The Wall Street Journal's Mia Lamar has written a profile of the high-risk Singaporean hedge fund, Quantedge Capital Pte Ltd. The fund has had wild success, raking in 27% average annualized returns since inception in 2006. No one can scoff at the those Madoff-like returns. But it's something the fund wrote in its August investor letter that stuck out to me. “…Our investment model delivers high returns over time, at the cost of unpleasant bumps along the way.” Investors nearing retirement, or those already enjoying their life after work, don't have the time or tolerance for "unpleasant … [Read more...]
Switzerland: The Drawbacks of Wealth Taxation
Researchers studying the effects of wealth taxation in Switzerland have found that, rather than quelling inequality, the taxes are costly to the economy and generate little revenue with respect to their negative impacts. The Tax Foundation's Alex Durante writes: Many countries in the OECD impose estate or inheritance taxes, two kinds of wealth taxes, on their citizens. Estate and inheritance taxes are levied on the money and property of the deceased and paid by the beneficiaries. However, only a few of these countries tax personal wealth holdings on a yearly basis. Switzerland imposes the … [Read more...]
When the Lights Go Out
Inflicting major disruptions to the electrical grid, whether by humans or natural causes, is not that difficult to imagine. It has already happened which you’ll learn more about in this excellent article, and series, by Rebecca Smith in The WSJ titled, “How America Could Go Dark.” I spent time this week speaking with an engineer at our local utility company. The impression he gave me is the same as in the article: The money is simply not there. It’s not there to protect substations with proper security, and it’s certainly not there to upgrade the grid to bring it into the 21st … [Read more...]
Get Your Survival Training Now
You have plenty of opportunities to get your survival training now. Don’t let inertia slow you down. Here’s what I’ve learned for you. A client told me this week he’s thinking about attending a pistol course through the Surefire Institute. They will be in his town for about ten days offering a variety of coursework such as General Shotgun and General Handgun. I’ve taken similar courses through Sig Sauer Academy in Epping, New Hampshire and I highly recommend both for you and your loved ones. What’s cool about the Surefire Institute is that it has locations in Las Vegas (a nice activity if … [Read more...]
Brexit a Pension Fund Risk?
I've written in the past about the threat that low market yields and returns pose to pension funds, where managers are setting expectations too high (see here). Now managers face a new threat, the fallout from the Brexit. The Wall Street Journal reports: The retirement savings of tens of millions of people have come under new threat since the surprise U.K. vote to leave the European Union, thanks to a plunge in global interest rates. A post-Brexit scramble for safer bonds pulled yields lower and upended global markets just as many public pension funds wrapped up their fiscal year on June … [Read more...]
Survival States: Sales Taxes
If you're looking for the freest, easiest living conditions you can find, be sure to avoid states with high sales taxes. The Tax Foundation has mapped out the best and the worst in sales tax rates here. … [Read more...]
Survival Stocks
You’ll like this story. I was catching-up with a client this morning who had been out in Colorado during and after the Brexit vote. He asked what he missed while he was gone. “Well,” I replied, “as it turns out, not much.” My client already knew that, but he knows I despise using stop-losses so we had a good laugh at the expense of the stop-loss crowd. And a crowd there is in the stop-loss world. As a refresher, a stop-loss is an order to sell a stock when it falls below a certain price. I will not use them. It’s a strategy the hedge funds love, and one that makes me uneasy. What ends … [Read more...]
Rage Gauge: 64 People Shot in Chicago
64 people were shot in Chicago over the Fourth of July weekend. Where’s the outrage? “Through June, there had already been 315 homicides in Chicago this year, which is a 49% increase over the first half of last year,” writes Jason Riley in the WSJ, author of Please Stop Helping Us: How Liberals Make it Harder for Blacks to Succeed. “The political left’s response to gun violence is typically more gun control, even though the places with the biggest problems tend to sport harsher firearms restrictions, and criminals by definition ignore laws.” The article concludes that there is no link to … [Read more...]
Big Money, Big Costs
Great piece by Jason Zweig of the WSJ on the trouble with private equity funds: Trying to get your money out. For years now, big banks and brokerage firms have been urging their wealthiest individual clients to get into private-equity funds. Buying such a prestigious fund can make you feel like a big cheese with privileged access to the high returns corporate deal making can generate. Trying to sell one, however, can make you feel like a tiny mouse in a giant glue trap. Consider J.C. Flowers II L.P., once one of the most glamorous of the buyout funds. By July 1, investors must decide … [Read more...]
“So I Thought I Would Teach Myself About…”
The Newport Daily News had a wonderful feature on Middletown, RI resident, Pete Babcock, whose 42-year career in the NBA culminated in a championship with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Babcock got his start when he dropped out of law school. “I always was enamored with the NBA, and the Phoenix Suns were a relatively new team,” Babcock said. “They started in 1968 as an expansion team. In those days you could buy a general admission ticket for $3.50 and there were like 3,000 people at the game, so you could go sit anywhere you wanted to sit. I just thought if there were anything in the world, this … [Read more...]
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