Investorial

Finally, an ad-free aggregator for personal finance, real estate, and investing blogs! That’s the tagline for an innovative financial blog PFBlogs.org. If I remembered correctly, PFBlogs used to be a simple financial blog. Their transformation into a feed aggregator for financial blogs surprised me when I heard about it.

I really welcome PFBlogs’ efforts to unite all financial, investment and real-estate bloggers. PFBlogs is so comprehensive, that it can spell the end of Financial Blog Carnivals! I personally favour this format over blog carnivals (whom I have an unexplainable distaste). Blog Carnivals are weekly events where a different blog host site will make a post referencing all the different blog submissions of that week. Investorial has not participated in any previous financial blog carnivals.

I do see advantages to Blog Carnivals compared to PFBlogs. Bloggers will more likely submit their best posts to participate in the carnivals. However, I like the idea of being able to scan not just the ‘big boys’ but to sample all the less well-known Blogs for some hidden gems! I don’t mind taking the bad with the good as long as it is a complete view!

PFBlogs’ pledge to remain free of any advertising is admirable. I think most bloggers would not mind if they moved to a minimal advertising format on their webpage. It’s really the syndication feeds that will attract Bloggers like me, and that’s the format we will be leveraging. If PFBlogs ever decide to take up advertising, here are my suggestions!

• Restrict advertising for the blogs on your list! A feature financial blog of the week? Let them share their ad revenue with you to maintain the site!
• Combat feelings that being an aggregator gives you an unfair ad revenue advantage by instituting an opt-in, opt-out policy. So that only Blogs who don’t mind your aggregation remain on the list

P.S. To PFBlogs… how about allowing avatars/pictures besides those posts? Or maybe a ranking of sorts? PFBlogs might just become the technorati for financial blogs!

Signals vs. Noise put up an interesting short Blog asking readers to guess which company this is based on 5 financial stats. Without peeking at the answer, see if you can guess!

767 employees, P/E of 182, operating margin 6.5%, market cap $4.4B, short shares % of float: 12%.

Times’ up! Did you guess yet? Hint: How many companies have a P/E of 182? Did you guess correctly? Head over to Signals vs. Noise for the answer!

One of the more interesting Blogs regarding financial matter I’ve encountered was “Hello Dollar”. However, the articles I saw while I was there were a lot of recycled materials from other books and publication medias that I’ve already seen. I did not subscribe to a feed because I have too many feeds to read a day as it is. Nevertheless, I’ve occasionally check back to see if there will be more interesting posts.

On my last visit, to my surprise “Hello Dollar” has dissappeared. In its place remains a parking page that simply says that the domain name has expired, but it can still be renewed. I’m tempted to consider taking the domain name as a means to Blog about financial frugality and more personal finance issues. What do you think?

Update 01/20/2005: Looks like Hello Dollar is back up again! But there are no new posts since October 2005? Is it simply hanging onto life support? Hello?

More Financial Blogs pop up everday, and also dissappear everyday. Here are a few types of financial Blogs that I’ve been reading. There are some that talk about news/events like Investorial. There are personal finance sites whose themes are more based on personal journey and experience like The Dividend Guy. There are theme sites about personal finance like PFAdvice. A popular theme is also about debt reduction, savings and frugality such as Frugal For Life. There are also financial Blog magazines such as the famous Free Money Finance that’s widely read by many.

Just catching up with reading a few Blogs when I noticed this stimulating post on Blog Maverick. Mark Cuban comes to us with his take on the “wealth transfer” that is constantly transacting between the ignorant and the informed in the stock market.

Mark made so many interesting points that I encourage you to read the full post for yourself. I just want to quote a few points that jumped out at me:

Buy and Hold ” is the 2nd most misleading marketing slogan ever, after the brilliant “rinse and repeat” message on every shampoo bottle.

The bottom line is that unless you plan on making it a full time job to do your research and put yourself in a position to have an advantage, you are going to get your ass kicked at some point by someone who does

Funds are in the business of making money for themselves first. You 2nd.

The stock market is by definition a ponzi scheme.

[...] a stock that doesn’t pay dividends is valued like a baseball card.

The age old question, does money buy happiness? One of my friends seem to think so, and I can’t say I disagree but I’ll approach it with a different angle!

I was messing around with my Friendster one night (thanks to Jen!) and was actually having fun doing it. I’ve been a bad card-carrying member of Friendster since September 2003 but have not actually linked anybody as my friend. But I was really waiting for everyone to join in to make my search easier (that’s my story and I’m sticking to it).

I came across an old acquaintance from my University days. James is a big fella who is in my opinion, extremely smart. If you’ve ever heard him speak or talk to him, you can tell that he has a unique perspective apart from other people. Jame’s blog, Random Thoughts, has a post about his thoughts on money and happiness. It is an interesting read, and “Big Jim’s” personality certainly shines through too!

My perspective, I don’t think “Money makes happiness”. There are many people with money that are not happy. Instead, I submit that “Lack of money makes you sad”. No matter what your dream of a lifestyle is, if you do not have the funds to make it a reality, you will not be happy. Do you agree?

Big Jim’s Random Thoughts: 7 Degrees of Happiness

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MSN Money contributor MP Dunleavey writes about her experience blogging about personal finance issues. She was mildly surprised by the enjoyment of the experience. MP discovered an online community of women, Women In Red, who blog and discuss about their personal financial issues and situations. They support and encourage each other, learn from the collective knowledge of the community. It’s great to see blogging put into such applications!

MSN Money: ‘Blogging Towards Financial Sanity’ by MP Dunleavey

I am a regular reader of Blog Maverick, better known as the self-made billionaire Mark Cuban. In his latest post, Mark poses the question of what defines someone to be an investor and answers himself to generate discussion among his readers.

Mark regularly writes blogs about investing. I find him both knowledgable and insightful. But more importantly, I feel he keeps an open mind and really knows what blog writing is really all about.

The post is a good primer for beginner readers to be exposed to the traditional definitions and processes of an investor. Mark uses the word speculator as a contrast/foil to an investor. I use the word trader to describe basically what is a speculator. Tometo, Tomato.

The criteria I use to separate the two types are intent. Both trader and investor and making an investment for rewards by assuming risk. However, an investor may not necessary have an exit strategy in mind; looking for the long term. Traders on the other hand, are more short term oriented, and most will have an exit strategy and parameters outlined.

I consider myself an investor because issues like shareholder rights, long term performance are more important to me. It’s important to understand what type of an investor you are? What are you? Investor or Speculator/Trader?

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