-4 is when the body’s hormone rhythm best capitalizes on sleep.

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas – fiction is good too, and this is a very well written book and a great story.  It is very long.

 

Other

My wife and I recently started using our Instant Pot, and we love it.  This inexpensive kitchen gadget can do a lot of things and we are just starting to learn it.  We tested the yogurt mode with milk that wasn’t going to be consumed in time (I hate waste!)  It came out great and was easy to do.  The first time we made labneh, a Lebanese cheese made from yogurt.  The second time we made Greek yogurt.  If you don’t have cheesecloth, a colander and coffee filter work just fine.

 

 

Disclaimers:

Rothman Investment Management, as a matter of policy, disclaims responsibility for any private publication or statement by any of its employees. The views expressed herein are those of Jacob Rothman and do not necessarily reflect the views of Rothman Investment Management or other members of the firm's staff. This letter is for informational purposes only as of March 31, 2020.

The information in this letter is not intended to be used as the basis for investment decisions and should not be construed as advice intended to meet the particular investment needs of any investor. The information in this letter should not be considered as a representation or warranty and is not an offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell any security.

The opinions, data, and statements contained in this letter have been obtained from sources believed to be reliable but have not been independently verified and are not guaranteed as accuracy nor does it represent a complete analysis of every material fact.  

The benchmark for US Large Capitalization stocks is the S&P 500 Net of total returns, a market capitalization weighted index containing the 500 most widely held companies.

Past performance is not indicative of future results. Therefore, no current or prospective client should assume that future performance of any specific investment, investment strategy or product made reference to directly or indirectly in this letter or indirectly via a link to an unaffiliated third party web site, will be profitable or equal the corresponding indicated performance levels. Different types of investments and investment strategies involve varying degrees of risk and may experience positive or negative growth. Nothing in this newsletter should be construed as guaranteeing any investment performance. Historical performance results for investment indices and/or categories generally may not reflect the deduction of transactions and/or custodial charges, nor the deduction of an investment management fee, the incurrence of which would have the effect of decreasing historical performance results.

 

Due to various factors, including changing market conditions, such information may no longer be reflective or current position(s) and/ or recommendation(s). Therefore, no client or prospective client should assume that any such discussion serves as a substitute for personalized advice from Rothman Investment Management, LLC.