Holiday reading list

https://www.vanguardinvestments.com.au/retail/ret/articles/insights/smart-investing/Your-Christmas-reading-list-with-a-difference.jsp?sf17133132=1

Update on Natural Gas in Central and Eastern Europe

Gazprom Rapidly Losing Grip on European Markets
Source: Yahoo Finance

New international fixed income ETFs from Vanguard Australia

Vanguard Australia is broadening the offer of ETFs. Two new ones are international fixed income and two are international shares.

Vanguard International Fixed Interest Index (Hedged) Index ETF, (VIF)
Vanguard International Credit Securities Index (Hedged) ETF, (VCF)
Vanguard FTSE Europe Shares ETF, (VEQ)
Vanguard FTSE Asia ex Japan Shares Index ETF, (VAE)

Press release

The emperor of all strategies

Also includes some interesting insight into cancer research.

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/12/02/the-emperor-of-all-strategies.aspx

Discouraging Bosnian youth statistics

The text below contains some terrifying statistics about young people in Bosnia today.

• 4 out of 5 young people wishes to leave the country
• over 67% of young people is unemployed
• 43% of young people believes it is only going to get worse

Source: Article at Avaz

Everything Is Amazing and Nobody Is Happy

"Today," Matt Ridley writes in his book The Rational Optimist, "of Americans officially designated as 'poor,' 99 per cent have electricity, running water, flush toilets, and a refrigerator; 95 per cent have a television, 88 per cent a telephone, 71 per cent a car and 70 percent air conditioning. Cornelius Vanderbilt had none of these."

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/11/29/everything-is-great-and-nobody-is-happy.aspx

The upside of being miserable

Good article on how a little bit of stress helps to keep our focus.

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/11/13/the-upside-of-being-miserable.aspx

P2P Lending as Disruptor

Uberization of finance is coming. One of the disruptors in the finance industry are P2P lending sites.
Here are links to web sites dedicated to this topic

• P2P Banking
• P2P Kredite 

RIP 60/40

A good article on changed market conditions.
There is also a model portfolio for less than 0.10% in fees.

Excellent advice

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/10/13/financial-advice-for-my-new-son.aspx#.Vjkreq5lIC4.twitter

Future returns correlations

As usual, educational article from Vanguard.
The most interesting piece is the chart 2, Association of future real equity market returns with various initial conditions: 1926-2011.

http://vgi.vg/1PBdE72

UniCredit Austria being sold to Bawag?

"UniCredit SpA advanced 2.8 percent after Der Standard reported the lender may sell its Austrian consumer and small-company business to Bawag PSK Bank AG. "

Bloomberg - European Stocks Fall After ECB Report Dims Prospects of More QE http://bloom.bg/1NljkQ8

Volatility regime change

The new volatility regime in the markets is getting into shape. Mohammed El-Erian offers Six rules for navigating volatile markets

Factbox - A closer look at the British monarchy's wealth

"Factbox - A closer look at the British monarchy's wealth" - http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKKCN0R71YY20150907

Articles on Quicken sale

Several more views on the Quicken's sale by Intuit. It adds to the cloudy picture for the future of desktop personal finance software.
Quicken still makes ~$50 million a year, which is a decent sum. Considering the relatively small amount of changes is added to the program per year, it should be possible to find someone who would continue doing the same.
Nonetheless, I'd actually prefer if they simply open-sourced it. That would give rise to slimmer version at some point in the future.

Computerworld, link
Investor Junkie, link

Intuit looking to sell Quicken

http://techcrunch.com/2015/08/25/more-layoffs-for-intuit-as-company-continues-realignment/

Asset allocation - a key component of a successful investment strategy

Good introduction and overview of asset allocation. From Vanguard, in PDF format:

(link)

The story of the trade of the century

http://priceonomics.com/the-trade-of-the-century-when-george-soros-broke/

Shane Oliver's analysis

http://www.ampcapital.com.au/article-detail?alias=/olivers-insights/august-2015/the-correction-in-share-markets

The interesting bit is the chart of seasonally adjusted market prices.

Smartphone landscape of China

Golden days are probably over for Apple. Xiaomi and Huawei lead the way in the largest smartphone market in the world.

http://www.mauldineconomics.com/connecting-the-dots/xiaomi-the-apple-iphone-killer

Arthur Zeikel’s Investing Rules

Some timeless rules about investing - read here.

Reflexivity in financial markets

The most successful investor in the world explains how Reflexivity manifests in the financial markets. The interesting fact is that it contradicts the prevailing theories of the time - Efficient Markets theory, Rational Expectations, and so on.

https://youtu.be/RHSEEJDKJho

Lessons from George Soros

https://www.caseyresearch.com/articles/23-investing-lessons-from-george-soros

European unemployment charts

Some say that people in the yellow countries are happier. Somehow I don't think so.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2015/07/daily-chart-europes-long-term-unemployed

Australia's tourism industry - a typical case of short-term thinking

Bloomberg - Old Hotels, Mediocre Customer Service Hamper Australia’s Tourism Revival http://bloom.bg/1gQOEer

Cloning DFA

DFA offers very popular small-cap value funds. Having Nobel laureates and other distinguished professors in their board of directors, they base their strategy on research and the small-cap funds are tilted a bit, not just based on the companies' market capitalization.
Vanguard, on the other hand, uses simple passive indexing strategy that tracks the market capitalization.
Here is an interesting article that clones the DFA fund by using a combination of low-cost passive funds.

Cloning DFA

a guinea pig in a global economic experiment?

Review of the global market charts, by Alan Hull
link

The demise of the PC makers

http://www.mauldineconomics.com/connecting-the-dots/you-need-to-get-your-head-examined-if-you-own-dell-or-intel-shares

20-year asset returns, report

http://www.asx.com.au/education/investor-update-newsletter/201507-best-performing-asset-classes.htm?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=tweet&utm_campaign=iu

How to burn your college fund

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/a-college-student-blows-inheritance-bert-show-205833329.html On The Bert Show, a Kim confesses how she blew through a $90,000 college fund left to her by her grandparents.

Australia's renewable energy fund ordered to shun wind power

Wonder what the Australian government has been smoking lately.

Bloomberg - Australia Orders $7 Billion Energy Fund to Shun Wind Power http://bloom.bg/1dThfh2

Wind power sources were recently characterised as cheaper than coal so leaving it out makes no sense economically.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/wind-power-actually-cheaper-coal-nuclear-and-gas-180953055/

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-02-06/australia-wind-energy-cheaper-than-coal-natural-gas-bnef-says

Australia "living beyond it's means"

http://goldstocksforex.com/2015/07/08/australia-rising-foreign-debt/

Hypo-Alpe deal finally reached

Bloomberg - Austria to Pay Bavaria 1.2 Billion Euros in Heta Deal http://bloom.bg/1Cm8urK

28 Degrees MasterCard

Once recommended as "the best travel card", this is certainly still one of the best credit card offers in Australia.
While it used to be free to withdraw cash abroad, now the cash advance fee is 3% of the cash advance or $4 (whichever is greater).
Below are some details:
Support phone number: 1300 552 079
Card activation URL: osc

Top countries with happy citizens

Bloomberg - These 10 Countries Boast the World's Highest Share of Thriving Citizens http://bloom.bg/1SNcqFK

New face of banking

Number26, one of the new online-only banks, is offering a fantastic deal for the credit card. Besides the fact that they do not charge for issuing the card, no membership fees, there are also no fees for international payments, cash withdrawals at ATMs, or currency conversion fees.
This is what banking should look like in the 21st century. After experiences with a whole bunch of different financial institutions and card providers, I am quite excited about this card and account.

Austria slows down

Bloomberg - Austria Turns Euro Laggard as Neighbors Outperform http://bloom.bg/1HvFIFz

Number26 - free bank accounts for smartphones

Article about Number26 service, a free bank acocunt on your mobile phone (link).
As the service is new, it takes about a week to get an account open.

100 richest Austrians

Interesting article at Trend about the top 100 richest people in Austria.

Do you understand money?

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/05/the-danger-of-financial-ignorance-do-you-understand-money/361851/

What you should learn from Warren Buffet

http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2015/05/01/what-you-should-and-shouldnt-learn-from-warren-buffett/

How to invest in Russia?

http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com.es/2015/04/readers-ask-how-does-one-invest-in.html

http://etfdb.com/type/region/emerging-europe/russia/

Interactive Brokers security search

A useful URL for looking through the securities available across different stock exchanges, offered by Interactive Brokers:

IB Contract Information Center

Sign of the time: Dollar's shifting supremacy?

http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/uk-stuck-middle-us-china-221710539.html Our 'special relationship' with the US gets forgotten when America looks at threats to the dollar's dominance

Author of "The Millionaire Next Door" died

As I just finished reading the book last week, it is sad to find out that the author has just died.

Author of “The Millionaire Next Door” dies — 7 key insights from his book - Yahoo Finance

 

Bear- vs Bull-Market House

Interesting insight into how bull- and bear-markets relate to style of houses and cars.

How Is a "Bear-Market House" Different from a "Bull-Market House"? | Elliott Wave International

 

Portfolio Tracking with Google Sheets

Here is a simple way to customize your portfolio and have up-to-date prices.

How to monitor your portfolio with Google Docs - Investing Sidekick

21 great investment quotes

http://www.ampcapital.com.au/article-detail?alias=/olivers-insights/february/another-21-great-investment-quotes&audience=1

Technical Analysis

Comic for February 24, 2015
link

Warren Buffet buys Louis!

Louis, the biker shop where I used to buy all my motorcycle gear, has been taken over by Berkshire Hathaway.

Berkshire Hathaway buys German motorbike retail chain - Yahoo Finance

 

Downside of striking it rich

Another story about the dangers of quick significant changes in financial conditions.

The downside of striking it rich - Yahoo Finance

 

The Cult of Central Banking - Absolutely Brilliant!

The article below I find absolutely brilliant. Well written and on the mark. Quite educational, too. Enjoy reading.

The Cult of Central Banking | Outside the Box Investment Newsletter | Mauldin Economics

 

Meltdown

A very good documentary on causes and effects of the last financial crisis.

The Truth behind the Global Economic Collapse (Full Documentary) - YouTube

The second episode video is missing and that episode can be found elsewhere (I watched it here).

 

Don't be a short-term investor

Good article on drawbacks of short-term "investing".

Don't be a short-term investor - Morningstar.com.au

 

ImportQIF

A program that converts various file formats into Quicken Interchange File (.qif).

QuicknPerlWiz - Use ImportQIF import QIF files into Quicken