Wednesday, February 21, 2018

How We Work. And A Thank You To Everyone Who Contributes

Our mantra has always been to 'read widely but form your own opinion.' Your investment decisions reflect your risk tolerance, your demographic and financial profile and your personality. Be well informed and take responsibility for the decisions you make.

This blog borrows heavily from those whose research we value. 30 years ago, analysts worked primarily in silos. The information technology age revolutionized the collection and dissemination of data. Work that took weeks can now be done in hours. Original research is quickly amplified, modified and personalized. The Fat Pitch would not exist if it were not for the generosity and intelligence of those around us, to all of which we owe enduring thanks.

We attribute every source. If they are mentioned in these pages, it is because we read their work every week and value their insights. Readers are recommended to go to these sources directly. We can only scratch the surface of their excellent analyses.

Data is no longer very unique. Almost any chart or table we have shown here can easily be found on-line from multiple sources. Original analyses certainly exist, but are rare; in almost every case, the author learned from others generous to share their work. This is exactly how the level of discourse becomes elevated over time.

30 years ago, data alone was an edge, but not any longer. We believe (and hope) that interpretation of the data provides differentiation. We often reach a different conclusion than other analysts looking at the exact same data. How you collect, frame and interpret a pool of analyses is the difference between data and information.

Readers are welcome to copy, modify and personalize any data on this blog. Please retain the attribution to the original source, as we have done. This is a courtesy, not a legal requirement, as the analysis and representation (in a chart, table or graph) of data and facts is not subject to copyright laws, regardless of the effort required to present them (explained here). "Fair use" laws also allow for the reproduction of copyrighted material without the permission of the author for the purposes of commentary, criticism, scholarship, research or news reporting (explained here).

Charts and tables are building blocks. Make what you do with them value added. That makes all of us smarter (below from Ben Carlson).



A partial list of market-related websites we value can be found here.

Not everyone maintains a website, so two recommended Twitter Finance lists are here and here.


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