No matter what your domain of interest or expertise, the internet is a treasure trove of useful data that comes in many shapes, forms, and sizes, from beautifully documented fast APIs to data that need to be scraped from deep inside of 1990s html pages.

Private Equity Funds Adopting Higher Hurdle Rates in 2016 via Preqin Fund managers respond to investor concerns, but management fees remain an issue Preqin’s 2016 Private Capital Fund Terms Advisor finds that private equity fund managers with a 2015/16 vintage fund, or with funds currently in mar

REITs are both equities and yield vehicles and although investors enjoy the benefits of their combined hybrid structure, they are winning out today for their income attributes.

It has become fashionable in the last few years to claim that banks do not intermediate between lenders and borrowers (as per the traditional view of banks) and that instead, banks simply print and lend out money whenever they spot viable borrowers.

The iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT) is advancing relentlessly. It may not yield that much, but the potential for capital gains is huge; a buyer of TLT on the 4th Jan would have made +15% in H1.

Citigroup (NYSE:C) and Santander (NYSE:SAN) have much in common: two global multinational banks headquartered in developed markets, but with a large presence in emerging markets. Citigroup has significantly outperformed Santander over the last 5 years.

Remarkably, just about half of all stocks have delivered positive performance YTD (on a USD basis). However, there has been a pretty meaningful difference in the tails of the performance distribution.

Recently, a number of this blog’s authors were at a data hackathon, the strangest one we’ve been to so far. It was more of a startup pitch gathering, complete with pitch training and whatnot. I was repeatedly asked by other participants “so, how do you want to monetise your idea?”.

High quality businesses with shareholder friendly managements trading at fair or better prices make for excellent long-term investments. But finding these investments is not always easy – especially in today’s overvalued market.

Yesterday I talked about some of the positive indicators of the economy (read Don’t Be A Contrarian). To review, major indicators such the consumer sentiment and various job numbers all point to a healthy economy.