Blog Notes – The Aleph Blog

Helping Institutions and Ordinary People Invest Better by Focusing on Risk Control

Posted on 20 December 2012 by David Merkel

Once again, I have an article the Baltimore Business Review.? You can download it here.? My article is on page 40 of the PDF.

The Baltimore Business Review is unique, a collaboration between Towson University, and the Baltimore CFA Society.? The CFA Institute highlighted it in the past year, though I can’t find the link.

My article deals with what drives residential housing prices, and sadly, it comes to rather ordinary conclusions.? I hate it when I get a normal? conclusion.

Have a read, and tell me what you think.

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Second note: I will be the conference blogger for the NYSSA International Financial Reporting Conference taking place on January 10th.? There is a discount code for Aleph Blog readers: Aleph10, where you save 10%.? Note to CFAs: there is another code where you can save 20%, but I don’t remember what it is.

Accounting is important, and if you are a fundamental investor, it pays to understand it well.? I write this as one who had to learn a lot after becoming an actuary.? I might not know the nuances of all accounting, but I had to learn a lot as I did life insurance accounting, which is more complex than the accounting of most industries.

This is a conference worth attending, though many will ignorantly sneer at accounting conferences.

Sincerely,

David

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David Merkel is an investment professional, and like every investment professional, he makes mistakes. David encourages you to do your own independent "due diligence" on any idea that he talks about, because he could be wrong. Nothing written here, at RealMoney, Wall Street All-Stars, or anywhere else David may write is an invitation to buy or sell any particular security; at most, David is handing out educated guesses as to what the markets may do. David is fond of saying, "The markets always find a new way to make a fool out of you," and so he encourages caution in investing. Risk control wins the game in the long run, not bold moves. Even the best strategies of the past fail, sometimes spectacularly, when you least expect it. David is not immune to that, so please understand that any past success of his will be probably be followed by failures. Also, though David runs Aleph Investments, LLC, this blog is not a part of that business. This blog exists to educate investors, and give something back. It is not intended as advertisement for Aleph Investments; David is not soliciting business through it. When David, or a client of David's has an interest in a security mentioned, full disclosure will be given, as has been past practice for all that David does on the web. Disclosure is the breakfast of champions. Additionally, David may occasionally write about accounting, actuarial, insurance, and tax topics, but nothing written here, at RealMoney, or anywhere else is meant to be formal "advice" in those areas. Consult a reputable professional in those areas to get personal, tailored advice that meets the specialized needs that David can have no knowledge of.