I had an uncontrollable urge to short the Walt Disney Company (NYSE:$DIS) last night. It had nothing to do with the company’s growth prospects.  In fact, if anything  I think most of Disney’s businesses have a bright future. No, my sudden desire to short the company came when my three-year-old son, bursting with hyperactivity  after...Read More

The single most important lesson I’ve learned about being a successful investor is the need to maintain emotional detachment.  Any feelings you may have towards a stock are unrequited.  If you love a stock, it will not love you back.  And if you hate a stock, it will not give you the satisfaction of responding...Read More

Brain damage can create superior investment results, at least according to James O’Shaughnessy in his classic What Works on Wall Street. O’Shaughnessy refers to a study by Baba Shiv of Stanford University that found that people that had suffered damage to the amygdala or the insula regions of their brains made better investment decisions and...Read More

There is an art to following the recommendations of Wall Street strategists.  Taken individually, the average strategist tends to be pretty sharp.  They do their homework, they have well-funded research teams, and it can be worthwhile to hear what they have to say, even if their advice tends to be very conventional. But whatever value...Read More

One evening two years ago, I logged in to Facebook ($FB) to upload new photos of my son (if memory serves, he was bouncing in a Jumperoo) and I got an announcement that John had just planted corn on some videogame I had never heard of.  Why anyone would have found that piece of information...Read More