7 unique investing and finance blogs to follow

These days, there are so many blogs out there for investors to follow that it’s difficult to sift through the noise and find valuable advice. I’ve put together a list of seven American investment blogs that I enjoy following and you might too. If you’re a DIY investor—or just interested in learning more about economics and investing—I suggest you give them a try. Here they are in no particular order

The Big Picture

By Barry Ritholtz. Ritholtz is the co-founder and chief investment officer of Ritholtz Wealth Management LLC. Several blogs a week, charts, videos and market commentary keep this blog newsy and interesting. He also has a nice feature every Tuesday morning called “10 Tuesday AM Reads,” meant for commuters looking for some interesting news and finance stories at the start of the week to get going. You can also sign up for daily reads in your inbox if you find the stories fun and provocative.

A wealth of common sense

By Ben Carlson. A blog that focuses on wealth management, investments, financial markets and investor psychology. Carlson, a portfolio manager, notes that Albert Einstein once said, “If you can’t explain it to a six-year-old, you don’t understand it yourself.” Carlson aims to simply explain difficult investing and finance concepts in a way that DIY investors can understand. Plus, it’s huge fun to read through every week. Whether it’s: “Why doesn’t the stock market care about the news?”, “When Hitler took cocaine”, or “Could index funds become too popular?” Carlson always keeps it interesting.

Crossing Wall Street

By Eddy Elfenbein. Portfolio manager Elfenbein edits this blog whose annual Buy List of 25 stocks has beaten the S&P500 by 50% in the last twelve years. The interesting part is that the list is locked and sealed every year and he doesn’t make any changes to the stock holdings. He holds for the complete 12 months and you can follow along and note his investment performance. His philosophy? Buy and hold shares of outstanding companies. He also has a Frequently Asked Questions tab on his site and likes for followers to email him their questions—something you can take him up on if you have a pressing investment question.

The Irrelevant Investor

By Michael Batnick. Batnick is the director of research at Ritholtz Wealth Management and is great at identifying unique angles on historical data and market movements. One of my favourite series on his blog is, “Today in Market History,” which highlights an interesting factoid or chart from history that Batnick takes and makes relevant to today’s markets. Blatnick’s recent post on the “The longest bull market of all time? And does it really matter when a bull market begins?” is an informative read. His shorter pieces on various stocks and IPOs are also witty and quirky reads.

Cliff’s Perspective

By Cliff Asness. He works for AQR Capital Management, a quantitative investment manager in Greenwich, Conn. and while he doesn’t post often, when he does, investors read it. Perhaps his most noteworthy blog post is related to the so-called factor investing wars which is a debate among investing eggheads, who try and determine which factors drive the stock market. Cliff’s blog posts can be a dense read, but if you want to be a better investor you should add them to your weekly “must read” list.

Flirting with Models

By Corey Hoffstein. Corey Hoffstein is the CIO of Newfound Research, a Boston-based quantitative asset-management firm. He’s written numerous research papers focused on asset allocation and portfolio optimization. If you want an alternative perspective, Hoffstein’s blog is the place to get it.

Value Walk

By Jacob Wolinsky, founder, and CEO of Valuewalk.com. This site started in 2010 as a simple value investing blog but has grown into a popular site delivering breaking news, analysis and relevant content from other blogs. Expect multiple posts a day, as well as useful resources like a list of books recommended by Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger, and other investing sages.

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