Merry New Year

 

Merry New Year to all. I’ll be honest I didn’t pay too much attention to what went on in financial markets the last couple of weeks. I didn’t read all that much either. I took some much needed time off. This week it’s a light post with only a handful of shares and my own 'best of' on the books I read last year.

Coming up this week, there’s an important OPEC+ meeting on Tuesday. We’ll also get the FOMC minutes. I’m interested to see if anything “wow worthy” comes out of CES in Las Vegas, which starts Wednesday, but many companies are not doing in-person presentations.

Earnings Watch

I’m not going to look back this week, but we are going to start the year off with some widely followed names. Constellation Brands, whose products you might have enjoyed this holiday season, and Walgreens Boots Alliance, whose stores many of us have visited of late, are the largest two names to report.

Best of the Week

This discussion touches on many of the topics in Dalio’s latest book, ‘Principles for Dealing with The Changing World Order’. They cover many topics from global economics such as the danger of a decline of the United States, the rise of China, allocation to cash and bonds, and Bitcoin. The second half of the interview gets more into Dalio’s “principles” and his personal experiences. My favorite part of the interview was when the host notes all resources needed to do this research and Dalio was honest in saying that he would not have shared this before, but he’s now 72 and felt it needed to be shared.

The Changing World Order W/ Ray Dalio - Listening time: 101 minutes

Best of the Rest

Robin Wigglesworth is one of our industry’s top reporters. His work at the FT is some of the best I read, and now he’s taken the time to put together a book. This interview covers many of the topics from the book, which focuses on passive and quantitative investing. They review how important passive investing is to the history of finance, how Blackrock has taken over, what we might see in an extended bear market, and the benefits of quant investing.

TRILLIONS...The Passive Revolution ft. Robin Wigglesworth - Listening time 97 minutes

There’s been much written about the performance of Hedge Funds in 2021. Some of the high profile names we all know didn’t fare so well. This short article highlights some of the performance data from PivotalPath, who is a hedge fund research firm.

Here Are the Hedge Fund Surprises From 2021

This chart was shared in one of Barry Ritzholtz’s daily emails sometime in the past two weeks. It really highlights why much of the institutional finance community is interested in ESG in some shape or form.

I thought I’d share some of the best books I read last year. My 2020 total was a bit less than 2019, but still finished over 30 books. My preferences are general business, sales, and history. Below are three of my favorites:

• Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything by BJ Fogg. This one is off my favorite of 2019 James Clear’s Atomic Habit. The title explains most everything. You can get large gains with small changes.
• A Curious Mind: The Secret to a Bigger Life by Brian Grazer. Grazer is one of Hollywood’s most iconic producers. This is a bit more of a memoir, but there are quite a few lessons here around
• Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know by Adam Grant. I like to think I have strong opinions that are weakly held. Grant’s book shows that being able to rethink about topics is a huge benefit. These are just some of my 5-star books, but a few were long American history books that require a certain taste for this topic.

One for the Road

Completely not related to finance or business, but many of these photos are jaw dropping. My favorite of these is below, but the black panther is a close second.

Best of 2021: Top 50 Photographs From Around the World

Thanks for reading. I'm hoping you experience the best year of your life. 

Michael