At various points over the last 20 years, various friends have encouraged me to write a newsletter. ? I have resisted these requests, because in general, I don’t have respect for newsletter writers.

If you’ve got great ideas, invest in them, and start a firm to do so for others. ?Don’t hide behind the virtual sham of “this is only entertainment.” ?I’ve been blogging for seven years, and I am not trying to entertain but to educate. ?I don’t give financial advice because I don’t know who I am speaking to; everything is general, so what I write may be applicable to some readers, but certainly not all readers.

Second, since I have created my own firm, I owe a duty to my clients that they get my best insights, implicitly or explicitly. ?Implicitly: I no longer mention what my holdings are, unless I write about them. ?At present, the sharpest reader who is not a client knows 20% of my equity portfolio at best. ?Explicitly, I write to my clients once a quarter, and tell them what I am thinking, and why I have taken the actions that I have in their portfolios.

It is simpler for me from an ethics and compliance standpoint to keep public and private information separate. ?It gives my clients the focus they deserve, and allows me to write on a wide amount of topics of interest to many people, without doing damage to either side. ?As always, if I have a position in something I write about, I will disclose it.