Posts by Nicholas Hoffman and Company

No – I am not referring to either of the pugilists in this year’s presidential prize fight. There are plenty of others who will cover that topic. My comment is focused on Warren Buffett. As regular readers of this blog will know, we hold Buffett in the highest regard. In fact, our investment philosophy is…

Last Tuesday, a federal judge preliminarily approved a $418 million settlement that could significantly alter the landscape of home buying and selling in the United States. The agreement resolves two similar lawsuits in Missouri and Illinois brought against four major real estate brokerages and the National Association of Realtors (NAR), a trade organization representing more…

Whether avid sports enthusiasts or casual observers, there are few across the United States who fail to recognize the name Caitlin Clark after this past March. The college basketball star competed in last month’s NCAA Women’s March Madness tournament, contributing to record-breaking viewership and propelling the Iowa Hawkeyes to the Finals. Caitlin became a national…

Have you heard of Qualified Small Business Stock (QSBS)? The name suggests it might not only warrant the attention of small business owners, but QSBS is also very relevant to private equity investing in smaller companies. Knowledgeable private equity managers are keenly aware of the potential benefits of investing in businesses that have a QSBS…

The cargo ship, Dali, recently struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, resulting in the tragic loss of six lives. The Port of Baltimore was forced to shut down temporarily – a significant event given Baltimore is the ninth busiest US cargo port. The Port leads the US for the volume of automobiles and…

Commercial real estate is a diverse asset class. Its various sectors experience different trajectories. While certain sectors, such as multifamily housing, have thrived before and during the pandemic, the retail sector, particularly shopping malls, has faced major headwinds. The surge in e-commerce looked poised to make malls a thing of the past. Over recent decades,…

Once the darling of the commercial real estate market, Class A multi-family properties are currently in a bit of a slump. A combination of changes in market cycle factors has prompted the sector to stumble for the first time in many years. There is now a lot of challenging work to be done in a…

A news cycle is traditionally defined as the period between when you get the latest information and what your reaction is to that information. When I started my career, the news cycle was daily. The information you needed was delivered in your daily newspaper. One would read the print edition of the Wall Street Journal…

In 1852, Scottish journalist Charles Mackay wrote Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. In his book, Mackay chronicled financial manias through history, including the 17th-century Dutch Tulip Mania bubble. He showed the consistency of human behavior when it comes to greed and fortune. Is another bubble brewing in today’s artificial intelligence (AI) sector? NVIDIA…

Bad habits can sometimes be hard to break. One bad habit in investment analysis is using cost basis to judge performance. The point of this note is to explain why it is a bad idea and a habit in need of breaking. It is natural to wonder, how are my investments doing? The question might…