07/14/05 - Winning The Loser's Game
by Dan Ferris "Investing is a loser's game - good investors do not pull financial rabbits out of their hats or solve difficult scientific problems. They play it safe, avoid errors in judgment - and stick to the basics. Dan Ferris explains…" Bubble Ground Zero
by Dan Ferris "I'd rather take my money out of this house and put it in a pile of gold coins, a few cheap stocks, maybe some nice arbitrage situations…and an apartment in the city." 01/26/05 - Fear Factor
by Dan Ferris "Before I tell you what the greatest single secret of investing is, though, I want to tell you why I'm going to give it to you. I'm going to tell you this secret because it's hiding in plain sight." 12/02/04 - The Match King
by Dan Ferris "The Irving Trust Company of New York was named as trustee in the Kreuger bankruptcy. Irving Trust liquidated almost all of Kreuger's assets. But there were four little companies they didn't want to liquidate in the U.S." 10/14/04 - Commercial Catastrophers
by Dan Ferris "The 2004 hurricane season has come, with losses currently estimated in the mid-$20 billion range. In other words, the 2004 hurricane season has already obliterated all the new capital that rushed into insurance…" 08/19/04 - Fear Factor
by Dan Ferris "Is it worth $50,000 to you to eat a raw pig's rectum? How about lying in an open glass casket with live rats crawling all over you? Or maybe driving a car off a ramp at high speed, crashing headlong…" 06/29/04 - The Once and Future King
by Dan Ferris "Perhaps by now you've guessed that the answer to these questions, the most unwanted asset today, the one thing nobody seems to want to own, the one asset people can't seem to get rid of fast enough, is…" 06/15/04 - The Fortune Of Loss
by Dan Ferris "Think about that. Four years wasn't enough time to give a true picture of the soundness of Sequoia's basic value-oriented approach to investing. Nearly half the time, getting rich felt like losing ground when compared…" 05/18/04 - Running Out Of Gas
by Dan Ferris "That's right. A lone, part-time employee was charged with the responsibility of auditing the entire reserve base of the second-largest company in the largest industry on the planet…" 05/05/04 - Pervasive Stupidity
by Dan Ferris "I just nodded as Pat asked his rhetorical questions. He got it. He understood…" Value Investing On Trial
by Dan Ferris "Remember that line from the hit movie, The Firm? Tom Cruise caught the bad guy lawyers. But not for the murders they'd committed. He busted them for billing their clients for too many hours." 04/15/04 - Golden Investment Mistakes
by Dan Ferris "If you really want to get rich by investing in stocks, you'll sit down right now and list every losing stock you've ever bought on a piece of paper…" 03/11/04 - The Value of Garbage
by Dan Ferris "The worst failures, the companies run by the most devious managers, made investors twice as much money in 2003 as the most successful businesses, run by the most capable managers. The reason why lousy companies bring you great returns is simple…" 02/18/04 - Gold Investors Head To The Beach
by Dan Ferris "Two scantily clad women were having their bodies painted in the moon-drenched solarium. Not exactly what you'd expect to find at a gathering of the world's most conservative investors." 01/20/04 - The Value Of Catastrophe
by Dan Ferris "The 9/11 catastrophe wrecked a bunch of [insurance] companies. And insurance and reinsurance are just crappy, unprofitable businesses fraught with peril. But forgive me if this sounds crass…" 12/18/03 - Lahars
by Dan Ferris "Money…health…only if you're really lucky do you lose these things gradually and in small increments, over long periods of time. Being really smart helps, but is not required." 11/20/03 - The Wal-Mart Liquidity Measure
by Dan Ferris "An elderly woman greets you with a radiant smile and a charming "hello." You see two or three others, also dressed in blue, like the smiling woman." 10/30/03 - The Tragic Death of Curtis Moberly
by Dan Ferris "I remember what the Christian brothers called us as high school sophomores: wise fools. That's what investors are today, and what Curtis Moberly was - may he rest in peace." 08/19/03 - The Sald Oil Swindle
by Dan Ferris "Buffett's strategy - buying beleagured-yet- fundamentally sound companies at depressed prices - still holds inveterate lessons for the investor with a would-be growing net worth." 03/11/03 - The Caribou Factor
by Dan Ferris "Recognizing the caribou factor is a simple acknowledgment that you don't own a crystal ball, and you can't predict the future. All of life is a kind of caribou avoidance and recovery game…" 02/17/03 - A Repentant Braggart
by Dan Ferris "With growing numbers of investors focusing on gold, the yellow metal is the last place I feel like looking to find value wallowing at extremes of price. The goal of a conscientious (read: cheapskate) value investor…" 01/02/03 - Graham's Number
by Dan Ferris "The concept of a perfect investment is not a new one. It has been encapsulated in a long-forgotten 'indicator'…something I call 'Graham's number.'" | 
