This is the introduction of a series I call AGNOSTIC Papers. What is the idea? As you may have read in the post on my investment philosophy, my approach is located somewhere between academia and practice. I enjoy reading papers and approaching markets with scientific rigor. However, my main goal is to create real-world investment strategies and (hopefully) make real-world money with them. That’s quite different to many academics who focus more on publishing their findings in peer-reviewed articles. There is nothing wrong with that and the world definitely needs those people. It just doesn’t fit for me. Therefore, when people ask me about it, I usually reply: “I like to work scientifically, but I am not a scientist.”
The idea of AGNOSTIC Papers is to combine the two worlds by presenting one research paper per week.1Note after week 15: this turned out to be more ambitious than I thought at the time of writing this introduction… These papers should provide scientifically robust insights that are relevant and applicable to real-world investing. At the same time, they must meet certain standards of quality. Ideally, the papers are published in peer-reviewed journals, are currently in the process of doing so, or come from trustworthy authors and institutions. Ultimately, my goal is to create a library that helps to improve real-world investing with academic insights.
Of course, this idea is not new and I am not the only person who is doing this. Many blogs and websites publish comparable formats, so you are absolutely right to ask how mine will be different? The first part of the answer is somewhat unsatisfying, because I don’t really care. I enjoy reading these papers and I want to create summaries for myself. If this is also useful for other people I am of course more than happy about it. But first and foremost, this is a personal project I just want to do. Please don’t get me wrong. I truly appreciate the interest of every single reader and I am happy to discuss any feedback or suggestions!
The second part of the answer is more promising. Apart from just summarizing the papers, I also want to relate their insights and use them to generate ideas. Many of the blogs I follow just present individual papers and stop there. There is nothing wrong with that, but in my opinion, the real value comes from relating ideas to each other and putting them into an actionable framework. Since the papers will cover various different topics, this is probably not always possible. But I will do my best wherever I can.
The theme of AGNOSTIC INVESTING, as I put it on the landing page, is quality over quantity. Therefore, I don’t want AGNOSTIC Papers to be just an easy way to increase the number of posts on this website. Its a project I am personally motivated for and I think it fits well with the other content.
You are more than welcome to follow the series and use the posts for your own investment strategies! Of course, you are also invited to share your comments, questions, and critique! Below you find some of the latest posts!
Latest Posts
- AgPa #72: Machine-Reading of Private Equity Prospectuses
- AgPa #71: Go Where the Earnings (per Share) Are
- AgPa #70: Equal vs. Market Cap Weights
- AgPa #69: Rebalancing Luck
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Endnotes
| 1 | Note after week 15: this turned out to be more ambitious than I thought at the time of writing this introduction… |
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