Finance Trends Letter

Welcome to our new readers across the globe. Be sure to check out our popular posts section, filled with market insights and valuable lessons for traders and investors of all levels! Great starting point for new readers and traders: a selection of our most Popular Posts on Finance Trends . Paul Tudor Jones, photo by Annie Leibovitz via Audobon.org. You'll find a newly expanded list of some of our favorite posts, with insights into emerging market trends. Plus, lessons on trading and investing from the masters: Market Wizards such as Paul Tudor Jones, Jesse Livermore, William O'Neil, Victor Sperandeo, Charlie Munger, and Sir John Templeton offer up their hard-earned wisdom.  Equally as important, I hope you'll use our favorite posts to learn from the trading insights offered up by myself and some of the lesser-known (but no less experienced) trading practitioners quoted within.  I have spent years and countless hours researching stocks, scanning charts, speakin...

Widely followed value investor and (Baupost Group) hedge fund manager, Seth Klarman shares his lessons from the recent financial crisis (Hat tip to Derek Hernquist for recently highlighting this piece). Here's an excerpt from Klarman's, "Forgotten Lessons of 2008" : " One might have expected that the near-death experience of most investors in 2008 would generate valuable lessons for the future. We all know about the “depression mentality” of our parents and grandparents who lived through the Great Depression. Memories of tough times colored their behavior for more than a generation, leading to limited risk taking and a sustainable base for healthy growth. Yet one year after the 2008 collapse, investors have returned to shockingly speculative behavior... Below, we highlight the lessons that we believe could and should have been learned from the turmoil of 2008. Some of them are unique to the 2008 melt- down; others, which could have been drawn from general ma...

Value investor and Fairholme Fund founder, Bruce Berkowitz sits down for an interview with Consuelo Mack on 'Wealthtrack'. Thanks to Prieur at Investment Postcards for highlighting this interview, which offers a nice glimpse into Berkowitz' value investing style. Check out the clip to hear Bruce's rules on investing, his thoughts on Berkshire Hathaway, and why Warren Buffett may be making a "brilliant" investment with his Burlington Northern acquisition. When you're done with that, you can peruse our related posts for much more with Bruce and the aforementioned Berkshire Hathaway value investing greats. Enjoy! Related articles and posts : 1. Bruce Berkowitz talks with Steve Forbes - Forbes. 2. Lessons from Warren Buffett - Finance Trends. 3. Lessons from Charlie Munger - Finance Trends.

From the weekend edition of the Financial Times, evolutionary biologist & "guru of collapse" Jared Diamond has, "Lunch with the FT" . Here is a preview of that article: " Jared Diamond is the guru of collapse. Collapse is the title of one of the books that have made him a world-famous academic. It is a theme that captures the Zeitgeist : markets have collapsed, banks have collapsed and confidence, even in the capitalist system itself, has collapsed. Diamond’s celebrated book – which added to the reputation he earned through Guns, Germs and Steel, a Pulitzer prize-winner about why some societies triumph over others – sought to discover what makes civilisations, many at their apparent zenith, crumble overnight. The Maya of Central America, the stone-carving civilisation of Easter Island, and the Soviet Union – all suddenly shattered. The question lurking in Diamond’s work is: could we be next? Could the great skyscrapers of Manhattan one day become deserted...

Short sales of US bank shares have increased noticeably in recent weeks ahead of the government's "stress test" results, which are scheduled for a delayed May 7 release. Bloomberg has the details in, "Short selling of banks accelerates" : "Short sellers, the bane of Wall Street executives last year, are back. The number of Citigroup Inc. shares borrowed and sold short increased sixfold since Feb. 27, the day the U.S. Treasury announced it would convert some of its preferred shares in the New York-based bank into common stock. Short interest in Bank of America Corp. , MetLife Inc. and American Express Co. climbed more than 40 percent in the same period, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. In total, short sales of the 18 publicly traded financial companies undergoing government stress tests were twice as high on April 15 as they were at their peak last year in July, two months before Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. collapsed. “People are either positi...

It's that time again: this weekend a boatload of Berkshire Hathaway ( BRK.A , BRK.B ) shareholders will descend on Omaha to attend the annual Berkshire shareholders' meeting and hear the great Oracle, Warren Buffett, speak. Only problem is, this year WB will have some explaining to do. As the Financial Times reports, Buffett faces a grilling from investors who'll expect him to account for the company's worst year ever. Excerpt from the FT piece: "Buffett-watchers say this year’s meeting of shareholders in Berkshire Hathaway , his candies-to-insurance group, will depart from the usual pattern of deferential questions and folksy answers and witness some criticism of the billionaire investor . “The hard questions will be asked this year,” said James Altucher, a hedge fund manager and author of Trade Like Warren Buffett. “There will be people who always stand by him and others who will ask: ‘Have you lost your way?’”." Another small cloud looming over Berkshire ...

Hope your Friday is going well. We have some great articles and video features to help start your weekend in our, "Features of the week" . 1. US stocks gain on Lehman buyout rumors (the "good" kind of rumors). 2. Investors quit Russia after Georgia war. 3. Nonidentical twins: solvency and liquidity . 4. Three hours with Warren Buffett : CNBC videos and transcripts (Thanks, BMB ). 5. Lessons from Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger . 6. In defense of short-selling : Doug Kass. 7. Key to happineness is freedom , not income. 8. "Thinking outside the game" - The Financial Philosopher. 9. Charlie Rose speaks with artist, Francesco Clemente (Thanks, Luke). Thanks for visiting Finance Trends Matter . Enjoy your weekend, and stop by often.

Yesterday's post, "Lessons from Warren Buffett" , highlighted some of Buffett's shared wisdom on business and investing. In today's post, we will learn from Buffett's long-time friend and business partner, Berkshire Hathaway Vice-Chairman, Charlie Munger . While Charlie Munger is not as well known as Warren Buffett, his thoughts on investing, education, and life are highly prized by those who have followed his investment career. Shareholder meetings for Berkshire Hathaway and Wesco Financial Corporation, of which Charlie is the chairman, have yielded many valuable insights from Mr. Munger over the years . This video conversation with Charlie Munger (click #1 in the iTunes playlist or watch on YouTube ), filmed at Caltech in March of 2008, is testament to his unique thinking. Here, Munger shares his thought process with students and viewers, and challenges us to think across disciplines.  Some important points made by Munger in this discussion:  · H...

We seem to be starting something of a value-investor's symposium this week, and you'll see why I say that as we get into today's post. On Monday we featured the writings and interview thoughts of noted value investor Seth Klarman . Today's guest of honor in our developing blog lecture series is Berkshire Hathaway chief Warren Buffett , an investor who, for most Americans, requires no further introduction. Yet it is fair to say that Buffett was not as well known in international investment circles until a recent business trip to Europe this past spring, where he announced that Berkshire Hathaway would begin stepping up its investments and business acquisitions in certain foreign countries where business conditions were favorable. At that time, Buffett gave a series of press conferences at each stop along the way through Europe. Today, we will outline some of the lessons learned from a press conference held for Buffett in Lausanne, Switzerland. In this Bloomberg video cl...

Welcome, readers! Signup for free email updates at the Finance Trends Newsletter . Update: PDF links removed due to DMCA notice. Please see our extensive Klarman book notes below. New visitors, please check the Finance Trends home page for all new posts. Here's something for anyone who has been trying to get a look at Seth Klarman's now famous, and out of print, 1991 investment book, Margin of Safety .  My knowledge of value investing is pretty much limited to what I've read in Ben Graham's The Intelligent Investor (the book which originally popularized the investment concept of a "Margin of Safety"), so check out the wisdom from Seth Klarman and other investing greats in our related posts below. You can also go straight to Ronald Redfield's Margin of Safety book notes .    Related posts: 1. Seth Klarman interviews and Margin of Safety notes     2. Seth Klarman: Lessons from 2008 3. Investing Lessons from Sir John Templeton 4. ...

What's happening in the world of commodities, derivatives, and global stock markets? All this and more, ahead. Enjoy our, "Features of the week" . 1. CRB index suffers its worst monthly drop in 28 years . 2. The Short View: Commodities and inflation . 3. Are we trading against Hank Paulson ? (Hat tip: BMB ) 4. Financial sector has 7 of 10 best days in 2008 . 5. Global stock market performance round-up via Investment Postcards. "In spite of a “teaser” of a rally and stock markets holding their July 15 lows, equity markets were still in the red for the month of July. The MSCI World Index was down 2.5%, with the MSCI Emerging Market Index (-4.2%) faring even worse." 6. Frank Barbera charts the US dollar, stocks, and commodity markets. 7. Gary Dorsch explores the arcane world of commodities and currencies . 8. "The Cost of Socialism" - John Browne, Euro Pacific Capital. "Over the past few decades, the United States has steadily evolved from a natio...

Berkshire Hathaway's ( BRK.A ) annual shareholders' meeting has accounted for the usual glut of Warren Buffett-related news items over the weekend. Let's take a quick look at some of the highlights from the, "What Warren said" files. MarketWatch reports that Berkshire Hathaway is eyeing German family-owned businesses as possible acquisition targets. "Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is interested in acquiring family-owned businesses in Germany, Chairman Warren Buffett said Saturday. Buffett is planning to travel to Germany and three other European countries in a few weeks to try to raise Berkshire's profile in the region, he said. "We would like more family owners of Germany businesses who, when they feel some need to monetize their business, to think of Berkshire Hathaway," Buffett said. "If they care about their business we are their best call." "We're nowhere near as prominent in Europe as we should be," he said." Does G...

Welcome to our "Features of the week" , where Finance Trends readers get a look at some of the most interesting articles and media/interview features around. Let's begin. 1. "Why is catching a baseball taxable income?" , asks Justin Ptak at the Mises blog. 2. Marc Faber says U.S. stocks are in the beginnings of a bear market. 3. The Wall Street Journal explains, "How Credit Got So Easy and Why It's Tightening" . 4. "Can Greed Be Contained?" . The Financial Philosopher on the continuing cycle of greed. 5. "How the Credit Bubble Came to Be" . Hat tip to The Financial Philosopher for this link. 6. Stock market corrections progressively shorter in duration , notes Martin Goldberg in his latest FSO market wrap up. Also, a technical bright spot in shares of Berkshire Hathaway? 7. FT Lex on defining liquidity . A tough job, as you can tell from our posts this week. 8. Barry Ritholtz has some advice for rich uncles and investors . 9. ...

Welcome to our "features of the week", where we highlight some of the most interesting news stories and web features around. Grab a seat and enjoy! 1. Let's have a sit down: "Bancrofts to discuss Dow Jones offer with News Corp " . 2. USA Today reports that government accounting rules are hiding trillions in liabilities . 3. FT.com on the pros and cons of "Business oriented venture philanthropists" . 4. Renaissance Capital CEO Stephen Jennings looks to Africa for future investment opportunities. 5. Peter Schiff talks to Bloomberg about what's fueling China's investment mania . 6. Fintag and FT on efforts to replicate hedge fund returns. 7. The Big Picture points us to a video interview with Bill Gates and Steve Jobs , together onstage in a rare joint appearance. 8. The Kirk Report tips us on a piece that highlights the wisdom of Charlie Munger . 9. Chongqing is western China's largest city, and is growing in size daily. IHT.com on China...