I've been a bit behind on other reading as I've been trying to both take advantage of current volatility as well as make sure clients at Sorfis Investments have portfolios that I think will be well situated for the next 5-10 years. There is plenty of uncertainty and risk right now—both as it relates to one's physical and financial health—but there are also undervalued businesses out there with good balance sheets that will be more valuable 5, 10, and 20 years from now.
Note: This is my opinion and not a recommendation to buy or sell a security. Please do your own research before making an investment decision.
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"It was psychologically painful in 1999 to give up making money on the way up and to expose yourself to the career risk that comes with looking like an old fuddy duddy. Similarly today, it is both painful and career risky to part with your increasingly beloved cash, particularly since cash has been so hard to raise in this market of unprecedented illiquidity. As this crisis climaxes, formerly reasonable people will start to predict the end of the world, armed with plenty of terrifying and accurate data that will serve to reinforce the wisdom of your caution. Every decline will enhance the beauty of cash until, as some of us experienced in 1974, ‘terminal paralysis’ sets in. Those who were over invested will be catatonic and just sit and pray. Those few who look brilliant, oozing cash, will not want to easily give up their brilliance. So almost everyone is watching and waiting with their inertia beginning to set like concrete. Typically, those with a lot of cash will miss a very large chunk of the market recovery. There is only one cure for terminal paralysis: you absolutely must have a battle plan for reinvestment and stick to it." --Jeremy Grantham, March 2009 ("Reinvesting When Terrified")
Two Things We Know With High Confidence - by Morgan Housel (LINK)
A Viral Market Meltdown III: Pricing or Value? Trading or Investing? - by Aswath Damodaran (LINK)
Why Are Markets So Volatile? It’s Not Just the Coronavirus. ($) (LINK)
Howard Marks says the market is ‘pricing in a bad scenario’ and there is value for investors (video) (LINK)
FPA Crescent Fund: First Quarter Preliminary Update (LINK)
Lux Capital memo on the Coronavirus (LINK)
How small businesses can cut expenses (LINK)
Bernanke and Yellen: the Federal Reserve must reduce long-term damage from coronavirus ($) (LINK)
The Surreal Weekend (LINK)
America’s Restaurants Will Need a Miracle - by Derek Thompson (LINK)
Amazon Prioritizes Medical Supplies, Household Staples From Merchants Amid Coronavirus ($) (LINK)
Detroit Car Makers to Temporarily Close U.S. Plants Over Virus Concerns ($) (LINK)
Costco Buys Logistics Firm From Sears Owner for $1 Billion ($) (LINK)
The U.K.’s Coronavirus ‘Herd Immunity’ Debacle - by Ed Yong (LINK)
The Patients Who Can’t Have Surgery Because of the Coronavirus - by Sarah Zhang (LINK)
Defining Information - by Ben Thompson (LINK)
Invest Like the Best Podcast: Dan Rasmussen – Investing Through a Crisis (LINK)
The Acquirers Podcast: Steady Hands: How the leaders of four SME businesses are weathering the Coronavirus storm (LINK)
a16z Podcast: Labs for Diagnostics: Then, Now, and Next (LINK)
The James Altucher Show (podcast): 560 - Critical Coronavirus Update: The BEST and The WORST Case Scenarios with Johns Hopkins Dr. Marty Makary (LINK)
Why Americans Are Dying from Despair - by Atul Gawande (LINK)