Why not a blogroll? Why didn’t we post a sidebar laterally on our investing blog, with all the investing links we considered interesting?
Well, first of all because this would be definitely too long. We at doitinvest.com read lots of investing blogs. And we are very human after all – we have opinions on these, of course. Here we go with some of the most popular blogs we watch constantly, as well as with some comments on them.
The blogs are not in any particular order or ranking. We posted them here as they crossed our minds.
Below you will find some of the more interesting investment oriented blogs from the wonderful virtual kingdom we all live in more and more. We can’t guarantee their results on your investing portfolio – but we can tell you that they are good at distilling the barrage of daily financial information. Sometimes, you could even have some fun with these. And sometimes you can make some money. Too bad that we do not know which comes when.
Launching on the internet water… our investing blogs list:
Seeking Alpha
This is more of an investment supermarket for the finance guru’s who like to blog, than an classical investment blog. Seeking Alpha has grown gradually to become one of the top internet platforms for the investment bloggers who want to broadcast their ideas and opinions to the world. It is easy to use and has a huge database of blog reactions to practically all the moves on the market. So if your favorite stock twitches just a little bit, you can be sure that an investing blogger from Seeking Alpha will react to it.
Be careful though. Although the investment site’s explicit policy asks the commentators to disclose their position in the investment vehicles analyzed in their blogs, not all do so. And the thin red line is really very thin in the money world…
Pro’s:
Most professional investing bloggers write their from time to time
Pretty comprehensive.
Specialized in niches, such as ETF’s or technical analysis of the big market indicators (S&P 500 etc).
Con’s:
Can be biased.
Sometimes the flow of information can be overwhelming and the language of the investing bloggers – too complicated to follow.
Bill Carra
If you are a fan of the technical analysis, this Forbes no.1 ranked investing blog is right for you. Bill Carra is a sort of a corporate earnings and stocks watchdog. Although this investment analyst is quite famous, he does not rest on his crown: everyday somebody posts a new blog. There are also week reviews of virtually all the interesting markets where to invest, from forex to gold to stocks. The investing blog uses lots of technical analysis graphs, those nice wild variation lines being surrounded by low and high breaking points… If you are a chartists and if you like sharp comments, then Bill Carra could be the man for you.
Pro’s:
Fear not, every day will bring you a fresh newsletter into your information-hungry inbox.
Like graphs or images? Preferably the complicated ones? Well, we have tons of these!
Con’s:
The blog is sometimes too technical, to the point where all becomes a strategy game.
Investing techniques are sometimes not explained well enough. Or do they want to sell more of the author’s books?
The Kirk Report
After the Cadbury report, the Watergate report and some other famous characters going public, one guy named after Star Trek decided to issue a statement to the world. And this statement was maybe not predestinated to be such a long lasting one. Instead, it has become one of the interesting places where it is good to go from time to time. It is that investing blog where you can find out some different perspectives on the money markets. Whether you agree or not, it is a different issue. But rest assured that Charles E. Kirk will do his best to give you food for thought. With a spice of simple technical analysis and charts explained now and then, of course.
Pro’s:
Simple digests, easy to understand. Simple blog design, without big fancy advertising.
Con’s:
Requires registration on the web site.
Sometimes the comments are too general.
Big Charts
We at doitinvest.com like charts. Especially the big ones, where you can spot the little trends going out of the way. When BigCharts was launched back in 1996 by the Wall Street Journal Company, it was a big think. So big, that most of those times’ traders rushed in and bought their premium charting products. Since then, the competition has increased. Big Chart changed a little, yet it remains an interesting source of information for the aspiring professional billionnaire spending his or her nights on an internet platform. And it offers a free aggregator of news on what’s going on with your favourite stock. Sometimes too little, yet it is your task to dig further, ain’t it mate?
Pro’s:
Charts for almost any stock or index on the major stock exchanges.
Independent evaluation tool on most of the stocks you like watching.
Competitor for Yahoo Finance and for Google Finance.
Con’s:
Not really a blog, rather a news aggregator.
Interface a bit old – but show me a new (up-to-date) one on the internet and I’ll give you a bow.
Ticker Sense
Featuring an interesting blogger sentiment, this investing blog goes a bit beyond the traditional approach on value investing The blogger sentiment poll on the market is quite interesting, showing the big internet trends. Ticker Sense contains lots of blogs on specific portfolio issues, though. And it is very good on offering high level overviews on what’s going on in the market.
Pro’s:
Has several interesting tools, such as the portfolio trackers and the market feelings overview.
Con’s:
The really valuable insights come via a paid newsletter – which could be a deterrent for those looking for investing sources at low prices.
World Beta
Hedging is the name of the game. If it is combined with an eagle eye and a willingness to catch out most of the villains (read: crooks) who are wondering out there, it might be even more interesting. Mebane Faber is a portfolio manager turned white knight for the innocent investors who might loose their money if they throw them in funds un-warned. Leaving the tone aside, the blog features quite a transparent asset allocation model, combined with a nice timing method for the buy and the sell moves
The Curious Investor
This is a guy who looks a lot like me – always dissatisfied with the answers it gets, yet prudent enough not to throw mud on those who do a lot of work for the progress of the mankind. I enjoyed the prudent approach to most of the analyzed stocks, as well as the depth of the analysis. I did not like the advertising put all over the place, but hey, people must live on something, right?
Pro’s:
Pretty relaxed and with lots of fundamental analysis inter-twined with the charts.
Con’s:
We do not care all day long about some side-tracking topics… and we are tired of advertising sometimes…
Blogging Stocks
An investment blog focused on stocks sounds a bit obvious, yet this is an old one with a clear focus. The blogs from Blogging Stocks are focusing on two main areas – specific stocks and macroeconomic news with impacts on the stock exchanges. It is clearly organised, although a bit over-flooded with social networks hype. And it has controversial opinions, some of them supported by the well known money journalist Jim Cramer. Well, we do not agree with most of his opinions, yet some folks seem to like him, so…
Pro’s:
Clean sheet appearance combines with lots of links on this investing blog. Stocks focused, not a general blog like most of the other money links.
Against:
Advertising is a bit annoying being interspered all over the site. And yes, it is controversial and tough headed.
Money and Markets
Money and Markets is another syndicated investment blog, made on the style of the big money portals. Compared to other sites, this one has lots of free resources on various money markets accross the globe. And their analysis are often interesting. The design of the blog makes it rather a news portal. Whilst browsing the Money and Markets blog, I noticed a bit the half educational, half selling style of some of the posts. Yet, it remains an interesting place to visit.
Pro’s:
Free resources available. Lots of informed opinions, especially at the macro level.
Against:
Sometimes biased. And the interpretations can go against the trend in some cases, so use your own brain when investing.
Funny or unusual investing blogs
Carl Futia
This guy is a so-called “contrarian investor”. The definition of a contrarian investor is “a person who invests against the big trends of the market.” So if the market is bullish, you sell everything, because you know that the bubble might be going to burst… Of course, this does not work all the times and the contrarian investors do not necessarily make more profits than the normal, crowd investing people.
His blog is focused on mini S&P futures. What is that?! Well, pay him a visit, it is an interesting approach.
Pro’s
Focusing on futures is a different approach for the normal investor. And it is quite a sophisticated tool. Plus that being against all the world makes you a hero (sometimes).
Con’s:
If you screw it on a contrarian style, nobody’s going to bring flowers to your grave. Not even the broken nephews, blood of your blood!
Therry Laundry’s T Observations
Well, the fun is not over yet. If you open Terry;s site, you notice that his investing blogs are brief. VERY brief. Let me quote you one from Oct 25th:
“For today’s discussion see the two charts below; the first for Best Bond, the second for the standard T Theory indicator chart. The audio discussions for part A and B relate to the discussion I had with Peter Eliades last week. I hope these topics help to answer a variety of email questions I have received. Part C is my general forecast which will be refined by the end of day updates, as noted above, that will come by 6:30 pm ET at the Foundation site.”
Yes, it is the T theory which might hold the answer to the Universe questions. Too bad that not so many people understand it… well, that’s the fate of most geniuses. We have to wait until they die to do some research.
Pro’s:
Very technical and very focused on the overall state of the market. Lots of analysis thrown on the table.
Con’s
By the time you finish reading one analysis, you might need the next one to do some trades.
Between the Hedges
Better to stay there rather than between the bushes of the stocks. This investment blog features a so necessary focus on a hedging approach, id est on minimizing the risks of your investments. It has lots of comments about the market events of the day. It has also an interesting list of trading links at the beginning, trying probably to show off the fact that this is an informed blog. I am not going to contest this, since it is quite informative.
Pro’s:
Hedging focus might be useful for those wishing to minimize risk.
Con’s
I recognized some data widgets on the blog where the source was hidden. For example the top graphs on the upper right corner are from bigcharts.com. Very smooth programmed anyway… nobody from WSJ noticed (yet).
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