Improve portfolio growth by avoiding the "clones" Owning typical banks can be a losers game. Most banks compete on price, fight low rates, and miss out on innovations like digital currencies. For these reasons among others, regional banks have lagged the broader markets over the past 5 years. But among the 800 publicly traded banks,… Continue reading A Tool for Outperformance: Finding Great Businesses Hidden Inside “Boring” Banks
Insights
Now the fun begins! Bank merger investing in 2021…
We lost a lot in 2020, but we are getting a lot of it back in 2021. One bit of good news apparent in fourth quarter earnings calls is the coming return of the bank merger and merger premium. Connecting the dots to create a portfolio of likely acquisitions should be a fun and profitable… Continue reading Now the fun begins! Bank merger investing in 2021…
The worst large bank in America? (a constructive 3 minute exercise)
Many years ago I attended a dinner with a group of bank investors, including a good friend later profiled in the movie The Big Short. The topic of Fifth Third came up. Fifth Third had recently sold its payments business to scrounge up capital and my friend blurted out "FIFTH THIRD - WORST BANK EVER!… Continue reading The worst large bank in America? (a constructive 3 minute exercise)
2021 – The year small banks finally create happy customers, and make more money in the process
2021 is going to be less awful in more ways than you expect. It will be the year banks finally begin to figure out how to make customers' online experience good, while saving money in the process. The issue is as simple as converting to the cloud. You've probably done it by moving from Microsoft… Continue reading 2021 – The year small banks finally create happy customers, and make more money in the process
A Technique to Help Little Guys Win in the Markets
Invest like Jedi Despite headlines to the contrary, small taking share from big is a theme we will see plenty of in 2021, from ecommerce (Shopify) to challenger banks (Chime) to payment systems (Square). We may even see some of it in investment management. After a decade of mutual funds losing share for charging too… Continue reading A Technique to Help Little Guys Win in the Markets