Factor Investor

Timely investment themes informed by deep historical research

  • Blog
  • Search
  • Subscribe
  • About
  • Archive
Featured
Current State of Affairs for Value, Profits, and Debt
Oct 14, 2020
Current State of Affairs for Value, Profits, and Debt
Oct 14, 2020

Values woes, profitability, debt trends, and a possible catalyst in value’s favor.

Read More →
Oct 14, 2020
Why Do Markets Go Up?
Feb 19, 2019
Why Do Markets Go Up?
Feb 19, 2019

Stock markets are the greatest compounders of wealth the world has ever seen. Sadly, most introductory investment courses and literature do not begin with an explanation as to why markets go up. It’s such a fundamental question, but it is often overlooked.

Read More →
Feb 19, 2019
Where is the Value?
Jan 29, 2019
Where is the Value?
Jan 29, 2019

Investors always want to know what’s cheap—cheap relative to the opportunity set and relative to history.So it’s always interesting to take a look at the global landscape to see which markets are trading at attractive prices.

Read More →
Jan 29, 2019
Conviction, evidence, and accepting ignorance
Jul 24, 2018
Conviction, evidence, and accepting ignorance
Jul 24, 2018

Coaches teach us the fundamentals of some activity. If there was an “ideal” investment coach, what fundamentals would she focus on? This is my current take.

Read More →
Jul 24, 2018
False Promises: Going Passive is Not Momentum Investing
Jun 14, 2018
False Promises: Going Passive is Not Momentum Investing
Jun 14, 2018

There is some popular marketing spin going around that indexing—constructing portfolios based on market-cap weights—is effective because it allows an investor to own more of companies that have been successful and appreciated, while moving away from losers that have been unsuccessful and declined This sounds logical, but it is empirically wrong.

Read More →
Jun 14, 2018
Dimensions of Return
May 22, 2018
Dimensions of Return
May 22, 2018

What are the levers that managers can pull to drive return for any investment strategy? This piece boils it down to consistency, magnitude, and conviction, and finds that even the best managers have done a poor job at portfolio construction. Most would be better off equal-weighting their own portfolios.

Read More →
May 22, 2018
When Breaking up is Easy To Do
Apr 4, 2018
When Breaking up is Easy To Do
Apr 4, 2018

The first of many hopefully...my good friend Steven Wood and I have been tossing around the idea of collaborating on some work in hopes it ups both of our research games. I often get asked whether or not factors go out of favor. This is a pretty good case study that yes, sometimes what worked in the past doesn't continue in the future.

Read More →
Apr 4, 2018
Panic! At the Disco
Mar 24, 2018
Panic! At the Disco
Mar 24, 2018

Making money has been too easy since 2009. It’s about to get harder.

Read More →
Mar 24, 2018
What’s Cheap? A Factor Perspective
Mar 22, 2018
What’s Cheap? A Factor Perspective
Mar 22, 2018

There are a hundred ways to evaluate whether an investment is cheap--discounted cash flows, competitor multiples, mean reversion, multiple of projected earnings--the list goes on...and on. What's cheap now form a factor perspective?

Read More →
Mar 22, 2018
Starting from Scratch
Mar 3, 2018
Starting from Scratch
Mar 3, 2018

One of the things I’ve learned over the years is that there is a persistent dualism in conducting research balance—a between reliable preexisting findings and questioning preconceived notions.

Read More →
Mar 3, 2018


  • stocks
  • interest rates
  • micro cap
  • s&p 500
  • valuation
  • global stocks
  • small cap stocks
  • monetary policy
  • debt
  • oil
  • portfolio construction
  • macro
  • china
  • economy
  • volatility

Archives

  • October 2020
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • July 2017
  • February 2017
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015

DISCLAIMER