Bachelor For The Week

Well, it is spring break here in good old Connecticut.  The Fam has headed south, but I had to stay behind as it is busy at work.  That is ok, I have a nice vacation planned for August and actually, being here by myself is a mini-vacay.

I recently got a new car (not all my money goes into my portfolios!) and it actually has a hard drive for music built in, which is kind of cool.  So I have decided to create a playlist called Cool Jazz, for my cool car.

So I ask all twenty of you who occasionally read my blog, to give me some ideas for cool jazz to put on the playlist.  I did go to the library, and checked out a number of Jazz CDs and have loaded them on.  And I must say, they are pretty cool.  Here are some of the albums/artists (to give you an idea of where I am coming from).

Miles Davis (my favorite - am listening to him right now).
John Coltrane
Art Blakey (just have one called Moaning, and it is outstanding)
Ben Webster (had never heard of him, but he plays a very smooth Sax with Oscar Peterson)
Billie Holiday (have to have some vocalists - and she is the best IMHO)
Charlie Parker
Chet Baker (another one I had never really listened to, Out of Nowhere)
Dinah Washington, Ella Fitzgerald and Diana Krall (ok, I like female jazz vocalists)
Count Basie (Live in Newport is one of my ten favorite albums of all time)
Duke Ellington
Herbie Hancock
Louis Armstrong
Stan Getz
Dave Brubeck (RIP)
Nat King Cole Trio
Oscar Peterson
Sarah Vaughn and
Wes Montgomery (a Hoosier)

MFI Tracking

Whenever the market takes a beating, MFI seems to get hit harder.  This week was no exception. All 12 active tracking portfolios are now trailing and it isn't even close.  They are trailing on average by 5%.  As I mentioned over the weekend, I am re-reading Seth Klarman's Margin of Safety.  Here is what he said about using a formula back in early 1990s:

"Many investors greedily persist in the investment world's version of the holy grail: the attempt to find a successful investment formula.  It is human nature to seek simple solutions to problems, however complex...

He concludes:

"The financial markets are far too complex to be incorporated into a formula. Moreover, if any successful  formula i be devised, it would be exploited by those who possessed it until competition eliminated excess profits."