Today we learned that December added 216K jobs. CNN reported it as a “red hot” print. Was it? From mine, the headline number offers us very little. For example, what I want to know is the following (a) where are the jobs are being added (e.g. public vs private sector and what sectors); (b) what are people being paid per hour (is it rising or falling?); (c) are people working longer hours (as part time work doesn’t pay a mortgage); and finally (d) what’s the prevailing trend (as one month’s data doesn’t account for much). The headline number doesn’t provide this detail – therefore we need to dig a little. My quick take – this report is weaker than what the headline suggests.
89 Books to Make You Smarter
“In my whole life, I have known no wise people (over a broad subject matter area) who didn’t read all the time—none” – Charlie Munger. This post includes a collection of 89 books I’ve read which will make you smarter (and a better investor). Old Charlie also told us “.. if it’s wisdom you’re after, you are going to spend a lot of time sitting on your ass and reading”. Amen to that.
2023 – The Year in Review
2023 has come to a close… and what a year it was. For many, it will go down as one of the more challenging. For others, they will have banked some very attractive gains. In short, the S&P 500 recovered from its worst year in over a decade – finishing the year 24.2% higher. As for myself, my portfolio returned 19.63%. I made some errors this year (which I will discuss) but also had a couple of wins. Net-net – it was a solid year given the unchartered waters we were navigating.
Many Lessons in One Great Chart
This post looks at one of the most compelling / informative long term charts I’ve come across. For example, it shows relative PE ratios, interest rates, bond yields, bull and bear markets along with performance. For me, not only does it reinforce the power of time with asset speculation – it also highlights the opportune windows when to add risk (and when not to). The latter is far more important.
For a full list of posts from 2017…