Tip for DIYers

In 2000, I left the world of pension fund investment management for semi-retirement, teaching part time and managing my own money. Life became more leisurely and more carefree. I even coached some athletic teams. But my heart was still in the markets. There was a problem however. I was slowly losing track of the markets. I was talking to someone about investing in bonds, and I was asked what the yield was on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note and how it compared to the yield on the 2-year issue. I didn't know what these yields were. I was dumbfounded. There was a time when you could wake me in the middle of the night and I could rattle off the yields all along the Treasury yield curve as well as the corporate bond yields along with their respective spreads.

I needed a way to formally stay in touch with the markets. I began keeping a weekly data piece (actually 4 pages) that tracks yields, a couple of currencies, economic data and a few other things that I like to look at. I also write a short summary on the market. I update it every day--which only takes a few minutes. Sometimes, in the summary, I write down where I think stocks and/or bonds are headed or I make some other prediction.

I have found this to be a useful exercise and recommend it. I find it interesting to go back and see what I once believed. I've become convinced that investors are biased in what they think they once believed. This exercise keeps me up with the market, and it even keeps me up with making tables/cutting and pasting in Word etc.

If you are interested in the data I collect, drop me a line and I will email you the most recent piece. This is not an ongoing offer; it is intended to show you concretely what I am talking about. The data you will want to collect will obviously be different from what I collect.