June's research paper: Intangible Value ✨

Can value investing strategies be improved by adding intangible assets?
👾 The Asset-Light Economy
🔮 The Dark Matter of Finance
🏰 Intangible Moats
📉 The Disruption of Value
👨‍🎓 Fixing the "Value Factor"

(Not investment advice)

🧵

(0/10) Full paper here 📘

Blog
https://t.co/omtrn9kfvt

PDF
https://t.co/87qE08qZCJ
(1/10) The Asset-Light Economy 👾

“The four largest companies today by market value do not need any net tangible assets. They are not like AT&T, GM, or Exxon Mobil, requiring lots of capital to produce earnings. We have become an asset-light economy."

- Warren Buffett
(2/10) The End of Accounting 🧮

“The constant rise in the importance of intangibles in companies’ performance and value creation, yet suppressed by accounting and reporting practices, renders financial information increasingly irrelevant.”

- Baruch Lev and Feng Gu
(3/10) The Dark Matter of Finance 🔮

While intangible matter holds the financial universe together, it is not visible to the naked eye. Unstructured data contains info on intangibles but is large, noisy, and resistant to standard statistical analysis.
(4/N) The NLP 🔭

Fortunately, the digital age has also triggered an explosion of new data and tools, enabling us to start exploring this brave new world.
(5/10) Intangible Moats 🏰

Intangible assets are quickly becoming the primary form of economic value. Firms with loyal customers, top talent, innovative products, and network effects are increasingly dominating economic activity.
(6/10) Intangible Balance Sheets 📋

We decompose the balance sheets of four firms to highlight their varying dependence on tangible assets, IP, human capital, brand, and network effects.
(7/10) Industry Balance Sheets 🏭

⚙️Tangible: Real Estate, Utils, Mats, Energy & Fins
🧬IP: Tech & Health
😃Human Capital: Tech, Health, Comm & Fins
🥇Brand: Consumer Staples & Disc
🕸️NFX: Comm & Tech
(8/10) The Disruption of Value 📉

Traditional value investing has continued to work -- but only as long as you avoid running it on high-intangible companies. Unsurprisingly, tangible value metrics have been ineffective in evaluating firms composed mainly of intangible assets.
(9/10) Fixing The "Value Factor" 👨‍🎓

The Fama-French "Value Factor" (i.e., price / book ratio) is a widely used academic benchmark. We find that adding intangibles might help improve it.
(10/10) Expanding Intrinsic Value ➕➕

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I just finished Eric Adler's The Battle of the Classics, and wanted to say something about Joel Christiansen's review linked below. I am not sure what motivates the review (I speculate a bit below), but it gives a very misleading impression of the book. 1/x


The meat of the criticism is that the history Adler gives is insufficiently critical. Adler describes a few figures who had a great influence on how the modern US university was formed. It's certainly critical: it focuses on the social Darwinism of these figures. 2/x

Other insinuations and suggestions in the review seem wildly off the mark, distorted, or inappropriate-- for example, that the book is clickbaity (it is scholarly) or conservative (hardly) or connected to the events at the Capitol (give me a break). 3/x

The core question: in what sense is classics inherently racist? Classics is old. On Adler's account, it begins in ancient Rome and is revived in the Renaissance. Slavery (Christiansen's primary concern) is also very old. Let's say classics is an education for slaveowners. 4/x

It's worth remembering that literacy itself is elite throughout most of this history. Literacy is, then, also the education of slaveowners. We can honor oral and musical traditions without denying that literacy is, generally, good. 5/x
1/ Here’s a list of conversational frameworks I’ve picked up that have been helpful.

Please add your own.

2/ The Magic Question: "What would need to be true for you


3/ On evaluating where someone’s head is at regarding a topic they are being wishy-washy about or delaying.

“Gun to the head—what would you decide now?”

“Fast forward 6 months after your sabbatical--how would you decide: what criteria is most important to you?”

4/ Other Q’s re: decisions:

“Putting aside a list of pros/cons, what’s the *one* reason you’re doing this?” “Why is that the most important reason?”

“What’s end-game here?”

“What does success look like in a world where you pick that path?”

5/ When listening, after empathizing, and wanting to help them make their own decisions without imposing your world view:

“What would the best version of yourself do”?
IMPORTANCE, ADVANTAGES AND CHARACTERISTICS OF BHAGWAT PURAN

It was Ved Vyas who edited the eighteen thousand shlokas of Bhagwat. This book destroys all your sins. It has twelve parts which are like kalpvraksh.

In the first skandh, the importance of Vedvyas


and characters of Pandavas are described by the dialogues between Suutji and Shaunakji. Then there is the story of Parikshit.
Next there is a Brahm Narad dialogue describing the avtaar of Bhagwan. Then the characteristics of Puraan are mentioned.

It also discusses the evolution of universe.(
https://t.co/2aK1AZSC79 )

Next is the portrayal of Vidur and his dialogue with Maitreyji. Then there is a mention of Creation of universe by Brahma and the preachings of Sankhya by Kapil Muni.


In the next section we find the portrayal of Sati, Dhruv, Pruthu, and the story of ancient King, Bahirshi.
In the next section we find the character of King Priyavrat and his sons, different types of loks in this universe, and description of Narak. ( https://t.co/gmDTkLktKS )


In the sixth part we find the portrayal of Ajaamil ( https://t.co/LdVSSNspa2 ), Daksh and the birth of Marudgans( https://t.co/tecNidVckj )

In the seventh section we find the story of Prahlad and the description of Varnashram dharma. This section is based on karma vaasna.