What caught my eye this week.
I enjoyed a top floor view over the Thames this week at the book launch for the second edition of Lars Kroijer’s Investing Demystified [1]. It was a pleasure too to meet his family including his young children, one of whom said she hadn’t read her father’s book because it was likely to be “gobbledygook”.
It’s commendable to be so skeptical at such a tender age about people who promise to share the secrets of making money. But Monevator readers who know Lars from his contributions [2] to our website will surely beg to differ.
Indeed many of you have already read the first edition of Investing Demystified [1]. Should you get the second? It’s substantially the same book, but Lars notes:
“Compared to the earlier edition I have downplayed the addition of non-essential elements to the book and moved to the Appendix a number of more tangential points, while keeping the core elements and focus on the rational portfolio unchanged.”
You probably don’t need both editions, then, unless you’re a Kroijer completist (in which case you ought to get his enjoyable hedge fund book [3], too).
If you’re new, starting with the new edition (which costs £16-ish from Amazon [1]) is the way to go.
From Monevator
The snowball and the paper trail – Monevator [4]
From the archive-ator: Coping with the guilt of losing money – Monevator [5]
News
Note: Some links are Google search results – in PC/desktop view these enable you to click through to read the piece without being a paid subscriber.1 [6]
Buy-to-let property sales fall by 50% in a year – Guardian [7]
Index fund evangelist Burton Malkiel is straying from his gospel – New York Times [8]
Middle-class borrowers sitting on a debt timebomb [Don’t tell @ermine [9]!] – ThisIsMoney [10]
Triple-lock on pensions will go eventually, says pensions secretary, rightly – Guardian [11]
[12]
MSCI is adding China A-Shares to its emerging markets index – Advisor Perspectives [13]
Products and services
Lenders warn low mortgage rates may not get any lower – ThisIsMoney [14]
Rising inflation pushes student loans interest to 6.1% [Search result] – FT [15]
Banks increasingly offering mortgages via online video interviews – ThisIsMoney [16]
Ten most popular products for Lifetime ISAs – Hargreaves Lansdown [17]
Hedge funds can’t be killed by normal weapons – Bloomberg [18]
Comment and opinion
Don’t weigh up the gurus, pick your own asset allocation – Oblivious Investor [19]
10 ways to protect against ballooning inflation [Search result] – FT [20]
Why don’t ‘winning’ active fund managers keep winning? – Retirement Researcher [21]
Financial literacy? Fat chance! When knowledge is useless – A Wealth of Common Sense [22]
Inside the booming world of initial coin offerings [Podcast] – Bloomberg [23]
Can anyone make a case for active investing versus passive investing? – Marketfox [24]
Working (for a) Living – SexHealthMoneyDeath [25]
Who is the dividend champion: Shell, HSBC, or BAT? [PDF] – John Kingham [26]
If you do seed investments (such as via crowd-funding) then diversify widely – Medium [27]
Interesting interview on simplifying investing with Morgan Housel – Chris Reining [28]
A risk facing ‘low-risk’ consumer stocks: Consumers who don’t care – The Value Perspective [29]
Valuing Uber: Doomsday scenario or business reset? – Musings on Markets [30]
Brexit: One year since Doh-day
Boo to Brexit says Nick Harkaway on Twitter [31]
Getting clearer by the day: Britain has voted for the worst of both worlds – Guardian [32]
The UK economy since the Brexit vote in four charts [Search result] – FT [33]
EU leader says UK’s citizen offer could ‘worsen situation’ – BBC [34]
Anatomy of a comeback: The EU’s resurgence in charts [Search result] – FT [35]
How Brexit has affected the [liberal elite] dating scene [Search result] – FT [36]
Survive five years in this twat factory and you’re in for life, EU citizens told – Daily Mash [37]
Off our beat
How Helen Hawkes filled her years with life – BBC [38]
Steve Jobs made the iPhone because he “hated this guy at Microsoft” – Guardian [39]
The fall of Uber’s CEO reveals the potential of a single blog post – The Verge [40]
Due to global warming, fish and chips and sushi, cuttlefish to inherit the seas – New Scientist [41]
And finally…
“Investors who embrace the fact that they do not have an edge are not necessarily unknowledgeable or naïve about the world of finance. In fact they may be the smartest person in the room.”
– Lars Kroijer, Investing Demystified [42]
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- Note some articles can only be accessed through the search results if you’re using PC/desktop view (from mobile/tablet view they bring up the firewall/subscription page). To circumvent, switch your mobile browser to use the desktop view. On Chrome for Android: press the menu button followed by “Request Desktop Site”. [↩ [47]]