Moomin Valley

Following EnoughWealth's suggestion I downloaded OpenOffice. Well, at least it lets me manipulate the shape of the charts in my old Exce...

Good news - the research team that Snork Maiden is part of got some more funding but less than they asked for, so either: 1. They need to fi...

I have found a temporary solution to my Microsoft Excel woes . I moved Excel 2008 into a folder I labeled "disabled applications" ...

Because the equation feature in Word 2004 wasn't entirely compatible with with Macintosh OS 10.5 (some notation appeared incorrectly tho...

I just completed Snork Maiden's tax return. As it is pretty straightforward and I have a spreadsheet set up from last year as well as la...

Time for an update on recent asset class and target portfolio performance: This chart is in USD terms with all investments as they would ap...

The head of the Australian Treasury Department, Ken Henry, said that his tax review will not abolish dividend imputation . Dividend imputati...

HFRI: 2.62% Credit Suisse/Tremont: 2.54%

With all the talk about the supposed negative effects of the "efficient market hypothesis" that supposedly caused the GFC it's...

I just put in a bid to buy 2000 shares in the Challenger Infrastructure Fund (CIF.AX). The annual results came out and they seem OK to good ...

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In the ongoing Everest Financial Saga the next event is the EAIT withdrawal offer. Everest will allow investors to withdraw part of their i...

Snork Maiden and I are complementary in spending attitudes to some degree. I am more "tightwad" and she is more "spendthrift...

I had the meetings with the potential collaborators and they went well though there are no definitive outcomes yet. The first meeting I fou...

Following up on the comments on a recent post things feel a lot different here than in the US.

In the ongoing Everest Financial saga, the "direct investments" in the EAIT fund of hedge funds is being separated out into a stan...

It was a great month. The MSCI World Index gained 8.84% in USD terms and the SPX gained just 7.56%. The Australian Dollar again appreciated ...

I have meetings lined up now to discuss my research and potential for collaboration on grants with a couple of people next week. One of them...

The HRFX gained 1.59% in July. Convertible arbitrage continued to outperform with a more than 6% gain:

Both of Snork Maiden's investment accounts - retirement and non-retirement - are now showing a profit. Given that the former started in ...

So Unisuper finally managed to put me into the accumulation plan (defined contribution) but for some unknown reason 54.51% of the account i...

Had a paper rejected again today - this was the second attempt on this one. The good thing is that they only took 1 1/2 months to reject it,...

July was another great month in the World's stock markets with the MSCI World Index gaining 8.84%. Moominmama gained 4.3% overall with t...

Most Australians seem to hate Canberra and think it is terribly cold. They'd probably be surprised to learn that the average temperature...

Challenger Infrastructure Fund (CIF.AX) announced today that it has closed its foreign currency hedges yielding a profit. As it is now unhed...

I just heard today that the fellowship program I was planning to apply to may not actually run again. If it doesn't I wouldn't be t...

We accidentally bumped into a former colleague who is now a professor in another department at my university while shopping. Actually, this ...

This month is shaping up as another good one with three trading days to go. Several of the funds we invested in in Snork Maiden's Coloni...

When I wrote in yesterday's post that I'd need to have enough cash to buy a house to be happy to do so if my income was very uncerta...

Asked Snork Maiden today (at our current standard of living). If we don't make any big expenditures like buying couches or travelling ...

I've been thinking whether anything needs to be done with Moominmama's portfolio and benchmarked the broad asset allocation against ...

I haven't posted much on investments recently. We're in recovery mode from the GFC and will likely be for a couple of years before m...

Wikinvest have a new finance data platform. It looks pretty nice in terms of graphics etc. though they exaggerate how much this improves thi...

The Australian government http://www.deloitte.com/dtt/alert/0,1001,sid%253D2935%2526cid%253D268500,00.html">hopes to have new foreig...

Final hedge fund returns are now in for the month and they largely confirm the earlier HFRX results . In other words, performance was flat o...

As I commented on the last post, I didn't get the job I interviewed for on Monday in a major Australian city. The chairman already phone...

I'm sitting in the airport terminal on my way back from my interview here today. The process was very traditional on the British model o...

I just got an e-mail inviting me to interview on Monday for the job I applied for last week . This is one of the top departments in the coun...

The HFRX Global Hedge Fund Index was flat for June, returning 0.04%. Macro and 'Systematic Diversified" did poorly losing more than...

So I phoned Unisuper and told them I'd sent the form in twice to switch to defined contribution (or "accumulation" as they...

The following is based on the available data as a couple of funds as usual won't report till near the end of the month and as 30th June ...

Last year I wrote about a company called Carbon Planet that was raising funds. I didn't like the look of the information provided and d...

They still haven't switched me to defined contribution despite me requesting this on my initial application and then sending the switch...

Moominmama had a 1.06% gain in June while the MSCI all country stock index fell 0.52% (beta to this stock index is estimated at 0.47). US st...

Am applying for another academic position here in Australia. I only saw it advertised this morning and the deadline is Friday! The rank is A...

Barrons' has updated the portfolio allocations for Yale, Princeton, and the average US educational endowment: Compare these to a previo...

The table is from a paper by Richard Disney presented at a conference on taxation held as part of the Australian tax policy inquiry. It sho...

Today, after much searching, we finally bought a couple of couches - a two and a three seater. Yes, they are leather but not the ones in the...

I haven't heard back from the headhunter so I guess I wasn't shortlisted for an on-campus interview. The department I interviewed a...

My opinion of him and Stratfor sank even lower .

An interesting article about changes in the ways people are signalling status - a switch from conspicuous consumption of material goods to ...

The TFS Market Neutral Fund which I've often blogged about and am invested in, is closing to new investors. The fund's assets stand...

HFRI came in with a 5.58% return for May - one and a half percentage points more than Credit Suisse's estimate - and positive returns f...

So I went out to the airport today to meet the partner of the recruitment firm at the Qantas Club (=Lounge). I think the interview went well...

Credit Suisse/Tremont hedge fund indices have now reported for May. They are reporting a 4.06% gain for the month, which they say is the bes...

I bought a suit for my interview today . Only the second suit I've ever bought. We went to Myer because there are sales on. But the suit...

A couple of nights ago it hit -6C here in Canberra which is near the coldest I've seen here (-7C). The record low for Canberra is -10C. ...

The phone interview with the headhunter went well. It started with me asking questions about what the job really is. He said that they basic...

I've been preparing for my phone interview with the headhunter tomorrow morning. I'm not sure what to expect as I've always been...

I heard yesterday about a position in a government department here doing more or less on the public policy side what I do in academic resear...

I finally worked out the fault in my accounts: a minus sign instead of a plus sign in front of the gain for Platinum Capital for the month! ...

We also visited the area of the planned Tianjin Eco-City on our trip to China last year . We saw even less of the site than these guys did....

I just bought 5000 shares in AOD.AX at $A1.10 a share. This used about half my available margin. The fund is not marginable with CommSec. I...

The news is coming thick and fast this morning. Croesus Mining is to be renamed Sirius Resources and become a base metal explorer rather th...

IPE , a private equity fund of funds listed on the Australian Stock Exchange placed around 6 million new shares with a fund manager for 19 c...

Commonwealth Securities are offering up to $A500 of free buy trades on a CommSec margin loan if you make the purchases before 30th June. Th...

So I spoke with the "senior associate" from the headhunting firm that contacted me yesterday. She tried to downplay the rather amb...

HFRX - Hedge Fund Research's daily hedge fund indices based on a small sample of funds - was up 3.15% for May. By comparison, MSCI World...

I got a call from a "headhunter" today. That's a first for me, I think. The position is a full professor at an Australian Univ...

I wrote a very short review of "The Black Swan" a little while ago. Here is a good but very long review of Nicholas Nassim Taleb ...

Another two weeks on and Unisuper still haven't transferred me to the defined contribution scheme. Will I need to send in the form agai...

Business Week has a list of the most expensive U.S. suburbs in each state . What's stunning from an Australian perspective is that in ma...

Glitzer asked me a little while ago to simulate a China oriented portfolio diversified with the Man-AHL managed futures fund. She specifie...

Moominmama gained 9.21% for the month. The MSCI World Index was up 10.08%. Both gains were in large part due to the fall in the US Dollar ov...

Now all the unlisted fund returns are in for April I can present the final performance numbers. Australian Large Cap stocks, mainly via the ...

This article from the Wall Street Journal seems pretty solid. Let me know if you can see any flaws. The bottom line is that you shouldn...

If you've been around the investment blogosphere for a while, you've probably come across the writings of George Friedman, CEO of St...