As WordPress counts, every 100 articles, I take a step back, and think about blogging. I wasn’t sure what I was getting myself into when I started the blog. I was unsatisfied with my work and my other writing outlets when I decided to start Alephblog up. I wanted more creative control, and an ability to build a brand of my own. That’s why I started the site.
So far, so good. The support from other blogs has been significant (in order): Abnormal Returns, Alea, The Big Picture, FT Alphaville, Seeking Alpha, the Kirk Report, and Naked Capitalism. I also appreciate the overall blogging community on finance issues; it is fascinating to see the relatively high quality of opinions that get expressed on the web. It is more than competitive with the print media (and we get paid peanuts, if anything…).
In the near term, I will be updating my blogroll. I want it to reflect what is on my RSS reader. I updated my “leftbar” recently. I did it because I wanted to highlight the books that I have reviewed, and I wanted to push the Google ads further down the page. I don’t make that much from them; at some point I may discontinue them.
Along with that, I will be doing some blog maintenance to make the top of my blog clickable to return to the homepage, update a few of my old static pages, and turn off comments on posts older that a month.
It’s been interesting to meet new people through the blog. I appreciate those that e-mail me, and those that comment here, though my time to reply is limited.
Finally, I haven’t run out of things to write about, and given what I wrote here and at RealMoney, this economic environment was made for me. Volatility — what will break next? Reminds me of 2002, and owning too many BBB bonds. But future topics may include:
- Academic Finance Lies (okay, assumptions that aren’t true)
- Rescuing Capitaism from Capitalists (half-written)
- Fundamentals of Market Bottoms
- CP-T2 as a panic gauge
- Risk Management vs VAR vs ERM
- Can Central Banks Lose Money?
- The Main Ignored Problem in Taxation (by both political parties)
Finally, I thank my family, I thank God, and I thank my new employer, Finacorp Securities, for their support. Let’s keep this up; I enjoy the writing and the feedback.
David, I’d love to see you discuss errors of academic finance. I’ve often had the feeling that certain financial dogmas are in place more because the math is convenient than because they result in accurate predictions. It would be nice to hear your perspective on this.