I am initiating this topic to keep a list of great articles that we come across. Please add a short summary of why a particular article is worth reading when posting a link.
How moats (strategic competitive advantage) has changed over the years.
https://www.oaktreecapital.com/insights/howard-marks-memos
Timeless gems from one of the greatest investors - Howard Marks. Each of his memos is worth reading (some multiple times).
VANTAGE POINT by Sanjay Bakshi is one of my all time favorite on valuing a company.
The more we depend on Google for information recall, the more we will do so in the future. Is Google making us stupid? The answer may lie in Plato’s writings.
In Plato’s Phaedrus, Socrates tells the story of the ancient Egyptian god Theuth, who invented the arts of
mathematics, astronomy, and writing. Theuth went to the Egyptian king, Thamus, to show him his inventions and explain why they were useful. He was particularly proud of writing: “This invention, O king, will make the Egyptians wiser and will improve their memories; for it is an elixir of memory and wisdom that I have discovered.” But the king thought the opposite. Writing, he argued, would “produce forgetfulness in the minds of those who learn to use it, because they will not practice their memory … Their trust in writing, produced by external characters which
are no part of themselves, will discourage the use of their own memory within them. You have invented an elixir not of memory, but of reminding.” And this will, he fears, result on those who rely on writing never being “wise”.
For “writing” read “Google” and you have much of the burden of current worries about how use of the internet may be degrading our minds. Writing itself is just as much an external prosthetic technology (“characters which are no part of themselves,” as the Egyptian king complains) as the internet is. Writing is also a tool of extended cognition. The difference is that we have had thousands of years to get used to it. The truth about the question of whether our reliance on modern electronic prostheses is better or worse for us is that it’s simply too early to tell.
Buffett’s thoughts on the lingering effects of the recession, the media and his reading habits.
What managers misunderstand about shareholder value, Alfred Rappaport
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4a25dc30-1eaa-11e6-b286-cddde55ca122.html?siteedition=intl#axzz4I2AbS9fc
All of Michael J. Mauboussin’s papers, articles in one place
Here are a few of the articles which have turned out be essential reading for me. (Hat tip to the blogs Alpha Ideas & Value Investing World)
What I Learned Losing a Million Dollars is easily one of the most underrated investment books I’ve come across. The book was actually first published in the early 1990s but re-released a few years ago. It tells the story of Jim Paul, a former futures trader on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange who made a sizeable amount of money at a young age, but lost it all following a series of bad breaks and poor choices.
Diversification Will Always Disappoint
https://blog.thinknewfound.com/2016/05/diversification-will-always-disappoint/
Lessons from the wealth-destroyers
Performance vs. Outcomes - Why it’s so hard to predict outcomes.
The Bedrock of Due Diligence? Skepticism and “Cracking the Narrative”
https://blogs.cfainstitute.org/investor/2016/04/13/the-bedrock-of-due-diligence-skepticism-and-cracking-the-narrative/
Martin Reeves: How to build a business that lasts 100 years
If you want to build a business that lasts, there may be no better place
to look for inspiration than your own immune system. Join strategist
Martin Reeves as he shares startling statistics about shrinking
corporate life spans and explains how executives can apply six
principles from living organisms to build resilient businesses that
flourish in the face of change.
Aberdeen Asset Management’s view on India and its prospects…have touch open various aspects including reforms, banking, modi, taxation etc…gives outside view of how they see the current economic landscape of India.
Why Behavioral Economics Is Really Marketing Science
H/T Neeraj Marathe (https://twitter.com/NeerajMarathe)
http://www.flame.edu.in/academics/executive-education/fil-with-the-masters/resources
“Over the years, FLAME Investment Lab has been able to attract the most
revered and noted investment minds of the country. Their candid sessions
elaborating their investment experience has gone a long way in shaping
the investment thought processes of the participants.”
Came across this article on Livemint. It talks about investing styles and it is better you explore more by reading the article. http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/wwhCfl1XvU6gk6C5EJvSsK/Life-beyond-Warren-Buffett.html
One article from Prof. Bakshi’s blog has been mentioned before but most of his posts that I have read were highly informative. Too many to list individually.
The same goes for Aswath Damodaran’s posts on his blog.
His latest being http://aswathdamodaran.blogspot.in/2016/08/superman-and-stocks-it-not-cape-cape-it.html
I am currently going through Buffets letters. Again very illuminating and a lot of food for thought. Already helped enhance my understanding of the value investing principles in a substantial way…
http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/letters.html
It would be lovely if people could post their favourite Prof.Bakshi blog posts.
Here are Kiran Dhanwada’s list of best articles by Prof.Bakshi
Investment basics are relatively easy to learn. Learning about behavioral economics and then avoiding its pitfalls is more difficult!
Books that taught me how to create a right investment temperament had nothing to do with investment itself. So, I suggest every investor should read:
- The Black Swan
- Thinking fast and slow
Expectations vs. Forecasts
A collection of all 45 CB Insights market maps and unbundling/disrupting graphics covering a variety of industries