Short Takes: Warren Buffett as Poster Child and more

1. Preet thinks that Warren Buffett is not a poster child for active management. I agree that Buffett’s approach doesn’t bear much resemblance to the typical actively-managed mutual fund. However, Buffett is an active manager in the broad sense that he doesn’t own the index. I think Buffett’s approach is the only one that has a hope of consistently outperforming. I don’t have the skill, but it is conceivable that some investors can see that a given company has above-average long-term prospects. This seems more plausible than believing that some people can anticipate short-term moves without inside information.

2. Potato wrote an excellent review of Benoit Mandelbrot’s book, The Misbehavior of Markets.

3. Mike at Money Smarts thinks that now is a good time to start leveraged investing. What if it isn’t a good time?

4. Ever wondered how an expensive restaurant menu item can affect you even if you don’t order it? The story of the $69 hot dog explains it. Hat tip to the Stingy Investor for pointing me to this one.

5. Big Cajun Man’s Registered Disability Savings Plan (RDSP) saga continues. It seems that bank and government systems are not overly prepared for the RDSP.

6. Canadian Mortgage Trends is tracking efforts to standardize mortgage penalties.