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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.
Did We Just Pull 2024’s Gains Forward?
Stocks were already partying into the Fed meeting (up ~12% over 6 weeks) – however when Powell provided his December update on monetary policy – he simply turned up the music. Risk was on. So here’s my question – with stocks up an incredible 15% in just 7 weeks – how much of next year’s potential gains have been pulled forward? Is it riskier now to buy stocks than it was a few weeks ago? To be clear, stocks are likely to add to their gains before the year is done – however we are now trading close to 20x next years earnings. That’s not a bargain.