Articles and ideas that caught my eye this week.
The big mistake is thinking they know when to buy and sell stocks,” Buffett says with a chuckle. “That there are times to buy ’em and times to sell ’em. There’s times to buy ’em. And eventually maybe, when you decide to start dis-saving when you’re 70 or 80 years of age or something of the sort, at that time you may sell ’em. But basically any attempts to pick the times to buy or sell, I think, are a mistake for 99% of the population. And I think that even attempts to pick individual securities is a mistake for people.” – Yahoo [1]
From Monevator
Don’t forget your can opener [On prepping for financial freedom] – Monevator [2]
Dividends are not guaranteed – Monevator [3]
From the archivator: Rich friends, poor friends – Monevator [4]
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 subscriber.1 [5]
House prices see first quarterly fall for five years – ThisIsMoney [6]
Revealed: The cheapest and most expensive places to die – Guardian [7]
Help! My house has been hijacked [New fraud alert, search result] – FT [8]
Emerging market valuations look more appealing than most today – Twitter [9]
Products and services
Crowdfunding platform Seedrs is launching a secondary market – Business Insider [10]
Best fixed-rate ISA returns drop 25% in a month – Telegraph [11]
Zopa has been given full FCA authorisation and aims to launch innovative ISA soon – Zopa [12]
Comment and opinion
Bad investment returns? Your birth year may be to blame – Of Dollars and Data [13]
Waiting for higher bond yields is irrational if you’re passive, and risky – Canadian Couch Potato [14]
How can I minimize tax on my pension? [On the £1m lifetime allowance, search result] – FT [15]
Academics argue the return factors justifying Smart Beta strategies and the like are flawed because the initial research gave too much weight to tiny companies – Bloomberg [16]
Closing the self-awareness gap – Abnormal Returns [17]
The fallacy behind populism and automation fears – Investing Caffeine [18]
Should you use a trailing stop loss to reduce risk? – Oblivious Investor [19]
Will Thorndike [20] on how skilled capital allocators compound capital [Podcast] – IFG [21]
The most interesting thing about the Buffett / Seides hedge fund bet – The Big Picture [22]
Buffett predicts Berkshire shares will rise the morning after he dies – Bloomberg [23]
One theory why the stock market is so weirdly calm… – New York Times [24]
…and the varied ways people are trying to protect their portfolios in response – Bloomberg [25]
Hedge funds are out of ideas […and lagging the market in 2017] – Bloomberg [26]
Dalbar’s famous numbers showing how poorly individual investors time their fund investments are dead wrong, says another researcher… – Advisor Perspectives [27]
…but Dalbar replies people have the wrong notion about what its data shows – Advisor Perspectives [28]
Off our beat
“Mrs. May’s idea that her opponents are merely playing self-interested political “games” is a classic populist trope, one that suggests that constitutional democracy is really an obstacle standing between people and leader. The prime minister’s rhetoric since calling the general election has implied that the best outcome for “the national interest” would be to eradicate opposition altogether, whether that be in the news media, Parliament or the judiciary.” – New York Times [29]
Simple maths explains why Elon Musk’s companies keep doing the barely possible – Quartz [30]
Why first-born children are better leaders – The Atlantic [31]
Give your kids an elite private school education (without the cost) – The Escape Artist [32]
The Great British Brexit robbery: How our democracy was hijacked… – Guardian [33]
…and discover what the psychometrics software makes of YOU – Apply Magic Sauce [34]
Oldsters in their graves could swing a second EU referendum vote – Guardian [35]
Meanwhile, Western civilization could collapse – BBC [36]
And finally
“The traders who did badly were hopelessly emotional about the whole thing. They spent hours trying to get it right – and got caught up in lots of different strategies, confused themselves, took wild gambles. Refused to sell losers. They lied to themselves and others about their losses. They got into terrible states.”
– Robbie Burns, Trade Like A Shark [37]
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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”. [↩ [42]]