Book Reviews

Book Review: Barking Up the Wrong Tree

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Barking Up the Wrong TreeBarking Up the Wrong Tree draws on scientific studies and historical examples to answer 6 questions about success:

  1. Should we play it safe and do what we’re told if we want to succeed?
  2. Do nice guys finish last?
  3. Do quitters never win and winners never quit?
  4. Is it more important what you know or who you know?
  5. How important is believing in yourself?
  6. “Work, work work” or “work-life balance?”

The answers are not black and white. Eric Barker finds the most logical approach to each problem based on evidence on both sides of each argument. This book looks through all the hype that is out there in the self-improvement media and consolidates it into simple, practical pieces of advice that you can start using the day you read it. It is a very helpful resource for hard-working individuals who want to do everything it takes to be their best selves.

Economics

What Will Cause The Next Stock Market Crash?

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Summary:

  • Investors feeling safer than they should is the primary cause of market crashes.
  • Consumer debt is at unhealthy levels, but it is not reflected in consumers’ credit scores.
  • Bonds in every sector have the potential to be much riskier than their credit ratings indicate.
  • It may be a good time to avoid long-term bonds and securitized debt and to look for investments less exposed to high levels of debt.

Stock market crashes, like those that hit the U.S. markets in 1929, 1987, and 2008, tend to follow the same formula. This makes people wonder why they keep happening and we cannot prevent or even predict them. In fact, the act of thinking that we can prevent or predict them can at least partially be credited with causing them.

The formula is essentially as follows…

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Investing

The Time Is Right To Buy This International Dividend ETF

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Summary:

  • SDEM invests in dividend-paying companies in emerging markets.
  • The stocks in this fund have been hit hard by political instability.
  • A technical pattern presents an opportunity to start a long position.

Value investing and technical trading are very different philosophies, but the two can work together sometimes. I primarily screen for value but will occasionally take advantage of technical trading strategies to time a purchase…

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