Many investors know that expense ratios on mutual funds are important. IndexUniverse reports on academic research (by Edelen, Evans, and Kadlec) that shows how trading costs can be an even bigger drag on performance -- another good argument in favor of indexing.That's enough for now - Bloglines in empty, and work awaits.
A little while ago I posted some information on Investment Banking Compensation. Here's some related stuff (from Institutional Investor) on what hedge Fund analysts make.
While not as glamorous as the hedge-fund world, according to the Washington Post, accounting graduates are also raking in pretty good salaries. I know we don't have much trouble placing our undergraduate accounting majors here at unknown University.
The Mises Economics Blog relays some of Ambrose Bierce's (author of the Devil's Dictionary) best political definitions.
Do women talk more than men? According to this study published in the journal Science and mentioned by the New York Times, probably not. However, the study has some flaws.
Vegreville came up with rules to follow if you want to be a loser.
Saturday Link Dump
Along with riding more frequently (did a fairly hard 20 miler today), I'm trying to empty my bloglines account at least every couple of days. So, it's time for a link dump:
Some July 4th Links
We're off to a family cookout, so no heavy posting today. But here are a few links for your Independence Day reading:
The Declaration of Independence most people have never read it through. So take a few minutes and do so before going about your day.Now go grill some meat, light some fireworks, and have a happy 4th of July.
Our Sacred Honor - a piece that recounts what happened to the signers of the Declaration
The Pledge of Allegiance - 'nuff said.
The Star Spangled Banner - the words to our national anthem and a video of Whitney Houston singing it.
The Pursuit of Happyness
At the Unknown Household we've been enjoying our subscription to Blockbuster's DVD-by-mail service. Last night we saw The Pursuit of Happyness (appropriately enough, what with today being the 4th of July). I'd rate it the best movie I've seen in the past year, and one of the top ten on my all time favorites. The themes of the movie really hit home - it's a classic Horation Alger story. I always like movies about "stand-up" guys, and Wil Smith did a phenomenal job in portraying a man who rolled the dice with everything he had to work towards a better life. And the character he played (the real-life Chris Gardner), was determined to be there for his son even through it all.
I'd definitely recommend it - it's a good pick for the whole family, and the lessons it shows are worth repeating to any children in the vicinity.
I'd definitely recommend it - it's a good pick for the whole family, and the lessons it shows are worth repeating to any children in the vicinity.
Teh Internets is a Wonderful Thing
I needed a break from editing the paper I'm working on, so I switched over to working on a large SAS program I need for another project. While I'm waiting for it to finish running, here's a recent comic from PhdComics.com:
Nuff said.
Nuff said.
Some Fun Wall Street Jargon
I get a kick out of jargon and slang. that's one of the things that makes finance fun - the colorful language. One of the things I particularly enjoyed when teaching about Mergers and Acquisitions were the names for anti-takeover strategies. Just to name a few, there's the poison pill, the scorched earth, white knights (and also white squires and grey knights), and my favorite, the "Pac-Man Defense".
Here's a short list and explanation for some of the jargon used in the investment and trading side of the Street, like "dead cat bounce", "air-pocket stock", and the "cockroach theory" of bad news.
Here's a short list and explanation for some of the jargon used in the investment and trading side of the Street, like "dead cat bounce", "air-pocket stock", and the "cockroach theory" of bad news.
Monday Link Dump
It's time to clean out my bloglines account, so here we go with today's Link Dump:
Abnormal Returns has a nice collection of links on options as an asset class, and in a related piece, CXO Advisory Group looks at the returns to writing index put options.That's all for today, folks. Time to do something productive before my coauthors start hounding me.
Bloomberg reports on the increasing use of options as a venue for illegal insider trades.
The Contrarian Perspective dissects one of the oldest scams around-- the "Pump and Dump".
The New York Times reports on people with an interesting habit-- abusing the Nigerian 411 Scamsters.
And in our painful Japanese video of the day, Craig Newmark links to a game show I think I'll pass on. Ouch.
What I Did During (The First Part Of) My Summer Vacation
I just realized that I haven't posted anything new on the blog for about 10 days, so I thought I'd let you know that I'm still alive and haven't stopped blogging altogether. But, I did feel a bit burned out on blogging, so I took a bit of a break. Here are a few updates on the summer so far:
I've been working on a few projects. One is editing a paper I'm doing with several other people. It's a new experience for me since a good part of the paper is theory-based, and I'm an empiricist at heart. So, I've been forced to brush up on a lot of the math I haven't used since grad school. In addition, I'm the only American among the coauthors, and they're all theorists. So, I'm in charge of "englishizing" the paper (their term). Hopefully it'll be handed back to my coauthors for their part soon.
I've been working on a second project in what's also a new area for me - it ties in options implied volatility to firms' information environments. While I'm familiar with the information asymmetry literature, the options stuff is new to me. And in addition, the data set is several times larger than any I've worked with, so I had to learn a few new SAS programming tricks. But being the nerd that I am, it's actually fun.
Logging my research (actually, my "writing") time has been a humbling experience. I 've been averaging one "zero time spent" day out of every three or four, and find that I don't spend nearly as much time writing as I thought even on the days I do write. But then, that's the point of the exercise. As my accounting friends say, "you can't manage what you don't measure".
I also got one small paper submitted, so I now have 4 under review.
On the personal side, I've been cycling pretty regularly (about 5x a week on average), and have done a few hard 15-20 milers. I'm still not in top shape, but I've been able to hold just shy of a 16 mph pace for a pretty hilly 20 miler. My goal for the summer is to get up to an 18 mph pace for the 20 miler and to ride to my mother's house, which is a very hilly 80 miles away.
Other than that, I've spent my time playing with the kids, trying to grow grass on the front part of my yard, and trying to unpack some of the boxes that have been in my basement since we moved almost a year ago.
I'll get back to posting some "real" stuff in the next couple of days.
I've been working on a few projects. One is editing a paper I'm doing with several other people. It's a new experience for me since a good part of the paper is theory-based, and I'm an empiricist at heart. So, I've been forced to brush up on a lot of the math I haven't used since grad school. In addition, I'm the only American among the coauthors, and they're all theorists. So, I'm in charge of "englishizing" the paper (their term). Hopefully it'll be handed back to my coauthors for their part soon.
I've been working on a second project in what's also a new area for me - it ties in options implied volatility to firms' information environments. While I'm familiar with the information asymmetry literature, the options stuff is new to me. And in addition, the data set is several times larger than any I've worked with, so I had to learn a few new SAS programming tricks. But being the nerd that I am, it's actually fun.
Logging my research (actually, my "writing") time has been a humbling experience. I 've been averaging one "zero time spent" day out of every three or four, and find that I don't spend nearly as much time writing as I thought even on the days I do write. But then, that's the point of the exercise. As my accounting friends say, "you can't manage what you don't measure".
I also got one small paper submitted, so I now have 4 under review.
On the personal side, I've been cycling pretty regularly (about 5x a week on average), and have done a few hard 15-20 milers. I'm still not in top shape, but I've been able to hold just shy of a 16 mph pace for a pretty hilly 20 miler. My goal for the summer is to get up to an 18 mph pace for the 20 miler and to ride to my mother's house, which is a very hilly 80 miles away.
Other than that, I've spent my time playing with the kids, trying to grow grass on the front part of my yard, and trying to unpack some of the boxes that have been in my basement since we moved almost a year ago.
I'll get back to posting some "real" stuff in the next couple of days.
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