Archive

March. 2020

The best three e-mails I've ever written; Why I'm even more optimistic and bought stocks this morning; Is it immoral for me to give investment advice right now?; Reader feedback and my replies; When can the U.S. go back to normal?; Volunteering to build a field hospital in Central Park

By Whitney Tilson

Empire Financial Daily,
Monday, March 30, 2020
1) I continue to believe you can’t have an opinion on stocks until you first have an opinion on how the coronavirus crisis will play out, so I spent the entire weekend collecting even more data and opinions… doing even more reading, thinking, and analyzing… and writing three long e-mails to the 3,400-plus people on […]

Wild week; My latest view; My report: Why I'm Optimistic That We'll Soon Stop the Coronavirus; Favorable macro factors; A world awash in liquidity; Alan Gula's comments; Bill Ackman's greatest trade of all time

Empire Financial Daily,
Friday, March 27, 2020
1) What a wild week! The sharpest, fastest bear market in history – the S&P 500 Index was down 35.2% from its closing high on February 19 to its intraday low on Monday – was followed by the sharpest, fastest move back into bull market territory in history, as the index rallied 20% from that […]

Porter Stansberry webinar this afternoon; My three new reports on the coronavirus crisis and its implications for investors; A caution; Finding the 'Common Good' in a Pandemic; One-question survey; 13 Deaths in a Day: An 'Apocalyptic' Coronavirus Surge at an N.Y.C. Hospital

By Whitney Tilson

Empire Financial Daily,
Thursday, March 26, 2020
1) In yesterday’s e-mail, I wrote: “Most investors are cowering under their desks right now, but many of the ones I respect the most share my bullishness,” and highlighted Seth Klarman of Baupost Group and Bill Ackman of Pershing Square Capital Management. Well, I’ll add another person to the list: my friend Porter Stansberry, with […]

Replay of my webinar; Over-the-top sales pitch?; Why I'm Optimistic That We'll Soon Stop the Coronavirus; The huge analytical mistake people are making; Is the Coronavirus as Deadly as They Say?; Bernanke, Klarman, and Ackman are bullish

By Whitney Tilson

Empire Financial Daily,
Wednesday, March 25, 2020
1) Last night, my colleague Enrique Abeyta and I hosted a free webinar on the coronavirus crisis and its implications for investors. We did a deep dive and took many questions for more than two hours. Normally the replays of events like this are only available to our subscribers, but in light of the current […]

My webinar tonight; My special report: Why I'm Optimistic That We'll Soon Stop the Coronavirus; We need to do some random testing right now; Our low mortality rate; Has the COVID-19 response gone too far?; Consider the costs

By Whitney Tilson

Empire Financial Daily,
Tuesday, March 24, 2020
1) A final reminder… I’m hosting a free webinar with my colleague Enrique Abeyta tonight at 8 p.m. Eastern time on the coronavirus crisis and its implications for investors. I’ve given hundreds of presentations over the years – including a number in which I warned investors about the financial crisis in 2008 and 2009 long […]

My webinar tomorrow night; Why this is the best time to be an investor in more than a decade; A Plan to Get America Back to Work; Good to see the Federal Reserve act

By Whitney Tilson

Empire Financial Daily,
Monday, March 23, 2020
1) I’ve been spending every waking moment over the past week preparing for the free webinar that my colleague Enrique Abeyta and I are hosting tomorrow night at 8 p.m. Eastern time on the coronavirus crisis and its implications for investors. I’ve given hundreds of presentations over the years, including many in which I warned […]

Your thoughts and questions; My updated Berkshire Hathaway valuation; Doug Kass' favorite tech and financial stocks; I spoke to U.K. students on Monday; Survey; Hempton agrees with Ackman; The counter-arguments; The case for a market bounce

By Whitney Tilson

Empire Financial Daily,
Friday, March 20, 2020
1) I’m always interested in hearing what’s on the minds of my readers – and never more so than now – so I’d be grateful if you’d share your thoughts and questions by sending an e-mail to: [email protected] Thank you! (If you want to follow my latest thinking on the coronavirus crisis every day, simply […]

Rising coronavirus cases are good news; A national lockdown isn't necessary (yet); What Asian countries did; My interview; A friend's bull case; Coronavirus survey; Gallows humor

By Whitney Tilson

Empire Financial Daily,
Thursday, March 19, 2020
1) People are freaking out because the number of new coronavirus cases in the U.S. and the rest of the world (excluding China) spiked upward yesterday – continuing an exponential trend, as these charts show: But people are having the exact wrong reaction, as statistician Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight points out in this tweet… In […]

Lower stock prices are good news; Survey results of where the market bottoms and when it hits a new high; New survey on coronavirus cases and deaths in the U.S.; The bull and bear cases; Goldman Sachs note; Support your local restaurants!

By Whitney Tilson

Empire Financial Daily,
Wednesday, March 18, 2020
1) I know that the market decline has been painful for many people. You have my condolences… Losing money is no fun. I know what it feels like, having experienced – managing other peoples’ money no less! – both the bursting of the Internet bubble (when the Nasdaq declined by 78%) and the housing bubble […]

What an incredible time to be an investor!; S&P 500 is up 4.5% over the past 15 months; Technical/momentum reasons for the sell-off; perspectives from Daryn Kutner and Doug Kass; New cases in Italy and the rest of the world drop; My coronavirus e-mail list

By Whitney Tilson

Empire Financial Daily,
Tuesday, March 17, 2020
1) It was another crazy day in the markets yesterday… It was the sixth consecutive day of the S&P 500 Index moving by at least 4%, the longest streak since November 1929. The S&P closed down 12% and has now fallen 29.5% from its all-time high less than four weeks ago. The Dow Jones Industrial […]

My new e-mail list on the coronavirus crisis

By Whitney Tilson

Empire Financial Daily,
Monday, March 16, 2020
There is so much to report on the coronavirus crisis that I’ve created a separate e-mail list for those who are interested in doing a deep dive with me. To join it, simply send a blank e-mail to: [email protected] At any time, if you wish to unsubscribe, simply send a blank e-mail to: [email protected] Below […]

What a day!; Why I'm trembling with greed; Two critical developments; When I think stocks are likely to bottom; When do you think they will?; Are you an investor or a speculator?

By Whitney Tilson

Empire Financial Daily,
Friday, March 13, 2020
1) Wow… I haven’t seen a day like yesterday in the markets – with such extreme levels of fear, dislocation, and capitulation – since the financial crisis in 2008 and 2009. It was the U.S. market’s biggest single-day decline in 33 years and the MSCI World Index’s largest fall ever. The CBOE Volatility Index (“VIX”) […]

How we should respond to the coronavirus; It's the best time to be an investor in more than a decade; You'll never guess the best-performing major stock market in the world this year; Is today's puke-out the bottom?

By Whitney Tilson

Empire Financial Daily,
Thursday, March 12, 2020
1) I think New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof has some excellent ideas in his latest column, 12 Steps to Tackle the Coronavirus, for things that our government and other institutions can do to reduce the odds that the coronavirus pandemic does to us what it has done to China and Italy. I remain cautiously […]

More thoughts, conversations, and debates about the coronavirus

By Whitney Tilson

Empire Financial Daily,
Wednesday, March 11, 2020
1) I wasn’t surprised that my e-mails on Monday and yesterday, in which I wrote that “I think the current panic over the coronavirus is one of the most irrational things I’ve ever seen,” generated a lot of responses. Overall, there were roughly equal numbers of folks agreeing and disagreeing – sometimes heatedly – with […]

The personal e-mail I sent to friends and family about the coronavirus; Why this Draconian Response to COVID-19?

By Whitney Tilson

Empire Financial Daily,
Tuesday, March 10, 2020
1) Last night, following up on yesterday’s Empire Financial Daily, I sent the e-mail below to my friends and family. Whether you agree or disagree with it, I hope you find it thought-provoking! Dear friends and family, Earlier today, I sent a special report to the 5,000-plus subscribers of my monthly newsletter, Empire Investment Report […]

Our special report: 'The Coronavirus Panic Is Overblown, So It's Time to Buy'; Charlie Munger transcript; Berkshire Hathaway 0% debt offering; Americans are avoiding Corona beer; Refinance your mortgage

By Whitney Tilson

Empire Financial Daily,
Monday, March 9, 2020
1) Earlier today, we sent out a special report to Empire Investment Report subscribers entitled: “The Coronavirus Panic Is Overblown, So It’s Time to Buy.” Excerpt: Have you heard about the terrible pandemic that has struck 32 million Americans since last September, sending 310,000 to the hospital and killing 18,000? You know, the one that […]

The recent volatility in the markets underscores why I don't use stop losses; Joel Litman suspends stop losses; Powder Mountain, Grand Targhee, and Jackson Hole

By Whitney Tilson

Empire Financial Daily,
Friday, March 6, 2020
1) The recent volatility in the markets underscores why I think it’s a mistake for investors to use stop losses (note that my thoughts here do not apply to traders or to short selling). Automatically selling a stock if it moves against you by a certain percent (or you lose a certain dollar amount) can […]

Enrique Abeyta's latest thoughts; A Shanghai friend's report and charts; A bookshelf of classic books

By Whitney Tilson

Empire Financial Daily,
Thursday, March 5, 2020
1) My colleague Enrique Abeyta keeps coming up with tremendous insights into what’s really going on in the markets during this period of high volatility, so I’m going to keep sharing them with you. Here are extended excerpts from yesterday’s issue of his weekly newsletter, Empire Elite Trader: Let’s look at what has happened over […]

Why stocks tanked on the rate cut; We look more like Iran than South Korea right now; How bad will coronavirus get?; Reported cases of coronavirus (and the change) by day in China; Pictures from the Streamsong Resort

By Whitney Tilson

Empire Financial Daily,
Wednesday, March 4, 2020
1) Normally stocks rally when the Federal Reserve cuts interest rates, as it did yesterday… so why did the market sell off instead? My friend whom I quoted in Monday’s e-mail shared her thoughts with me again… The 50 basis point cut obviously freaked people out because it makes you wonder what data the Fed […]

The differences between Buffett, Welch, and Greenberg; Jack Welch Inflicted Great Damage on Corporate America; GE Shed About 78,000 Workers in 2019; Steve Ballmer laughs at the iPhone; Steve Jobs video; Crazy coincidence

By Whitney Tilson

Empire Financial Daily,
Tuesday, March 3, 2020
1) Former General Electric (GE) CEO Jack Welch passed away on Sunday, which led me to reflect on his legacy. It’s hard to explain to young folks today what a revered corporate leader he was. Early in my investment career in the late 1990s, his stature was rivaled only by Berkshire Hathaway’s (BRK-B) Warren Buffett […]

Coronavirus information; A terrible pandemic nobody is worried about; My thoughts; Discussion with a friend on whether it's time to buy

By Whitney Tilson

Empire Financial Daily,
Monday, March 2, 2020
Before diving into my usual investing-related content, I wanted to share this post by a doctoral student at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health who studies infectious disease epidemiology. In it, she provides some practical, non-sensational information: Coronavirus Information for Friends and Family. Excerpt: I am 99.9% positive there will be a pandemic of […]
Whitney Tilson

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About Whitney Tilson

Prior to creating Empire Financial Research, Whitney Tilson founded and ran Kase Capital Management, which managed three value-oriented hedge funds and two mutual funds. Starting out of his bedroom with only $1 million, Tilson grew assets under management to nearly $200 million.

Tilson graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College with a bachelor's degree in government in 1989. After college, he helped Wendy Kopp launch Teach for America and then spent two years as a consultant at the Boston Consulting Group. He earned his MBA from Harvard Business School in 1994, where he graduated in the top 5% of his class and was named a Baker Scholar.

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