Value Investment Lecture Series in Hong Kong
The Lau Chor Tak Institute of Global Economics and Finance at the Chinese University of Hong Kong launched a Value Investment Proposal Competition last month (sponsored by Overlook Investments). The competition is for undergraduate students, but there is a lecture series in parallel that I assume members of the public should be able to attend.

You can view the full schedule here – Thian Chew and Richard Lawrence spoke in October, but Cheah Cheng Hye, Terry Fok, George Long and Joseph Yam are speaking in November and December. If you’re based in HK, this might be of interest!

Gordo Byrn’s “Live Long & Prosper”
I’m a fan, albeit somewhat sporadic reader, of Gordo Byrn’s blog. I was initially only interested in the topics related to personal finance, but over time, his writings have helped me step back and think more holistically about the concept of wealth (e.g. control over your time, quality of relationships with family and friends, physical health). His e-book “Live Long & Prosper” (which you can access or download for free from his blog) contains many valuable insights and frameworks that can be used in your own life.

Do stocks outperform treasury bills?
This was an insightful and surprisingly easy to read academic research paper by Professor Hendrik Bessembinder of Arizona State University. The original study looked only at US stocks, but the scope was later expanded to include global stocks. Although not mentioned in the title, the paper is really about the positive return skewness of long-term stock market returns, which basically means that a few stocks have very large returns, while most have modest or negative returns. If you don’t want to read the full paper, you can find a neat 1-page summary of the results here.

Many people will recognize this distribution in venture capital returns, but it may be a surprise for some to learn that it is the same for stocks over the long-term (Morgan Housel has written a very good piece about this topic, see here). For most individual investors, these findings simply reinforce the benefits of being broadly diversified so you don’t miss out on the few stocks that will account for most of the long-term gains from investing in stocks. It also explains why active strategies, “which tend to be poorly diversified, most often underperform.”

For active investors or fund managers, however, there are actually two challenges: first, being able to pick the few big winners in advance, but then, and perhaps just as importantly, being able to hold those winners for the long-term. A lot has been written about the difficulty of picking long-term winners in advance, but the positive return skewness also makes it very challenging to manage an investment portfolio that will become increasingly concentrated over time if you do indeed pick some big winners (whether by luck or skill). Trimming these positions will likely be detrimental to long-term returns, but doing so perhaps allows for better sleep at night, especially if you have external investors to answer to. Anyway, I have no clear answers to offer up, but the study ought to give all investors lots to think about.

I must thank Dawid Krige of Cederberg Capital for introducing me to the study as well as for discussing some of these ideas.

Kazakhstan Trip Photos
I recently visited Kazakhstan for work and also added on a few days of personal travel. I spent time in Almaty, Kyzylorda, Turkistan and Shymkent. Almaty, in particular, is a fantastic city – very easy to navigate and lots to see and do. I especially enjoyed exploring the opera house, museums, galleries and bazaars in the old part of the city. If I were to visit again, I would perhaps spend more time outdoors in the mountains (e.g. I have heard good things about Shymbulak).

Another highlight from the trip was a visit to the unfinished Mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi in the city of Turkistan, which was commissioned in the 14th century and has been preserved very well. I have included a few photos of the site below, although my photography skills don’t do it justice.

Finally, if any readers have spent time in Kazakhstan or indeed any other countries in Central Asia (especially on the investment side), I would love to connect further and perhaps even exchange notes. Please do feel free to get in touch.

Broken Links
Occasionally, I get emails from readers pointing out broken links on this website. While I don’t formally maintain an archive, I do have copies of many of the articles I have previously linked to. If you are looking for something specific, feel free to drop me an email – happy to help out if I can!