Good Articles
Stuff that I like
Note: This list is updated on an ongoing basis to reflect all of the good articles that have been posted and was last updated on April 17, 2020.
With some regularity, I’m going to post some links to other articles that I’ve really enjoyed. And, instead of focusing on recent events about the volatile market or the latest topic of the month/week/day, I’m going to focus more on quality content that isn’t as time dependent. So, I may post things that are a little bit older but that has material that is still relevant. For each, I’ll offer some casual commentary with my thoughts and why I like it. That being said, let’s jump in:
To get good, go after the metagame
This is one of my favorite articles that I’ve read in a long time. It ties together so many different topics under one strategic vision.
This Wall Street legend’s 10 rules for investing are very applicable to today’s bull market
When this was written, the market was hitting all time highs. At the time, these rules felt kind of silly. The market can only go up right!? This guy definitely understood the stock market metagame.
The grand unified theory of rogue waves
Rogue waves are fascinating. I really believe the models being built to help us better understand them will one day have immense utility to a wide variety of disciplines - including finance and economics!
Why outbreaks like coronavirus spread exponentially, and how to "flatten the curve"
This visualizations in this article are simply amazing. I love how they use these little math models to simulate the point they want to convey.
How coronavirus cases exploded in South Korean churches and hospitals
Another great collection of data visualizations. This one really puts some scale to the coronavirus outbreak in South Korea.
This thing has over 140 pages worth of interesting charts. If you like all the charts I post, you are going to love this.
I love when people do in-depth research and analysis on a niche topic. In this case though, it’s even better because it is something almost everyone is familiar with - LEGO!
I talk a lot about how forecasts are useful tools (even though they can be wrong) and we should expect them to be since the future is impossible to predict. This is another well-written viewpoint on the issues with forecasting.
I love good metrics. This article has a bunch and I plan to eventually cover a lot of these myself!
This is a short but very insightful piece on the nature of distributions. It has some good advice to consider when developing tracking metrics for data that cannot be easily summarized by just a simple average.
The Lines of Code That Changed Everything
The quality of this article is top notch and had me fascinated throughout. I had no idea that a coding error introduced in 1982 caused the Vancouver Stock Exchange to drop by half!
Tail Risk: The Persistent Effects of the Great Recession
Prior to 2007, few people would have ever imagined a recession could be as bad as the financial crisis was. Now, the expectation that the next recession could be just as bad or even worse is much higher. This three-part series explores the consequences of this change in perception.
Can We Have Prosperity Without Growth?
This was a fantastic and thought provoking piece. (Would you really expect anything different from the New Yorker?) I really like well reasoned arguments and examples that challenge fundamental beliefs, in this case the idea that higher growth is always better. There must be more than one path forward and I hope we can all continue to debate how to do things the right way.
When you read something that makes you feel like an idiot and that everything you are doing is wrong, that means it is probably pretty good.
I love football. So, seeing some cool analysis that makes one question just how random winning or losing can be is pretty cool.
Is there too much business debt?
This is a great post from Liberty Street Economics with lots of charts for a chart-maker to be envious of. High business debt is something really important to keep an eye on! (A future metric for sure.)
Own stocks, thank the Fed and don’t expect the next U.S. recession to start anytime soon
I love the chart in this article. It’s a really simple way to show the changes between periods of tight and easy monetary policy. Also, I love articles that make claims about whether there will be a recession or not and give timing. It will be interesting to revisit in a year or two to see where we are.
The five biggest stocks are dwarfing the rest of the stock market at an ‘unprecedented’ level
Is market concentration due to the competitive advantage of a few companies over others? Or is it an unhealthy sign of market mispricing?
If there is an article you’ve seen lately that you want to share, feel free to comment or drop me a note - always on the lookout for good content and future post inspiration!