Markets are, as yet, unhealed from the devasting rout of 2022. News continues to be frustrating regarding inflation, the Russia-Ukraine war, computer chips and covid in China, uncertain November elections, and the likelihood of recession. But rather than double-down (triple?) on my dreary prattle, I thought I would freshen the feed and give you something you might actually be able to use: Homework! Who doesn’t love homework?
Most folks who think they know what I do for a living assume I’m a financial analyst of some kind, as most stock market types we read about or see on TV are numbers people. They pore over balance sheets and income statements, they study charts and generate multi-page spreadsheets and create pivot tables (still don’t know what those are) to discern whether a particular stock will continue on the downslope or rise in the coming months.
I do precious little of that. I really don’t study the numbers and I almost never create spreadsheets; if I looked primarily at the numbers I’d see only what happened last quarter, and what they hope will happen next quarter. Instead, I study the businesses: their brands, their product lines, their executives, their regulators, their challenges, their competitors. Are they coming out with a brilliant new service? Do they possess a significant competitive advantage— a wide ‘moat’? How loyal are their customers? Are they working through a reciprocal deal with another business? Are there more or less of their products on the street, or in the store? I’m trying to see around the corner and down the next block. I want to what will happen over the next 10 years.
To do that I read a huge volume of business news, market news, economic news, political news, even pop culture news. I read reports and articles from analysts, the opinions of seasoned investor-columnists and the recommendations of financial consultants. I read business origin and growth stories, and profiles of founders and executives. I want to see that a business is thinking long term, as I am, and is increasingly dominant in its industry and against its competitors.
But where do I find all this information? Here are my sources:
The Wall Street Journal. The gold standard for financial news, economic news and in-depth investigative journalism around businesses and business leaders. Most of their content is behind a paywall, but there are always 1- or 2-year specials available to new subscribers. WSJ also has a free daily morning briefing email, The 10-Point, in which you can read the headlines for an overview, or click through to stories (usually behind the paywall).
On top of those sites I check regularly, I get about 10 daily emails with business news and market updates. I mentioned some above, but I also subscribe to a handful of blogs— some of which have their own daily email updates— written and curated by some of the best (and most conscientious) minds in finance today:
Abnormal Returns, by Tadas Vinskata, the primary function of which is to collect and disseminate links to smart, interesting financial articles from across the web every day. There is always something here I want to read that I wouldn’t have found otherwise.
The Irrelevant Investor is written by Michael Batnick of Ritholtz Wealth Management. Intelligent short takes and occasional deep dives on the economic and market news of the day. Michael loves dissecting charts.
The Reformed Broker, penned by Batnick’s colleague at Ritholtz, Josh Brown, is a real-world perspective on business news, the economy, investing habits and sometimes his own shortcomings. It’s on-point, relatable, sharp and eyes-open.
Morgan Housel, at the Collaborative Fund, writes a weekly blog post to interpret investing and economics in light of human psychology. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen. Morgan is simply one of the finest financial writers working today, taking complex subjects and boiling them down for readability and comprehension. I’ve also found his book, The Psychology of Money, to be an addictive read. You want to be a better investor, you want to understand your own habits and patterns around money? Read Morgan’s book.
Yes, that’s a lot to read. Don’t try to tackle it all; maybe every day pick one source, or even one story, which piques your interest. Investing is a marathon, a habit developed across a lifetime. Learning and growing is a part of that, but there is no rush. Develop good practices and keep them up. Stretch yourself, slowly.
As always, reach out to chat about reactions, thoughts, ideas, questions. I’m around and love to talk shop.