The original purpose of this letter was to build a database of ideas to draw on in the management of my hedge fund.
When a certain trade comes into play, I merely type in the symbol, name, currency, or commodity into the search box, and the entire fundamental argument in favor of that position pops up.
You can do the same. Just type anything into the search box with the little magnifying glass in the upper right-hand corner of my home page, and a cornucopia of data, charts, and opinions will appear.
Even the prices of camels in India (click here to find out why they’re going up).
The database goes back to February 2009, totaling 4 million words. Watching the traffic over time, I can tell you how the database is being used:
1) Small hedge funds want to see what the large hedge funds are doing.
2) Large hedge funds look to see what they have missed, which is usually nothing.
3) Midwestern advisors to find out what is happening in New York and Chicago.
4) American investors to find out if there are any opportunities overseas (there always are).
5) Foreign investors to find out what the heck is happening in the US (about 1,000 inquiries a day come in through Google’s translation software).
6) Specialist traders in stocks, bonds, currencies, commodities, and precious metals looking for cross-market insights, which will give them a trading advantage with their own book.
7) High net-worth individuals managing their own portfolios so they don’t get screwed on management fees.
8) Low net worth individuals, students, and the military looking to expand their knowledge of financial markets (lots of free online time in the Navy).
9) People at the Treasury and the Fed trying to find out what the private sector is doing.
10) Staff at the SEC and the CFTC to see if there is anything new they should be regulating.
11) More staff at the Congress and the Senate looking for new hot-button issues to distort and obfuscate.
12) Yet, even more staff in Obama’s office gauging his popularity and the reception of his policies.
13) As far as I know, no justices at the Supreme Court read my letter. They’re all closet indexers.
14) Potential investors/subscribers attempting to ascertain if I have the slightest idea of what I am talking about.
15) Me trying to remember trades that I recommended long ago but have forgotten.
16) Me looking for trades that worked so I can say, ‘I told you so.’
It’s there, it’s free, so please use it.
