A recent article on Seeking Alpha theorized that Safety Insurance Group (SAFT) would benefit from higher gas prices and global warming. I’m unsure whether that thesis will be proved correct, but I am certain the author is clearly a very lateral thinker. I too like to have a thesis when investing, but require hard numbers to validate it. I thought I’d see if there is any safety in Safety’s numbers.

The first important maxim I learnt about investing in insurance companies was…

Bookmarks or Favorites to those clinging to Bill’s apron strings.
Before starting this article I thought it would be easy to select the ten best investing sites I have bookmarked. I soon realised selecting the ten best from my thousands of bookmarks was going to be near impossible. Could you sort through all your bookmarked favorites?
Hence I’ve decided to list ten good websites across three categories; stock analysis, investment research and investing pick ‘n mix. These are good sites which every self directed investor should have in their favourite/bookmark list.
I hope …

Ten days to move my investing world online and share it with you, that’s some challenge.
Day One: My Reading List. Or more accurately, ten excellent investment articles from my hard drive reading list, in no particular order.

The Fusion Investing and Analysis Fund has sold 5 FDX June $90 Puts (FDXRR) at $4.00.
For an fusion analysis of Fedex see yesterday’s post.
With 28 days to expiration selling at $4.00, gives cost if put of $86, return on total risk of 4.65%, annualised to 60%, return on buying power of 15.5% and a 2.5% discount from the price.
This transaction delivers $2,000 cash to the fund. I anticipate holding until expiration. I’ll update this entry with further details tomorrow.

More on this topic

(What's this?)

Federal Express, Market Outlook

(Investor in the Wilderness, 5/12/08)

FedEx …

Will you accept delivery?
On the BMW Method 16 year chart Fedex (FDX) sits at -2.4 RMS, with a RF of 1.45. For a company with an average CAGR of 16.3% over that time, an excellent moat and bright future, FDX is a great prospect. If BMW, RMS and RF are all meaningless then either follow the links and your nose or accept it implies FDX is cheap right now.
It is worth noting on the 20 year and 25 year charts FDX is respectively -1.72 and -0.35 RMS.
Almagne addressed this issue …

Inside the mind of George Soros.
Soros wanted to write more than a finance investing book and succeeded in doing so. There is plenty to satisfy the thoughtful investor, including timely advice like, “One should own stocks when they have successfully paused a difficult test, but one should avoid them during the test”.

I have launched, or at least taken the first wobbly steps on, a new blog.
Fusion Options Analysis will be my options analysis out loud on positions I’m considering for my personal holdings. Another reason for launching a second WordPress on my site is to use it as a testing ground for new themes. The theme may change from time to time.
Cheers
Dean

Benchmarking a portfolio and calculating returns are both contentious issues in reporting the performance of a share portfolio.
The most common method of benchmarking is to compare fund or portfolio returns to an appropriate share index. Fortunately in Australia there are only a few indexes to choose between. The primary Australian ASX Indices http://au.finance.yahoo.com/indices range from the total market All Ordinaries, AORD, down through the S&P ASX 20, 50, 100, 200, 300 to the S&P ASX MidCap 50 and S&P ASX Small Ordinaries.
For a true benchmark of your performance an Accumulation …

This advice came from Ronald Muhlenkamp the founder and president of Muhlenkamp & Company. Ron is a value focused guru who has outperformed the markets over the last 15 years.
“There are 3 things that will help you do well in the market.
* A consistent philosophy - know what you do and know that it works (there are many options here)
* Perspective - know when your philosophy works and when it won’t. Know that the market moves in cycles and that you need to be patient.
* Discipline - The first two …

This blog post about Your Money or Your Life by Mark Cancellieri at http://www.rationalwealth.net inspired me to write to Mark and he was kind enough to write back. Mark is a great writer and as his blog is new, you’ll probably get some of his best thoughts over the coming months. I don’t know Mark and have no reason to recommend him, except my belief that his thoughts will be worth reading.
In Mark’s email he asked about my references to Buffett. I hope to discuss Fusion Analysis and Investing more …