For the first time in a very long time, actually ever, Abnormal Returns is on hiatus for the week. In the meantime I wanted to continue to provide our readers with some interesting content. To that end I asked some independent investment bloggers five questions. We will publishing the answers daily throughout the week. Please feel free to add your own answers in the comments below.
Check out the answers to our Tuesday question – What finance/trading/investment book, published in the past five years (post-crisis), do you recommend?
Wednesday – If you had to put your portfolio into a blind trust who (any investor/trader/institution) would you hire to manage it?
The managers most mentioned include James Simons, Seth Klarman and Howard Lindzon. Blogger/investment manager David Merkel also captured a couple of mentions as well. I thought this was an interesting exercise in getting bloggers to think a bit outside the box. Managers mentioned include:
Barry Ritholtz – The Big Picture, Rob – Tech Insidr, Derek Hernquist – Derek Hernquist and Frank Zorrilla – ZorTrades all go with James Simons of Renaissance Technologies.
David Merkel – Aleph Blog and The Analyst – Stone Street Advisors would go with Seth Klarman of Baupost Group. Merkel writes: “He has the patience to do nothing when there is nothing worth doing, and doing a lot when the opportunities are numerous.”
Sean McLaughlin – Chicago Sean, Ivanhoff – Ivanhoff Capital and Phil Pearlman – Phil Pearlman all go with Howard Lindzon of Lindzon Capital.
Jared Woodard – Condor Options and Erik Swarts of Market Anthropology go with Soros Fund Management.
Meena – Insider Monkey writes: “For the conservative side of my portfolio I would definitely hire Seth Klarman. For the aggressive side of my portfolio I would pick Dan Loeb [of ThirdPoint Capital].”
Meb Faber – World Beta would split his money between James Simons of Renaissance Technologies and Seth Klarman of Baupost Group.
Bill Luby – VIX and More and Cullen Roche – Pragmatic Capitalism both go for index fund giant Vanguard.
Jerry Khachoyan – TheArmoTrader wrote “Barry Ritholtz. Not only do I like his style but I agree with a lot of his views, which means I probably have a similar mentality as him.”
Eddy Elfeinbein – Crossing Wall Street goes with blogger/investment manager David Merkel.
Kid Dynamite – Kid Dynamite’s World goes with David Einhorn of Greenlight Capital.
Robert Sinn – Stock Sage goes with John Paulson of Paulson & Co..
Jeff Carter – Points and Figures goes with David Booth founder of DFA Funds.
Steven Place – Investing With Options writes: “Renaissance, SAC Capital, and Tudor Investment Corp.”
Downtown Josh Brown – The Reformed Broker writes “I would divide it into three pools of assets. The first would go into the Russell 3000. I’m 34 years old and won’t need it (hopefully) for decades. I would then give a momentum piece to Joe Fahmy as I know how seriously he takes his discipline. The third piece would go to David Merkel, one of the most experienced and smartest guys in the business I know and more value-oriented to balance what Joe would be doing. I’d feel very good about it I might add.
Todd Sullivan – Value Plays splits between Bill Ackman of Pershing Square and Bruce Berkowitz of Fairholme Funds.
MacroMon – Global Macro Monitor wrote “Diversify: 1) Keith Anderson, Soros Asset Management; 2) Peter Thiel, Clarium Capital and Doug Skrypek, Parthian Capital Energy Fund.”
Scott Bell – I Heart Wall Street wrote “Famous: Jeremy Grantham // Not Famous: Mebane Faber. Balanced intellect and integrity are the driving forces behind my call.”
Dynamic Hedge – Dynamic Hedge goes with Bill Dunn – DUNN Capital.
Stephen Castellano – Castellano wrote “The RevenueShares Navellier Overall A-100 Fund (RWV). This is because this mutual fund takes a similar approach to my own investment style and while in my opinion I could do a better job, this is the next best thing.”
Zack Miller – Tradestreaming writes “AlphaClone: why give it over to a manager when I can build an all-star portfolio of all the world’s best?”
Charles E. Kirk – The Kirk Report writes “I would hire my wife as I have trained her well and she continues to serve as my most trusted advisor.”
Some bloggers had a hard time coming up with a manager, no matter how high profile, to give their money to manage. For example John Lee – Charts Gone Wild wrote “I would only hire myself. Just can’t give my money to someone else. Can’t do it.” Jeff Miller – A Dash of Insight, David Shvartsman – Finance Trends Matter and Tom Brakke – the research puzzle all noted that completing this sort of exercise would require a significant amount of due diligence.
Tomorrow we ask bloggers about THEIR favorite investment blogs.