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Monthly Archives: December 2011

5 Things I Learned at Cabot

December 31, 2011
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Happy New Year! As 2011 comes to a close, I wish you the best in all of your investments in the coming year and beyond. I’ve learned a lot of things in the four years that I’ve worked at Cabot and that started the minute I walked in the door for my very first interview. Tim Lutts, Cabot’s president, showed me around the incredible building the office inhabits (it was once a library), ending at a very long-term chart of the stock market. He pointed out that despite setbacks, over time, the stock market has always gone up. In...

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He Was a Bold Man Who First Ate an Oyster

December 30, 2011
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He Was a Bold Man Who First Ate an Oyster

Here’s this week’s Contrary Opinion Button. Remember, you can always view all of the buttons by clicking here. He Was a Bold Man Who First Ate an Oyster The words are from Jonathan Swift, who actually wrote, “He was a bold man that first eat an oyster,” and declined to explain further, no doubt thinking it unnecessary for the simple sentiment. Oysters are a marvelous delicacy, yet visually off-putting; thus the idea is that courage was required to discover the treasure. (Try as I might, I can’t ignore the fact that oysters were doubtless enjoyed by primates long before...

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Top Picks for 2011 Winners

December 29, 2011
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As the new year approaches, we’re reviewing the past year’s worth of Investment of the Week and Dick Davis Digests. This week, I’m going to spotlight the year’s best-performing Top Picks. Every year, we ask all of our Digest contributors to send us a recommendation of their single favorite stock to own in the coming year. Their submissions range from unknown small-caps to the past year’s winners, a broad range that reflects the wide variety of investing styles practiced by our contributors. Once in July and again at the end of the year, we revisit the Top Picks to...

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Is Main Street Finally Catching on to Options?

December 26, 2011
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Is Main Street Finally Catching on to Options?

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of going to lunch with Tim Lutts, the president of Cabot. Fortunately for me, Tim was in Miami for a conference and I didn’t have to travel up to the office in Massachusetts during the month of December! During our lunch, we discussed the market and how pathetic the volume has been for stocks lately. Our conversation turned to options and whether there had been the same kind of drop off in volume. This simple conversation sent me down a path that led me to some pretty staggering findings. After doing...

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Rigidly Defined Areas Of Uncertainty And Doubt

December 24, 2011
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Rigidly Defined Areas Of Uncertainty And Doubt

Here’s this week’s Contrary Opinion Button. Remember, you can always view all of the buttons by clicking here. Rigidly Defined Areas Of Uncertainty And Doubt The original phrase, by Douglas Adams in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, was “We demand rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty.” It’s uttered by a philosopher who argues that the Quest for Ultimate Truth is the inalienable prerogative of working human thinkers, and not suitable for computers. In investing, there are facts, which relate to the past, and there’s doubt and uncertainty, which characterize the future … and which you can only...

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