FINN 5333 Investment Theory and Management

Investment Related Links

           General info

Investments Hall of Fame (my personal selection)

Investments Hall of Shame (my personal selection)

Yahoo Finance

The Wall Street Journal

The Economist

CNN Money

USA Today - Money Section

Bloomberg - best for economic news calendar

Reuters - great for stock analysis


           Introduction to Investments / Efficient Markets

Investment: Loser's Game (from Financial Times)

Good Investments vs. Good Track Records (from The Economist)

Investing: Nobody Knows Anything!!! (from The Economist)

Mutual Funds - Great Industry to Be In! (from The Economist)

Mutual funds are not any better now than they were in 2008 (from The Economist in 2015)

Folklore of Finance

Delayed gratification - that's what investing is all about!

Delayed gratification - an in-depth article from The New Yorker

Don't Eat the Marshmallow ... Yet

"Percents and Sensibility" - financial markets in Britain during 18th and 19th centuries. Fascinating!!!

On the importance of investments compared to land wealth - watch the clip between 1:07 - 1:18 (disregard the rest of the clip)

Peter Schiff on the U.S. economy - a great discussion on real vs. financial assets at 0:00 - 2:33

           Introduction to Investments / Efficient Markets (just for fun!)

A take on the financial crisis in Britain

Pound Foolish: Exposing the Dark Side of the Personal Finance Industry

Female investors often beat men

How easy is it to become a 401(k) millionaire? Here's the truth

From "The Devil's Financial Dictionary"


           Money Market

New York Fed - Federal Funds Data

A look back at the September of 2008 - on the importance of the money market, repos as a source of financing for banks, and the government response

A look back at money market funds "breaking the buck" in the finacial crisis

An Economist article about Lehman Brothers and their "risk-management" (my favorite part highlighted in yellow)

Cocksure - was Bear Stearns' collapse a crisis of confidence? (for the context of the crisis of 2008)


           Equities and Indexes

Peter Schiff on the P/E rations - watch from 6:19 to 7:47

Market (S&P 500) PE Ratio

Announcement by Delta Air Lines to suspend didvidends on its preferred stock

DJIA history and composition (from Wikipedia)

Big changes in the DJIA in September 2013

Apple does a seven-for-one stock split in June 2014 (I wonder why...)

Apple joins the DJIA in March 2015!!! (mission accomplised!)

Delta shares jump prior to (re)joining S&P 500

Tracking S&P500 - market weighted vs. equally weighted

Lehman Brothers fixed income indices

           Equities and Indexes (just for fun!)

"Pitch" - Why were P/E ratios so high back in 1999?

"Interviews" - Why were P/E ratios so high back in 1999?

On the eventual decline of any company (Blackberry as an example)


           Security Trading: Markets

                Primary Markets

How Treasury Auctions Work (from treasurydirect.gov)

Fortune article about Microsoft IPO (a model IPO!)

CNN Money article about Google IPO

When do IPO stocks actually start trading?

Tesla's $2bn SEO to build model 3

Blackstone - classic IPO cashing out example

Groupon IPO - ominous signs

Who is selling in Alibaba IPO?

Facebook internal details revealed prior to IPO

Facebook IPO shows galactic divide between investors

                Secondary Markets

The computers that run the stock market

An adaptation from "Flash Boys" by Michael Lewis

IEX exchange is launching!

NYSE Designated Market Maker (i.e. Specialist) List (at the bottom of the web page)

NYSE buys ArcaEx and goes public

See what happened to the Island Exchange (Wikipedia)

NYSE trading floor nowadays

Stock trading - recent trends

High frequency trading explaind (from Forbes)

High frequency market making

More about high speed trading/market manipulation

1/2 second of trading in JNJ (original video)

10 milliseconds of trading in MRK

High frequency trading - Stephen Colbert's take

Flash Crash of May 6, 2010 - a lesson in automated trading

Gee, computer trading is fast!

Pink Sheets, the Wild West of Wall Street - that's what "Boiler Room" is all about


           Security Trading: Accounts

When Genius Failed - LTCM summary

LTCM video segment starts at about 32:00 mark - fascinating video!!!

A WSJ article about the tough world of short-selling

Lumber Liquidators were exposed by a short-seller!!!

An example of "overshortselling"

SEC ban on short-selling in the fall of 2008

Ban the shorts? A BIG mistake!

It would be difficult to short Staples right after its 6.3B bid for Office Depot!


           Return and Risk

Sharpe ratio dangers - according to William F. Sharpe (1990 Nobel Prize winner)


           Risk Aversion

An Economist article about investor sentiment and various risk-apetite indices

"The Fear Gauge" - VIX index (from Wikipedia)


           Diversification

"How well diversified is your portfolio?" - Shannon Sharpe

Diversification1.xls - Optimal portfolio with a risk-free and 2 risky assets


           Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM)

Performance Evaluation - Alpha and Beta (from The Economist)

Warren Buffett's success - is it Alpha or Beta? (from The Economist)


           Market Efficiency

"Percents and Sensibility" - financial markets in Britain during 18th and 19th centuries. Fascinating!!!

The right way to pick stocks if you believe in market efficiency!

From "The Devil's Financial Dictionary"

           On Psychological Biases and Limits of Human Rationality

Why Facts Don't Change Our Minds (from The New Yorker)

How to get people to overcome their bias (from BBC)

How do we really make decisions? (from BBC)

Can psychology explain our dumb financial decisions? (from BBC)


           Bonds

"Percents and Sensibility" (yet again)... Because it is that good... and it is about the bonds!

The Yield Curve 1982 - 2014. Cool animation!

FinExcel.pdf - A brief summary of basic Excel financial functions

BondPricing.xls - Bond price and yield calculation example

Bond_Lecture_Examples.xls - Excel examples from bond lectures


           Mutual Funds

Mutual Funds - Great Industry to Be In! (from The Economist)

Mutual funds are not any better now than they were in 2008 (from The Economist in 2015)

Investment: Loser's Game (from Financial Times)

Good Investments vs. Good Track Records (from The Economist)

Investing: Nobody Knows Anything!!! (from The Economist)

Index Shares Explained (CNN Money)

           Hedge Funds

Talent Required - a great piece from WSJ about how hedge funds work

Starting a hedge fund in the sophomore year

Hedge funds - getting an information edge!

The man who beat the SEC - hedge funds and regulation

Credit Suisse Hedge Fund Index