Post 2000

This has been a lot of fun.? This has been a lot of work.? This has been a “labor of love.”

When I wrote for RealMoney, I would sometimes say to my editor Gretchen, “Here’s another labor of love piece,” to which she would give a hearty response, because she liked editing me.? She told me she always learned a lot from me.? I liked working with her a lot.

Unlike some writers at RealMoney, I would sometimes troll through the comments on Cramer’s blog.? Sometimes I would defend him, at minimum I would try to explain him.

At the time, there were some financial blogs that I liked a lot — Jeff Miller, Barry Ritholtz, Roger Nusbaum, Steven Randy Waldman, Eddy Elfenbein, Alea… I know there are more, but I can’t remember now.? I resisted starting a blog for 1-2 years, because I felt RealMoney was my blog.? I especially liked participating in the Columnist’s Conversation.? (Note: if RealMoney would like to invite me back, I am open to the idea.? That said, the CFA Institute has encouraged me to blog for them as well — just don’t know how much content I can produce, because everyone wants original content.)

But I realized that RealMoney and I had different goals, and in talking with some of those that commented at Cramer’s blog, I decided to launch Aleph Blog.? Why call it Aleph Blog?? Many reasons, as noted in the link, but part of the fun was getting to read Borges, who I had not previously read.

When I launched Aleph Blog, I had no idea what I was getting into, and I did not intend on leaving RealMoney.? I liked the editorial freedom, though, and liked the broader interaction with many voices across the internet, rather than only RealMoney columnists, good as they were.? I did research when I started, and so I created my own domain, signed up with Seeking Alpha, and launched just prior to the mini-crisis where the Chinese stock market crashed in Shanghai.? When that happened, I wrote a popular piece that Seeking Alpha picked up that my friend Cody Willard promoted as well.

And off we went!? A grand experiment, allowing me to spread my wings more wide than at RealMoney.? My goal was to do a brain dump of areas where I thought I had competence.? I didn’t want to be like many bloggers where over 50% of their post is quoting others — I wanted to write from my heart, expressing my views on a wide number of topics relating to economics, finance and investment, from my unusual framework, which is Evangelical Christian, mostly libertarian (but not for financials), actuarial, value investor, doubting neoclassical economics and modern portfolio theory.

I was recently at a Baltimore CFA Society meeting, when a few people came up to me telling me how much they liked my blog.? Some quoted to me recent pieces I had written.? This was new; I was surprised.? I have never had local people come to me and say that.? Yes, stats for Maryland on my blog are above average, but my work helping the local CFA Society always seemed to be detached from other things that I do.? My worlds are merging, maybe.

My worlds are also merging from the many evangelical Christians who write to me.? This is a blog written by a Christian, not a Christian blog.? I’m here to serve everyone, but my views on ethics will color all that I write.

At the beginning, I tried focused linkfests, where I drew together posts on a hot topic, and narrated them to give my thoughts.? Those were a lot of work.? Today, my linkfests occur through Twitter.

Twitter: it took me even more pain to decide to do Twitter.? Given that my blogging is more long-form than most — why should I do Twitter?!? My answer for today is simple: to have good conversations, and push good content to readers.? And, for those who don’t do Twitter, they can read my weekly sorted tweets.? I got the idea from History Squared, a newer blog that I like.? Sorting the tweets makes them more useful to readers, so if it takes half an hour to do so each week, it is worth it.

But now I have more followers on Twitter than on RSS.? 6000 vs 5300.? I prefer RSS because people see the whole post, but I understand how the lower bandwidth on Twitter allows people to choose what attracts them.? Twitter makes us all epigram writers in AOL-ese.? It is challenging to do, but I like a good challenge.

I’ve written a number of series that have been significant:

I’m sure there are more, but I can’t think of them now.? At the same Baltimore CFA Society meeting as mentioned before, one person asked me, “How do you write about the wide variety of topics that you do?”

Part of it is my varied career, and educational background.? I have worked in a large number of areas, and have not been afraid to branch out and try things slightly outside my grasp.? You only learn when you fail.? I’ve learned a lot. I’ve failed a lot.

If you don’t take reasonable chances, you won’t grow.? Look for opportunities to expand your abilities — who can tell where you will go?!? Opportunities go to those who are there, grab hold of them, and win.? If you don’t try, you won’t win.

I know that my blog is an acquired taste, and best for professionals and advanced amateurs.? If you are a beginner, best you should focus on my personal finance category.

My goal has been to give something back to my readers.? I’ve had an interesting career, with many unusual and entertaining experiences.? I don’t have to have more fame or clients.? I enjoy relating the truths of the markets to others, whether they are beautiful or ugly.

To my readers: I don’t know if I will last another thousand posts, but I appreciate that you read me, eclectic as I am.? The one thing I promise: I will do my best for you, poor as that may be.

Your Servant,

David

PS — I know that my views on Fed policy and economics will win me few friends, but someone has to point out that the paradigm is broken.? Same for Modern Portfolio Theory….

 

9 thoughts on “Post 2000

  1. David – congrats on 2000 posts, and hope there will be many, many more.

    Sorry, but I also hope Twitter postings go the way of pet rocks and hula hoops. There are many things in life that simply cannot be discussed or explained in 140 characters.

    We have all seen the quality of what used to be “news” broadcasts go to #&($ as they shifted from explaining / analysing a topic — to quick sound bites. Their new format stinks, is uninformative, and they *don’t* have the ratings to prove it.

    Twitter is for Paris Hilton “like wow, that’s hot”. No need to CFA charterholders, in-depth reporting, or any other form of analysis if the world goes to 140 characters.

    Congrats again on 2000 posts

  2. “I didn?t want to be like many bloggers where over 50% of their post is quoting others ? I wanted to write from my heart, expressing my views on a wide number of topics relating to economics, finance and investment”

    This is what makes your blog is one of the good ones. It contains intrinsic value. Commenting is cheap and easy, but original thinking and creating content takes a lot of hard work.

    Beyond that, this reminds me of something I read on another blog a couple days ago. It was quoting a story about a young John Studebaker and his trip to get a part of the California Gold Rush. Before he even got to California he lost all but 50 cents of his money in a rigged gambling game:

    ‘One of [Studebaker’s] sayings was, “Never try to beat a fellow at his own game.”

    After that, he stuck with skills he had learned as a member of a family of wagon builders. He seems never to have made a bad business decision.’

    The blogger relaying the story from the book added, “the corollary to never trying to beat a fellow at his own game is that you should have your own game.”

    David, you clearly have your own game. People recognize it and appreciate it. Congratulations.

  3. David,

    Congratulations on 2000, and I certainly hope you stick to it for at least another thousand. You’ve become my morning coffee companion, and whether I agree or disagree with you, you blog always gives me something to think about.

    Keep up the great work!

    Tim

  4. I’ve been reading you since the RM days. Prolly will continue to do so as long as you write…..
    Keep on keepin’ on….

  5. Have you thought about splitting the blog (at the feed level at least) between core and non-core stuff? You post a lot, which always tends to decrease the “yield” of a blog: your posts in your core areas (bond/insurance stuff and value investing) are much more valuable and magisterial than those on more peripheral topics (where even among people who agree with you, there are stronger voices), and it’s a bit unfortunate that the best material is not available unbundled — it creates a barrier to entry, people interested in the core stuff may drop out just because of the expense (in time or staff costs) of curating a high volume feed into its essence.

    1. There are ways on the internet to convert any page to a feed, so, if someone only wanted to read my personal finance articles, they could do so… that’s the one part of the blog that my non-financial friends read.

      But to me, everything I write is part of a broader overall scheme — reader are free to ignore anything I write. I know I lose followers because people follow me for some things I write, but I write about so many different things, they don’t get enough of what they want. It evens out over time, I think — but I wouldn’t be able to identify my core, and different readers have different ideas of what core would be.

      So, I would select the categories of my blog that you like, and look for a way to turn them into RSS or Twitter feeds.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Theme: Overlay by Kaira