Good morning! Today I am thrilled to welcome Troy from The Financial Economist as new staff writer for this investing series.
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Are you new to investing? If so, then a big learning curve is ahead of you. The problem with investing is that it isn’t like school – there’s no professor that’s going to show you exactly what you need to learn. When it comes to investing, you will be learning on your own.
To ease to process, it helps to follow a couple of authority figures in the financial world. HOWEVER, just following them is not enough. Not everything that e.g. Warren Buffett says is useful. You need to know exactly what to follow about them.
Below are 4 top authorities in the financial world (and no, Buffett isn’t one of them). But more importantly, I’m going to show you exactly what you should pay attention to.
Disclaimer: I’m in no way affiliated with any of these sites or people.
Calculated Risk Blog
Calculated Risk Blog is run by Bill McBride, who’s a brilliant economist. His blog (Calculated Risk) evolves around his insights about the current economic data that’s coming out.
I follow his blog because Bill has an amazing track record – he totally predicted the 2006 housing peak and the 2009 bottom in stocks. In short, he is what most economists aren’t – good market timers.
Bill offers really good insights about the economic data that’s being released right now. I usually skip right down to the bottom of his posts where he’ll say “this is a good report” (bullish) or “this is a bad economic report” (bearish).
In addition, Bill mostly focuses on real estate. This is very important because real estate is a leading indicator for the overall economy. If real estate starts to turn south, the economy will follow soon as well. Bill is practically the go-to expert when it comes to real estate. His analysis on the current situation in housing is amazing – I can’t get this kind of analysis because I don’t have the expertise.
ZeroHedge
A lot of people like ZeroHedge, and I don’t know why. I think ZeroHedge is great at stating the obvious. “If gold breaks $1300, it will fall to $1200. If it breaks below $1200, it will fall to $1100. If it breaks $1100, it will fall to $1000”. Well no shit Sherlock.
In addition, Zerohedge is a huge gold bug. His blog revolves around two concepts:
- The world is ending tomorrow.
- Gold is going to $10000000000 an ounce.
Thus, I mostly avoid Zerohedge. However, if something unexpected happens in the markets, I will check Zerohedge for the reason. Zerohedge lives on rumors and small news.
For example, silver peaked at $50 an ounce in 2011. Why on that specific day? Because the Chicago Board raised margin requirements for silver traders. Only Zerohedge mentioned those raised margin requirements – no other news site did.
CNBC
Every day I take a glance at CNBC’s headlines – I don’t even bother reading their articles. CNBC helps me identify trend reversals. For example, on The Financial Economist I’ve said that the bull market will hit a temporary peak once bearish headlines start dominating CNBC. That’s exactly what happened – CNBC started talking about tapering, the war in Syria, the debt ceiling, etc and that’s when the market started falling.
CNBC represents the entire financial media. Once CNBC headlines starts turning negative, the bull market will start to reverse into a bear market.
Jack Welch
Every week a ton of economic data is released via economic reports. The problem with these reports? They’re all outdated! For example, the GDP reports lag by months, while the unemployment reports lag by weeks. None of these reports talk about the economy in real time.
Jack Welch, former CEO of GE (retired), is a great guy. He likes to talk to the media once in a while about his outlook on the current economy. I always listen to what Welch has to say, because he’s very well connected. As the former CEO of GE, he talks to a ton of captains of industry. So far, Jack Welch’s track record has been great – he accurately called the March 2009 bottom in stocks, saying “the economy isn’t as bad as we thought”.
What other sites do you check for updated financial information?
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Thanks for the information! I don’t really follow anything. I use to catch CNBC, Mad Money and a few others but its all the same. You still need to do research and some of my best performers have been stocks they say not to even touch. Go figure. My wife helps me reach the financials since she is a financial analyst so thats about all the help I get right now.
Thomas | Your Daily Finance recently posted…Using a Scalable Business Model with Niche Websites to Go After Real Income
Interesting, Troy! I hadn’t thought of tracking investing news/trends this way. Thanks for sharing the great info.
Laurie @thefrugalfarmer recently posted…August 2013 Recap
Interesting!
Since we don’t have cable, all of the news we get is from the internet. Sometimes I do wish we had cable news, but we can find most of the same information on the news channel’s websites.
Holly@ClubThrifty recently posted…Adventures in House Hunting
Some interesting sites here – I’ve never been much of a fan of sites from Zerohedge which attempt to predict markets. They are either stating the obvious (as you pointed out) or they are wildly speculating. As they say: those that can do, those that can’t teach – If I could predict the markets I wouldn’t be sharing my secrets with everyone. I’d much rather preach basic financial skills and knowledge than try to be the next guru.
Financial Independence recently posted…Introduction to Asset Classes
Good post Troy! You’re spot on with CNBC. I watch it for the entertainment factor and just have to laugh when they kick off something because of the hot air that’s blowing.
John S @ Frugal Rules recently posted…Happy Birthday Frugal Rules!
Thanks for the links! Investing is still a weak link for me because for some reason a lot of the info goes straight over my head. I read SO many personal finance blogs so I’m inundated each day with great info!
Budget and the Beach recently posted…Why I stopped looking for a full time job
I don’t follow any of these sites. I have read finance books by Peter Schiff that I really enjoyed, but economics is what I really like to read up on. I am a convert to the Austrian school of thought and I definitely love to learn more about various schools of thoughts and how they differ, as well as how each school views long-term finance.
DC @ Young Adult Money recently posted…5 Reasons Blogging is the Ultimate Side Hustle
I got news and financial information. I am fun of checking Yahoo finance and Google news daily. At present I am reading a very nice book, Choose Yourself by James Altucher.
My Wealth Desire recently posted…My Wealth Desire
Those are nice sites based on what you said, I’ll definitely visit those later.
Mark Ross recently posted…Increasing Your Income: Best Ways To Make Extra Money
Interesting, I wouldn’t have thought that a blog would be a financial authority. It’s funny because in school, we’re always taught that blogs aren’t reliable, which I think is flawed. I have learned a lot from blogs and it’s much funner learning from them.
Daisy @ Prairie Eco Thrifter recently posted…Six Fall Money Savers
I’ve never heard of the Calculated Risk Blog before, I’ll have to go check that out. Thanks for the pointer.
Bob @ Simi Valley Appraiser recently posted…What is a Home Inspection?
Interesting and educational read. I have found amazing sites which shows the financial authority of businesses. I like the Jack Welch’s track which helps helps to provide new records. Thanks for sharing this useful read.
I haven’t put much thought on this. Thanks for this information. I really love learning new things from PF blogs!
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