Beyond Barron's
August 16, 2010 11:15 AM Subscribe
Please recommend the best online sources for ongoing investment advice, free or paid?
For about 10 years, I subscribed to Barron's in print, which I found kept me well informed about the economy and financial markets, provided good investment suggestions, and helped me get the general drift of the market in order to make allocation decisions. Since I last renewed the subscription, they seem to have tripled their rates (it's now $199 for 52 issues.) There is an introductory one-year offer of $79 a year for an online-only subscription, which I'm considering.
Before I do that, what other options do MeFites recommend these days, whether free or paid, in the way of online investment information of the same (or better) caliber and scope as Barron's?
For about 10 years, I subscribed to Barron's in print, which I found kept me well informed about the economy and financial markets, provided good investment suggestions, and helped me get the general drift of the market in order to make allocation decisions. Since I last renewed the subscription, they seem to have tripled their rates (it's now $199 for 52 issues.) There is an introductory one-year offer of $79 a year for an online-only subscription, which I'm considering.
Before I do that, what other options do MeFites recommend these days, whether free or paid, in the way of online investment information of the same (or better) caliber and scope as Barron's?
I have a serious issue with people recommending morningstar for anything. They're evaluation is solely dependent upon trailing 3 and 5 year returns - which is a terrible way to do things. Not to mention them serving as a forum for mutual fund marketing. Valueline has been sort of rendered irrelelvant. Its a bit like recc'ing an S&P manual.
I struggle with the concept of "investment information" - partially because I don't know what that means. If it is of the "Do this not this" sort of thing, then I think none of them are worth the paper they are printed on.
If it is of the keeping up to date on economic issues and the markets in general then the answer is the 'ol WSJ, FT, Economists of the world. There are tons of good blogs out there, but even the best of them can be hit or miss. Can you be clearer about what you want to learn?
posted by JPD at 12:15 PM on August 16, 2010
I struggle with the concept of "investment information" - partially because I don't know what that means. If it is of the "Do this not this" sort of thing, then I think none of them are worth the paper they are printed on.
If it is of the keeping up to date on economic issues and the markets in general then the answer is the 'ol WSJ, FT, Economists of the world. There are tons of good blogs out there, but even the best of them can be hit or miss. Can you be clearer about what you want to learn?
posted by JPD at 12:15 PM on August 16, 2010
Response by poster: Can you be clearer about what you want to learn?
What I get out of Barron's:
- the drift of stock, bond and commodity markets over the past week
- the major business and economic developments of the past week
- what to look for in the coming week
- a selection of market analyst opinions about specific companies and funds
- interviews with investment advisors
What I don't need is access to investment data and research reports, which I can get through my mutual fund co.
posted by beagle at 12:33 PM on August 16, 2010
What I get out of Barron's:
- the drift of stock, bond and commodity markets over the past week
- the major business and economic developments of the past week
- what to look for in the coming week
- a selection of market analyst opinions about specific companies and funds
- interviews with investment advisors
What I don't need is access to investment data and research reports, which I can get through my mutual fund co.
posted by beagle at 12:33 PM on August 16, 2010
I don't believe in even weak EMH and I think you arn't going to do much better then your favorite of Barrons, WSJ, or FT.
You read clusterstock right? Very tabloidish in a good way.
posted by An algorithmic dog at 12:46 PM on August 16, 2010
You read clusterstock right? Very tabloidish in a good way.
posted by An algorithmic dog at 12:46 PM on August 16, 2010
You want Barron's then. I personally am not a fan, but it gives you what you want.
I think reading the FT, WSJ, and The Economist will give you a much higher quality version of the first 3 things you want, a decent amount of 4, and very little 5. There are some other publications that occasionally come out with tremendous articles on these issues - use Twitter to find them.
If you really want 5 the best thing is to create a list of money managers whom you find interesting and keep track of their quarterly letters. There are a few other resources out there as well - Value Investor Insight for example (I personally loathe this publication, but not for reasons that will make any sense at all to you and has to do with the term "value" more than anything else - but I think you might find it interesting)
posted by JPD at 12:48 PM on August 16, 2010
I think reading the FT, WSJ, and The Economist will give you a much higher quality version of the first 3 things you want, a decent amount of 4, and very little 5. There are some other publications that occasionally come out with tremendous articles on these issues - use Twitter to find them.
If you really want 5 the best thing is to create a list of money managers whom you find interesting and keep track of their quarterly letters. There are a few other resources out there as well - Value Investor Insight for example (I personally loathe this publication, but not for reasons that will make any sense at all to you and has to do with the term "value" more than anything else - but I think you might find it interesting)
posted by JPD at 12:48 PM on August 16, 2010
For news and opinion you might try Seeking Alpha. You can pick the analysts you want to follow, track portfolios, etc. Or, you can do what I do which is just troll the RSS feeds on the topics of your choice.
posted by dzot at 12:50 PM on August 16, 2010
posted by dzot at 12:50 PM on August 16, 2010
Mod note: few comments removed - please answer the question
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 12:52 PM on August 16, 2010
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 12:52 PM on August 16, 2010
Best answer: beagle: "What I get out of Barron's:
- the drift of stock, bond and commodity markets over the past week
- the major business and economic developments of the past week
- what to look for in the coming week
- a selection of market analyst opinions about specific companies and funds
- interviews with investment advisors"
You buy and sell stock based on magazine journalism? Honestly, I think it's a losing game; by the time these things report the news, the market has adjusted. Scholarly research specifically on Barron's supports me here: "The buy recommendations earn significant abnormal returns of 1.91 percent from the recommendation day to the publication day, a period of about 14 days. However, the abnormal returns are essentially zero for one to three year postpublication holding periods." If you want to be depressed, try checking out the papers that cite that one...
I do get information online, but I don't go for specific trades. I want to understand why things happened, rather than predictions of future profits. Even if it takes more than a couple hours for journalists to figure out. I used to subscribe to some blogs on economics and forecasting, but most of these were the annoying excerpt only RSS so I've ditched them all.
For Treasury bonds, I go to Yahoo! which offers a nice yield curve and historical perspective. I used to subscribe to the Treasury's auction results, but it turns out it's pretty boring reading raw data and they're a boring asset overall. Which is nice, but I found no reason to keep watching them. For corporate stats, the StL Fed publishes trends updated regularly, including AAA and Baa paper. Comparing the spread between these three is a pretty important economic indicator. Your question has prompted me to find out what's available from my local Fed branch, as I haven't ever looked before. However, I'm pretty sure people trying to explain broad market movements based on headlines is pretty much bullshit. "Riots in Greece harm euro" etc. I shouldn't have to tell a newspaper vet like you that nobody can discover why the thirty biggest american companies are worth 1 billion more or less in real time. But it's a boring read with out some half-assed explanation.
I have been reading some books lately, but they're not investment advice. "The Big Short" for example, describes in part a hedge fund manager's strategy of trawling news feeds for the word "settlements" and other legal outcome keywords on the theory that it takes a lot of effort to figure out the business impact of rulings that traders mostly ignore. It reads very much like a series of interviews with investment managers, but is not forward looking and might not be the investment advice you seek.
But most of what I do anymore is subscribe to podcasts. My favorite is Planet Money, which upsets the spectrum between corporate-shill news like CNBC and disturbingly policy focused groups like The Economist to provide something informative, concise and personal. They make an unprecedented effort to interview people outside the recording studio. The Economist has a podcast which I listen to, and has a weekly "upcoming events" segment; just try to skip the "doing business in X" segments, which are really more like jet-setter travel guides. I also subscribe to several MarketPlace podcasts, and NPR's From Scratch to learn about the way small businesses operate. Small businesses are an important part of our economy, that isn't reflected in easy to report numbers like the DOW index or NYSE stocks. The advantage podcasts have is that I can put them on the headphones at work and nobody notices / cares, and I can listen while commuting.
posted by pwnguin at 6:27 PM on August 16, 2010 [2 favorites]
- the drift of stock, bond and commodity markets over the past week
- the major business and economic developments of the past week
- what to look for in the coming week
- a selection of market analyst opinions about specific companies and funds
- interviews with investment advisors"
You buy and sell stock based on magazine journalism? Honestly, I think it's a losing game; by the time these things report the news, the market has adjusted. Scholarly research specifically on Barron's supports me here: "The buy recommendations earn significant abnormal returns of 1.91 percent from the recommendation day to the publication day, a period of about 14 days. However, the abnormal returns are essentially zero for one to three year postpublication holding periods." If you want to be depressed, try checking out the papers that cite that one...
I do get information online, but I don't go for specific trades. I want to understand why things happened, rather than predictions of future profits. Even if it takes more than a couple hours for journalists to figure out. I used to subscribe to some blogs on economics and forecasting, but most of these were the annoying excerpt only RSS so I've ditched them all.
For Treasury bonds, I go to Yahoo! which offers a nice yield curve and historical perspective. I used to subscribe to the Treasury's auction results, but it turns out it's pretty boring reading raw data and they're a boring asset overall. Which is nice, but I found no reason to keep watching them. For corporate stats, the StL Fed publishes trends updated regularly, including AAA and Baa paper. Comparing the spread between these three is a pretty important economic indicator. Your question has prompted me to find out what's available from my local Fed branch, as I haven't ever looked before. However, I'm pretty sure people trying to explain broad market movements based on headlines is pretty much bullshit. "Riots in Greece harm euro" etc. I shouldn't have to tell a newspaper vet like you that nobody can discover why the thirty biggest american companies are worth 1 billion more or less in real time. But it's a boring read with out some half-assed explanation.
I have been reading some books lately, but they're not investment advice. "The Big Short" for example, describes in part a hedge fund manager's strategy of trawling news feeds for the word "settlements" and other legal outcome keywords on the theory that it takes a lot of effort to figure out the business impact of rulings that traders mostly ignore. It reads very much like a series of interviews with investment managers, but is not forward looking and might not be the investment advice you seek.
But most of what I do anymore is subscribe to podcasts. My favorite is Planet Money, which upsets the spectrum between corporate-shill news like CNBC and disturbingly policy focused groups like The Economist to provide something informative, concise and personal. They make an unprecedented effort to interview people outside the recording studio. The Economist has a podcast which I listen to, and has a weekly "upcoming events" segment; just try to skip the "doing business in X" segments, which are really more like jet-setter travel guides. I also subscribe to several MarketPlace podcasts, and NPR's From Scratch to learn about the way small businesses operate. Small businesses are an important part of our economy, that isn't reflected in easy to report numbers like the DOW index or NYSE stocks. The advantage podcasts have is that I can put them on the headphones at work and nobody notices / cares, and I can listen while commuting.
posted by pwnguin at 6:27 PM on August 16, 2010 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: Thanks for the detailed answer, pwnguin! That's what I was looking for. And no, I don't buy and sell based on magazine journalism; I let fund managers do my trading. I just occasionally adjust my mix of funds. But to do even that, I need to know what's going on.
posted by beagle at 9:14 AM on August 17, 2010
posted by beagle at 9:14 AM on August 17, 2010
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posted by rabbitrabbit at 12:01 PM on August 16, 2010