It’s hard to take something called a “Magic Formula” seriously.  But you should.  It’s beaten the market by a wide margin over the past two decades and with less volatility. The Magic Formula—a stock screener designed by hedge fund guru Joel Greenblatt –ranks stocks by two factors: Profitability (based on Greenblatt’s chosen metric, Return on...Read More

If Warren Buffett, Christopher Davis, Joel Greenblatt and Seth Klarman recommend a book, it might—just might—be worth reading.   It certainly got my attention. Warren Buffett calls Howard Marks’ The Most Important Thing “that rarity, a useful book.”  And as a researcher with a library of a couple hundred books myself, I couldn’t agree more. For...Read More

Now and then it is nice to take a peek over the shoulder of a successful investor to see what their high-conviction buys are.  When you read a headline that “Warren Buffett is buying Company X,” you’re naturally inclined to do a little digging into Company X’s financials.  After all, if it’s good enough for...Read More

The art of investing is an exercise in making decisions under conditions of uncertainty. But today, it seems that the cloud of uncertainty is a little thicker than usual. During times like these, I like to do what your college professor might have called “cheating.” I like to look over the shoulders of other investors...Read More