recommended reading

[jk]

i'm interested in knowing what other people are reading to inform their investing. [you can keep the mysteries and beach books to yourselves.]

my own reading:

weekly- free
john hussman's weekly column at hussmanfunds.com - hussman is one of the clearest thinkers i've come across. i've been following his thinking for about 10 years, having subscribed to his newsletter before he started his mutual fund. i invested in his fund early and at one point i held about 1/10 of one percent of his funds assets. i wish that were still true since his fund is now about 2 billion dollars.

weekly free
john mauldin's column at 2000wave.com mauldin is another clear thinker and no idealogue. he is acutely aware of risk but not petrified by it.

daily subscription
bill fleckenstein's column at fleckensteincapital.com fleck is a bear and runs a shorts only hedge fund. he gives daily market commentary that i find useful in informing my evolving understanding of the financial markets.

daily subscription
richard russell's remarks at dowtheoryletters.com russell is the dean of advisors, having started his advisory service over 50 years ago. he is not a permabear or permabull. he called the market bottoms in 1948 and 1956, and the top around '66. he called the top in '99 [close enough]. in recent years he's been recommending precious metals but he not a long term gold bug. a sensible guy with a lot of perspective.

weekly susbsciption
barron's - i look at it online each week, and read only a bit of it, but sometimes there's something interesting.

quarterly free
jeremy grantham's column at gmo's website. grantham is another towering figure in the investment world. he's the g in gmo, which runs i don't know how many billions in many different markets. he believes in mean reversion and value. he's a perceptive writer.

monthly free
bill gross' column at pimco.com. gross is the bond king, head of pimco which runs 500 billion dollars. [a lot of money]. he's a clear thinker and a good writer and worth paying attention to. i often will read paul mcculley's monthly column at the same websit - he gives good insight in the money markets and interest rates.

twice a week subscription
contraryinvestor.com no idealogues, lots of info, lots of charts that i don't see elsewhere. good perspective. run by investment professionals who prefer anonymity.

daily free
fullermoney.com some interesting tidbits here

weekly subscription
ecri has the best economic forecasting track record in the business. i subscribe to their "lite" service which gives me a weekly look at their weekly growth index and weekly future inflation guage. this is to keep me grounded and as an antidote to my habit of seeing recession on every horizon. currently their signals are saying no recession in sight.

i also subscibe to marc faber's letter and fred hickey's tech stock letter, but although they are good reading i'm not sure they're worth it for me.


so what do YOU read?

[Jim Nickerson]

Jk;

Excellent topic.

I look at Decisionpoint.com

Safehaven.com

Prudentbear.com

Financialsense.com

Prudentbear.com

Fiendbear.com

Comstockfunds.com

Marketwatch.com Newsletters and Research on which Mark Hulbert and Peter Brimelow make some interesting comments. Brimelow continually comments on some of Richard Russell's comments, but I am sure it is not as good as the $200 or so subscription to Russell's letter.

Marc Faber's monthly comments @ gloomboomdoom.com

Pimco's Gross and sometimes McCulley

Barrons subscription mainly for statistical access for my spreadsheet, and whatever in there I find interesting. It generally hype�s the buyside, but occasionally has some worthwhile arthicles.

Jim

[jk]

i'd also recommend one book - gavekal's "our brave new world." i think it is entirely overoptimistic about u.s. markets and the u.s. dollar but it is a terrfically stimulating book, especially in its discussion of "platform companies." it is cheaper at the gavekal website than at amazon when last i looked.

jim- prudentbear carries the credit bubble bulletin which i used to read religiously, every word. now i tend to look only at the closing, commentary section. are you finding other columns there useful?

i'd also be interested in knowing what's going on at financialsense and safehaven. i've read some stuff at each of those sites some time back, and years ago used to read fiendbear everyday, but i needed some triage on my reading load and those sites got cut. which sites that you're reading seem most useful to you, and why?

[Jim Nickerson]

jk;

Until about 3-4 months ago, I read a lot less though it seems then as now I was always reading something. I do not know how I got off to financailsense and safehaven, fiendbear, and prudentbear, but I did, and because I am bearish they have been appealing.

which sites that you're reading seem most useful to you, and why?

That is a tough question for me, because all that I read I consider as opinions which may or may not be correct. Some of the contributions are from people who are hawking their services, and though I don't discount them totally on that basis, I do perceive there may be biases in how they are thinking. I guess the best answer to your question is that I believe there is benefit to knowing what other people think, besides the main stream media and the financial news. Perhaps the best thing I have done in the last 4 years is to have turned off CNBC--for years I watched it religiously, but now I never do.

Seldom do I read anything that makes me act one way or the other, a recent exception being The Mogambo Guru. This is guy is clever and makes me laugh if I can get through his foolishness. I did buy silver just a week ago immediately after reading his comments--though I hate momentum investing--it scares me.

Over 20 years I have developed spread sheets, one of them I named Elves after Reukeyser's elves, in which I have added and added new data over the years. I think I probably look more at my data, and rely upon whatever abilities I might have to determine what it is saying, and I certainly am not immune to making errors in judgement from how I look at things.

From financial sense broadcasts, I read a book, and I never read books, by Warren Brussee about the Second Great Depression. There was much in it that made me think about what life here could become if things really get bad with a significant recession or depression. Whether or not Brussee's prediction will come true, I have no idea, but the notions about protecting oneself, not just finacially, were worthwhile to me.

You question made me think, so it was a good question.

Jim

[jk]

i think the people i value the most are hussman, gross, mauldin. none of these guys are idealogues, none are on soapboxes, none are crying "doom." those guys are all free. the one subscription i value most is richard russell. he's retetitive and occasionally verbose, but he gives perspective and, on the whole, good advice.

jim- i'm curious about your spreadsheet. what are you looking at, what are your inputs and what is it telling you?

[Jim Nickerson]

jk:

Well I feel better today because the market is getting hit as least til 1PM cdt.

I value what Gross says, and Faber and what little I know about Russell's comments. Russell has been in cash and gold from little I know and I don't know that speaks of doom, but whatever he thinks it has kept him out of the market for how long I don't know.

I like Sy Harding's thought on Fridays at Decisionpoint.com.

jim- i'm curious about your spreadsheet. what are you looking at, what are your inputs and what is it telling you?

You may not appreciate what a gargantual question you asked. Perhaps most important to me using a lot of imputs and daily updating it tells me where I am compared to where I have been in total and about everything I have positions in. I am not secretive, but it is too much to describe to you in any meaningful manner. I can tell you it takes a lot of time and I have gotten to looking at so many things I sometimes find it hard to make myself think about what I am seeing.

this is not an open invitation, but if you really would like to know, email me and I will email you my telephone number and you can call me if you really wish to and I will try to convey to you what I follow. I am not sure it would be worth your time, but it is your time. I am retired and usually find time to do what I like, and I like the markets. Don't call while the markets are open.

Jim

Jim