12-10-07

A new Themes & Trends article has been posted: Safe Harbors & New Frontiers.

The piece was originally created last week for the Taipan Publishing Group. (Taipan is a division of Agora Publishing, my old home.)

I have taken on a new role as editorial director for the Taipan Group, and will soon be writing regular market commentary for their daily e-letter.

It will be an interesting experience, writing almost every day… not to mention coordinating a fat pipeline of investing and trading ideas behind the scenes. I’m looking forward to it.

The challenge should be good for Consilient Investor too, as flow tends to beget more flow. Once the chaos of the past few months settles into a sustainable routine, I’ll have more time for getting thoughts down on paper.

It’s good to be prolific and it’s good to take extended breaks sometimes. I look forward to being prolific again in 2008.

Thanks again for reading.

JL

11-07-07

New market commentary has been posted—Macro Musings: Tres Mujeres.

Like Blanche Dubois, the United States is all too dependent on the fiscal kindness of strangers—much as Argentina was prior to the economic collapse of 2002.

10-20-07

Apologies for the unintended span of silence. The past few weeks have been such a whirlwind, it's been hard to keep up.

I'm still planning to get the e-letter reestablished in the near future. One of the things I've discovered (thanks to the financial publishing biz) is the value of structure and routine in terms of the writing process.

Writing is a joyous experience, but it can also be a grueling and arduous experience—like running a marathon or hiking a mountain. You almost always feel exhilarated and glad after, but there can be a mental resistance before… especially when normal routine has been disrupted and there are a hundred things to do.

The structure of an e-letter, and a regular self-imposed deadline to push against, should help get things back on track.

Another piece should be up in the next few days. In the meantime, they say a picture is worth a thousand words… so here's one from my recent trip to Buenos Aires.

This is a street in the Recoleta Retiro barrio. Nothing too fancy, just a run-of-the-mill digital camera plus a touch of photoshop.

10-02-07

No new articles or commentary this week, as I will be traveling overseas.

We'll be back in action next week, however, with more good stuff.

Have a great week,

JL

p.s. Thanks much to all who have emailed. I appreciate the kind words and the general understanding as to what recently happened.

p.p.s. The Consilient Investor e-letter is currently in hibernation, but should be rolling again in the next six weeks or so. Anyone who wants to be readded to the e-letter when it returns, let me know and I will keep your address on file.

2007-09-27

New market commentary has been posted… Macro Musings: Northern Exposure.

Some believe the dollar can't collapse… that it just wouldn't be rational. The central bankers of the world are too level-headed to dump their holdings en masse. Question, then—since when are bank runs rational? Would a currency run be so different?

2007-09-24

...Almost all the way back anyway. Thank goodness for HTML skills. (And caffeine. Lots of caffeine.)

As many of you may have guessed, Consilient Investor is no longer affiliated with Angel Publishing.

The split wasn't exactly amicable. Rather than air any dirty laundry, though, I'll give the scoop to whoever wants it via email. (See my email address in the gray box at right contact page.)

The Consilient Circle and the CI mailing list were both administered by Angel. As such, both are now deceased. I imagine Angel will be offering refunds and / or offering to roll CC subscribers into, ah, other products. (I know, I know...)

I apologize to all for the abrupt way this happened.

JL

2007-09-14

A new book review has been posted -- A Demon of Our Own Design.

Bookstaber's goal is to hammer home a key philosophical point regarding risk. He wants readers to understand that financial markets are inherently unstable, and this reality places limits on how far we (or anyone) should go in pursuit of outsized returns.

Have a great weekend!

JL 

New Market Commentary

2007-09-12

New market commentary has been posted: Macro Musings: Milestones.

In due time, the inexorable logic of the Austrian Endgame means at least one thing. Gold's one-time $700 ceiling will ultimately be transformed into a floor... and, eventually, a memory.

**politically correct sentiment deleted**

Hope you're enjoying the week,

JL

Recommended Reading for Traders

2007-09-07

Three pieces of recommended reading for traders—all of them free and available on the web.

Here they are.

Reminiscences of a Stock Operator
by Edwin Lefevre

On the web: http://www.scribd.com/doc/7923/Reminiscences-of-a-Stock-Operator

The first one is Reminiscences of a Stock Operator by Edwin Lefevre. It's the classic trading tale of Jesse Livermore, one of the greatest speculators of all time. (The first-person narrator of the book, Larry Livingston, is a Jesse Livermore pseudonym. Lefevre is the writer who absorbed Livermore's words.)

Reminiscences is written in layman's terms -- the layman's terms of eighty years ago no less -- and will probably still be quoted eighty years hence. I have read it myself at least six or seven times over the past decade, and seem to get something new every time I crack it open.

I recommend you buy a physical copy (Amazon link). It's great to be able to mark the pages, note your favorite passages, and then go back for inspiration from time to time. It's also an excellent beach read for a long weekend.

For those of you who don't have the time or inclination to order a physical copy, you can get a free copy at the link noted above. (Note the bottom options, download as PDF / MS Word / Plain text etc. The PDF is particularly good for searching.)

The Majesty of Calmness
by William George Jordan

On the web: http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext04/mjcmn10h.htm

This is another old text -- free on the web -- that has a lot of value in terms of trading and investing psychology.

You never want to panic and you never want to lose your head. 'Majesty' offers a noble, thoughtful approach to markets and to life that should serve all traders and investors well.

Phantom of the Pits
By ?

On the web: http://www.webtrading.com/phantom/preface.htm

This is an interview-based lecture series with an immensely successful (and now retired) commodities trader who chooses to remain nameless, and goes by the acronym POP... phantom of the pits.

One of the main things you will get from POP is the notion of pyramiding -- ideas on how to use position sizing in your trades, and how important position sizing is. Much more too... definitely worth a read.

Have a Great Weekend,

JL

 

New Themes & Trends Article

2007-08-31

A new Themes & Trends article has been posted: Fortune Building 101. Here is the synopsis:

In studying the great investment fortunes, and the great investors behind them, it is natural to wonder just how the dough was made. What follows is a recap of some of the basic strategies used in the past to amass serious wealth.