Some blog updates

I have been making some minor changes to the blog and will attempt to complete them over the next week. I thought about converting to a 3 column format but decided against it given how many of the readers seem to have a screen resolution of around 1024 (width). When I get really bored, or have too much free time, I'll consider more drastic changes.

I guess I'm still a caveman but it's amazing how many people use RSS feeds (link at the top left of the page.) I started using feedburner and, although it's hard to tell how many are real subscribers that read every post, it seems almost as many people read my posts using RSS feeds as the number that visits the site.

I added a menu bar at the top to make it easier to access certain information (thanks to GardenBlogger for blog hacking tips and CSS Library for the free menu bar.) The menu bar isn't active right now but will be made active once the underlying pages are up. Since this is a blog and not a website with static pages, there are going to be some workarounds for some pages. I'll be posting a few pages in the future that will be continuously updated. These will be pages listing my favourite websites/blogs, my portfolio holdings, and so on. You can always access these pages from the menu bar at the top. I'm going to remove the lists on the left column given how they couldn't accomodate large number of items without looking clumsy.

I added a new comment engine from IntenseDebate. This slows down the page loading time but I needed something better than the default blogger commenting system. IntenseDebate only works on new comments and it has some bugs (search engines also can't search through the comments but this isn't an issue for me since there are very few comments.) If anyone has any problem posting or loading the page, let me know.

I also added a Blogger custom search at the top left. The default Blogger search was terrible and I needed something better. You know you have problems when I can't find my own posts (I know the keyword is right.)

Lastly, I guess this shows how I'm not a capitalist but I really didn't want to commercialize my blog. Yet I decided to test advertising on this blog. There aren't enough readers and my goal is to improve my investing (not earn money here) so I may take it down if I think it detracts.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

Thoughts on the stock market - March 2020

Image
Right now, DJIA has a P/E of 16.8 and forwand P/E of 15.1, whereas S&P 500 is at 20.1 with forward P/E of 15.8. Source: WSJ market Data If you ignore interest rates and inflation expectations--both of these influence valuations but depends on your macro call-- the market is not cheap. Long-term P/E is around 15. Trailing P/E is around 20% (Dow) to 40% (S&P500) higher than average. Forward P/E is in line with long term average but that assumes a strong V recovery. Consensus forecast is for profits to drop 1.2% in 2020. In 2008, it dropped 25.4% so current forecast is a very mild recession. Covid-19 coronavirus is not going to last more than a few months but these forecasts are still too rosy in my opinion. So I wouldn't rely on forward P/E. The richly valued (mostly tech or high quality) have not fallen much but the distressed ones have. So if you want to outperform in the long run, I think one’s choice right now is to: • Wait for market to fall another, say...
✖ READ MORE >>>

Warren Buffett's Evolution and his Three Investment Styles

Image
A Young Warren Buffett In a comment to one of my posts , Mark Carter, who incidentally appears to have a  good blog worth checking out , asked: "Buffett Prime is 1970's to early 1990's" Could you elaborate? I have vaguely indicated how I view Warren Buffett in the past, but I thought I would detail my view of his investing behaviour. This is more of an opinion piece and many others would disagree with me (if you do, I'm curious to hear your thoughts). I don't follow Warren Buffett as closely as many value investors so I may get some facts wrong. My view is that Warren Buffett went through three different phases, with each consisting of different investment techniques. The overall investment theory remained the same—what people call value investing—but his execution, tactics, and strategy differs across the three phases. Some people may break up his career into additional periods but my feeling is that the three I will describe essentially capt...
✖ READ MORE >>>

Hugh Hendry discussion at the Alternative Investment Conference

Thanks to Value Investing World for bringing this Hugh Hendry interview to my attention. I may not agree with all the things—short-term orientation of hedge funds is actually worse IMO; the sharp pencil effect doesn't always work—but Hendry is a true contrarian and worth listening. Like Marc Faber or Jim Rogers, you also can't take everything Hugh Hendry says seriously. I had always felt Hugh Hendry was firmly in the deflation camp but I get the feeling that he is now opening up to high-inflation possibilities. Otherwise, his stance appears to be similar to past opinions.
✖ READ MORE >>>