Here are 12 free resources that will help you be a better investor
A thread:
1/ SEC Full-Text Search — Search through 20 years of SEC filings for specific terms, people, or entities. I use this tool to see every instance where a person’s name was mentioned in an SEC filing
2/ PCAOB Auditor Search — Find the auditor and specific audit partner for any company, as well as their track record. Use the search bar in the top right and click auditor search
3/ SocialBlade — Track social media growth of any company or individual
4/ Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions FDD database – Find nearly any Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) for franchisors that do business in Wisconsin
5/ OpenCorporates — Quickly find the executives, board members, or state registration for private businesses
6/ Wayback Machine — A non-profit that regularly archives millions of the most visited sites. Use it to see how a site or specific webpage changed over time
Here’s Transdigm’s site from 2015
7/ @roic_ai — Up to 30 years of financial statements on any public company available for free
8/ iBorrowDesk — Website with borrow rates and short availability on any stock
For example, here’s the borrow availability and cost for $SI
9/ ShortSqueeze — Data on short interest
11/ r/SecurityAnalysis — Wide collection of recent hedge fund investor letters
For anyone thinking about launching a newsletter, here’s everything I’ve learned
1/ Do something UNIQUE. You want to be the only person who does what you do. Build a personal monopoly. No one wants more email, so you need something unique and differentiated to make it work
2/ Internet niches are bigger than you think, even when your account for the fact they are bigger than you think. Passionate about agricultural tech? European bonds? Fine wines? Women’s Soccer? Each of these would work if you're passionate and dominate it
There’s been a lot of noise about the banking sector in the last few days. Here are five insightful and qualified bank experts worth your time and attention
A thread
1/@MaxfieldOnBanks, John Maxfield is the former Editor-in-Chief of Bank Director magazine and has spent the last two decades obsessing over the banking industry. No one knows more about banking than John, and I’ve learned a tremendous amount from him
2/@Seawolfcap, Porter Collins is a professional money manager and was previously an analyst at FrontPoint Partners, one of the hedge funds that predicted the 2008-2009 housing crisis. Porter was profiled in The Big Short and his fund was reportedly up 169% last year
People are frustrated at Wall Street for “making rich people richer”
I’m fine with that, especially if it is being taxed… but that’s not what really is happening
A lot of finance about is extracting fees from money that should belong to everyday people
Most of the money at large investment funds is from endowments, pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, and foundations — often tax advantaged and for the benefit of average working citizens.
But the money is almost never invested in index funds, instead it is generally given
to extremely high fee vehicles that in aggregate underperform.
So these funds aren’t about making “rich people richer” it’s about making fund managers and the entire Wall Street ecosystem richer at the expense of everyday workers
Six months ago, I published an article criticizing The Joint $JYNT, a high-flying chiropractic franchisor that had gone up 25x over the last five years.
Investors were livid.
To present a balanced view I hosted a Twitter Spaces with The Joint bulls, and argued that increasing consumer complaints, problems at the franchisee level, board ties to failed penny stocks, and an undisclosed “bank” for struggling franchisees were serious issues for the stock.
Some prominent investors said I was “naïve,” “young,” “an idiot,” “didn’t know what I was doing,” and “wasn’t doing real research.”
It was easily a low point in my brief career writing an email newsletter on corporate misconduct.