New Evidence: Simple Forecasts Beat Complex Forecasts
Always seek to simplify. Occam’s razor teaches us we should cut away any extraneous factors that are unnecessary to explain something. Stated another way, we [...]
About David Foulke
David Foulke is an operations manager at Tradingfront, Inc., a provider of automated digital wealth management solutions. Previously, he was at Alpha Architect, where he focused on business development, firm operations, and blogging on quantitative investing and finance topics. Prior to Alpha Architect, he was involved in investing and strategy at Pardee Resources Company, a manager of natural resource and renewable assets. Prior to Pardee, he worked in investment banking and capital markets roles at several firms in the financial services industry, including Houlihan Lokey, GE Capital and Burnham Financial. He also founded two internet companies, E-lingo, and Stonelocator. Mr. Foulke received an M.B.A. from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and an A.B. from Dartmouth College.Buffett On Economic Moats
In 2007, Warren Buffett gave an extended talk to a group of MBA students at the University of Florida. During it, Buffett spends some time talking [...]
Warren Buffett On LTCM, Blind Spots, Leverage, and Unnecessary Risk
In 2007, Warren Buffett gave an extended talk to a group of MBA students at the University of Florida. Below are some highlights: Question: You [...]
Book Review — Decide to Play Great Poker: A Strategy Guide to No-Limit Texas Hold’Em
Among a certain set of people, the desire to be good at poker is just in their bones. Maybe it’s because they want to win [...]
Book Review: Cracking the Emerging Markets Enigma by Andrew Karolyi
A recent IMF World Economic Outlook survey projected that in 2015-2016 advanced economies will grow at 2%-2.5% rate, while emerging and developing markets are growing [...]
The Philosophy of Value Investing — Reject “New Paradigm” Thinking
Every few years, people start to question whether value investing is dead. A recent Google search along these lines generated 3.1 million results: Likewise, people [...]
Charlie Munger on “Loading Up,” Tracking Error, and Value Investing
Back in 1994, Charlie Munger gave a talk to students at the USC Business School (a copy is here), covering topics ranging from mathematics and [...]
One Secret to More Creative Thinking? The Effect of Walking
Researchers at Stanford recently conducted a study that found that the physical act of walking improved creative thinking in subjects. We believe creative thinking is an [...]
The Power of Term-Term Compounding: Evidence from Ben Franklin’s Trusts
Back in 1790, Ben Franklin created his Last Will and Testament, and set forth his wishes for the disposition of his property: …I devote two [...]
Jim Simons Transcript: Quantitative Finance and Building a Firm
James Simons is an American academic and businessman who in 1982 founded Renaissance Technologies, which today is among the best known quantitative investment management funds [...]
Exploring Employee Satisfaction and Stock Performance
Recapping Older Ideas on Socially Responsible Investments Back in 1970, Milton Friedman wrote an article for the New York Times Magazine that outlined his views [...]
Book Review – Competition Demystified: a Radically Simplified Approach to Business Strategy
We've spent a lot of time these days thinking about how to identify economic moat, or a firm's ability to defend against competitive forces in [...]
The Most Important Decision When Selecting a Value Investing Fund
The Best Investment with the Worst Performance We are huge believers in value investing. I personally started off as a fundamental value guy, spending twenty-plus [...]
Understanding How Broker Incentives Shape Financial Advice
Interactive Brokers recently posted a hilarious video, which highlights potential conflicts between advisers and investors. http://youtu.be/N2bHXn__EZM We transcribed the video below: [The scene: two [...]
Book Review — Global Asset Allocation: A Survey of the World’s Top Asset Allocation Strategies
Book Overview One of the most fundamental choices for any investor is their approach to strategic asset allocation. What are the major asset classes to [...]
Appraisal Arbitrage — A Tool of Evil Hedge Funds or a Benefit to Society?
The Wharton Blog Network recently posted a great piece by Maurice Lefkort on Appraisal Arbitrage, an esoteric area of finance in which legal rules that [...]
Book Review — Contagious: Why Things Catch On
Book Overview Anyone involved in business has observed that certain products, services or ideas seem to catch on and become wildly popular. Others ideas fall [...]
Interview with a “Flash Boys” All-Star: Ronan Ryan from IEX
Here's the bottomline: As an investor, you've probably been helped by high-frequency-trading, but it is equally likely you've been SCREWED by high-frequency trading. As a [...]
Global Debt: A Scary Situation with Limited Solutions
Earlier this month, McKinsey published a remarkable report on trends in global debt, and concludes that the world's debt, rather than decreasing, is in fact [...]
Book Review — Open Secret: The Global Banking Conspiracy to Fix LIBOR that Swindled Investors Out of Billions
Book Overview In today’s complex financial world, borrowing rates are all around us, implicit in everything from our credit cards to our mortgages. Many of these [...]