November 22, 2022

#43 Reflections on Investing : “Valuing The Automotive Industry”, One Year Later

We revisit “Valuing The Automotive Industry” our in depth report from last year. “Valuing The Automotive Industry” (Nov. 2021)

November 7, 2022

#42 Reflections on Investing : The Howard Marks Checklist Revisted

In October of 2021 we reviewed the Howard Marks Checklist from Mr. Marks’ book “Mastering the Market Cycle.” Since then conditions in the market have changed dramatically so we felt it was time to revisit Mr. Marks’ checklist. 

October 24, 2022

#41 Reflections on Investing : When Bad News is Good News for the Stock Market

The market’s worst day of 2022 was September 13th when the Bureau of Labor’s Consumer Price Index came in higher then expected. A month later the next CPI release was a similar surprise however the market’s reaction to that news was much different. Former Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein remarked: “This is one of those trading

October 10, 2022

#40 Reflections on Investing : Where Do We Go From Here? Valuing the S&P 500

We explain the approach to valuing the S&P 500 developed by NYU Professor Aswath Damodaran a co-author with our senior advisor Professor Bradford Cornell, and explain its relevance to current market conditions.

October 3, 2022

Investor Memo Q3 2022

Download Memo as PDF  Efficient markets              If markets are efficient in that prices always reflect fair value and expected returns on stock are constant, why would anyone need an investment manager? There are two answers. The first, put forth by Sandy Grossman and Joe Stiglitz, is that a truly efficient market is a contradiction

September 19, 2022

#39 Reflections on Investing : Discount Rates and Realized Returns

There is an inverse relationship between current investment performance and expected future performance. Understanding why is a key to maximizing long-run risk adjusted returns.

September 13, 2022

WSJ : ESG Does Neither Much Good nor Very Well

Senior Advisor, Prof. Bradford Cornell, was quoted in the Wall Street Journal regarding his work with Prof. Aswath Damodaran on ESG investing. “The implicit promise of ESG investing is that you can do well and do good at the same time. Investors presume they can make a market return while advancing causes such as lowering carbon

September 12, 2022

Podcasts!

We are happy to report that the entire “Reflections on Investing” series is now available as podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Click on your preferred platform below to listen. Be sure to add the show to your library to stay updated with future episodes. In other podcast related news, CCG senior advisor Prof. Bradford Cornell

August 29, 2022

#38 Reflections on Investing : Forecasting Returns

Building off our previous episode, we dig into the relationship between current price ratios, future expected earnings growth, and future stock market returns. It turns out there are important practical implications for investment management.   

August 15, 2022

#37 Reflections on Investing : The Discount Rate and the Future of the Stock Market

Finance theory in recent years has stressed the importance of changes in the discount rate for explaining movements in stock prices. In this video, we describe how this works using data provided by Prof. Aswath Damodaran.  You can find both Damodaran’s annual paper on the equity risk premium and his calculation of the ERP for