In a typically insightful article by Om Malik about Skype, he wrote a line that resonated so much with me:
We are all more grumpy. And remember — we all got grumpy about phone companies, and we got Skype — a simple, easy to use and highly useful (if not pretty) product that was worth billions, and beloved by millions.
Warren Buffett apparently made a bet 10 years ago that a basic S&P index fund with low fees would outperform hedge funds on aggregate. He put his money where his mouth was, offering a $500,000 bet to any hedge fund manager. The manager would have to pick 5 hedge funds and they would compare how the 5 performed against the Vanguard S&P 500 index fund.
I publicly offered to wager $500,000 that no investment pro could select a set of at least five hedge funds – wildly-popular and high-fee investing vehicles – that would over an extended period match the performance of an unmanaged S&P-500 index fund charging only token fees. I suggested a ten-year bet and named a low-cost Vanguard S&P fund as my contender. I then sat back and waited expectantly for a parade of fund managers – who could include their own fund as one of the five – to come forth and defend their occupation. After all, these managers urged others to bet billions on their abilities. Why should they fear putting a little of their own money on the line?
What followed was the sound of silence. Though there are thousands of professional investment managers who have amassed staggering fortunes by touting their stock-selecting prowess, only one man – Ted Seides – stepped up to my challenge. Ted was a co-manager of Protégé Partners, an asset manager that had raised money from limited partners to form a fund-of-funds – in other words, a fund that invests in multiple hedge funds.
Like Warren Buffett needs more money, but he won the bet. None of the five hedge funds individually outperformed the S&P 500 and on average the hedge funds returned 7.1% compared to the S&P 85%. Not even close.
I highly recommend them. Here’s where we spent the 4th of July weekend…
Not sure why, but I find this fascinating. Real time map of bike share activity around the world.
Google’s AlphaGo software just beat the world #1 Go player. And it’s getting better:
“Last year, it was still quite humanlike when it played,” Mr. Ke said after the game. “But this year, it became like a god of Go.”
They retired Derek Jeter’s #2 tonight at Yankee Stadium and all the greats were there. Everything has already been said about Jeter. He had an amazing knack for the dramatic.
The Dive:
A classic because it was Yankees vs. Red Sox and it was the 12th inning tied at 1-1 and there was a runner at second who scores if he doesn’t make this catch:
Mr. November:
This would be a World Series the Yankees eventually lose, but in the first World Series pushed into November, literally the first pitch after midnight, he hits a walk-off home run.
Hit #3000:
Of course it was a home run.
Final at bat of his career:
A game winning hit.
And of course, the flip:
When two bedroom apartments are enthusiastically reviewed as “under a million” it’s clear Brooklyn real estate prices are crazy. The place looks very nice, if too modern for my tastes. It’s a good neighborhood in Brooklyn. But it’s 939 square feet. That’s $985 per square foot. Crazy.
This is hilarious if you read FiveThirtyEight.com. You need to hover your mouse over the picture to get the alt text and truly appreciate the joke. This is via SMBC.
Of course, if you don’t read FiveThirtyEight.com this is probably stupid to you…
Toot, toot…
This is totally tl;dr. But sometimes you have to read something that takes longer than a minute.
The title is “An Unbelievable Story of Rape” (by Pro Publica and The Marshall Project). Not an inviting topic, but there’s a reason several of the people I follow via RSS and Twitter recommended it today.
Just read it.
Steve Fischer's Random Blog 